Watching the News during Dinner

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This whole post may sound silly, but one thing that really upsets me about my family is that they always choose to eat dinner when the news is on. I'm a fairly sensitive person and really don't like watching the news during dinner, since I really don't like politics, yet the rest of my family is very, very politically-minded, and during dinner, I rush to eat so I can retreat into my room and avoid the news, but even then, my parents still have the volume high enough to where I can hear it even in my room, and thus, I'm forced to find a way to drown it out. I can eat normally, though, either when the television is off or when something other than the news is on. I want to talk to my family about this (and my parents really aren't people I feel comfortable talking to, since I'm afraid they'll laugh at me), but I'm afraid of ruining the peace in our house, upsetting them, and so forth, and I can't really tune out things very easily. I feel it could be an eating disorder of sorts or something to do with my autism. Any thoughts, or anyone here who experiences this similarly?

have you tried noise-cancelling ear plugs? They might block out the news and let you eat in peace.

I actually tried them for some time, but it really, really upsets my parents, who constantly try to make conversation with me during dinner, since they consider it "rude". Just recently, my mom suspected I was "on a diet" because I ate my dinner so quickly and didn't eat a whole lot. It's things like this that really, really make me want to move out and live on my own, which I can't afford to. It's like my parents are completely oblivious to the fact that I'm autistic, even though they know so.

I know what you mean, my mother gets mad at me when I tell her that I don't want to go to shopping malls or any other place with too many people.

Have you tried explaining to them why you don't like to watch the news and eat at the same time?

Do they allow you to eat afterwards?

You've never met my parents. They're the kind of people you absolutely can't argue with. Every time I stand up to them and assert myself, they crush my soul with their hateful words. It's not worth it debating them at all. I never win with them. Talking with them about things like this that they'll perceive to be "silly" is an embarrassing, tormenting ordeal. They believe they're immune to any form of criticism by their own children. I prefer to wait until they decide they want to talk to me about these things. I'm afraid that if I rebel against them in any way, they'll kick me out of the house, call the police and have me arrested, and/or ruin my life. So I might as well say nothing and keep the peace in our house.

Uninvited dinner guest topic

What ever happened to family dinner conversation? I know in my family it was just arguments, so I would have welcomed a TV presence that would enable them to focus on some issue other than fighting.

I like to eat alone, now, reading the newspaper or a book.

You could tell them you would rather not eat with the TV interfering with food digestion and then tell them if they would rather spend time with the TV then they can put said TV on a chair and put a plate in front of him/her/it.

I hope it has good table manners.