Abstract
The article is part of a specifically praxeological childhood research with a focus on the documentary method. With regard to eating situations in kindergartens, the research question was addressed as to what forms of dealing children find with the tension between the normative frame and the everyday joint practice of eating, and in what modes of interaction between professionals and children this unfolds. The analyses have shown, on the one hand, that there are various possibilities for organising meals more as an educational socialisation into the norms and practices of the culture of eating and / or more as places for the promotion of learningprocesses of the children. From the children’s perspective, however, it turned out to be much more decisive whether their typical basic orientations of play and enjoyment, exploration and a productive dealing with rules are respected and whether the professionals interact with them in a dialogue-oriented or power-structured manner.