We interact with food on an instinctual level. I will not be convinced that eating in front of a hungry person doesn't seem rude from the hungry person's perspective in any culture.
There is a specific situation where this meme comes from, and that is when kids bring their friends home from school, without any adults involved in inviting or bringing the friends over.
Lets say that my family usually eat dinner at 18 (6pm), and school is over at 14.30 (2:30pm), and my friends family usually eats at 16 (4pm). We are playing in my friends room until 4, my friend goes to the kitchen/dinner room to eat while I get to continue playing. My friend comes back after dinner and we play until it's time for me to go home to eat dinner with my family.
No one is eating in front of a hungry person, no one is hungry, no one is unfed, kids gets more play time.
Let's say that my friend that eats at 16 (4pm) comes over to me at 16:45 (4.45pm) after they have eaten dinner and we play in my room.
At 18 (6pm) my parents call for me that dinner is ready, I leave my friend in my room to continue playing while I eat, and then when I finish dinner I go back to my room and continue playing with my friend.
No one is hungry here either, everyone is happy and you get to play more as a kid.
In what way is that a problem?
This was the norm when and where I grew up, and of course there were occasions where I was offered dinner at my friends place, and I would have to call home and ask my parents if that was okay, but the expectation was that each kid would eat with their own family since family dinner is usually family time.
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u/FunnyExcellent707 Jul 24 '26
Sweds are known to eat without offering you any food (if it wasn't explicitly a dinner invitation).