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AIBU?

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Using a plate or bowl when eating yes or no?

59 replies

Colango · 09/07/2025 10:37

We had a very bad ant infestation earlier this year, took weeks to get rid of them. We have pets and hard flooring, and I like to keep the floors clean.

Coming down in the morning to tread with bare feet on someone else’s gob crumbs gives me the ick but even more so, I don’t want the ants back

Members of my family seem to be allergic to using plates or bowls to eat food from? Or sitting at a table to eat? Is this normal?

DH is terrible for eating without a plate and it makes a mess. He brushes his fingers together over the floor too to get crumbs off them. I would do this over a sink or a bin if I did not have a plate, not just straight onto the floor in the house? Am I the weirdo?

I asked DH he said he doesn’t want to do extra washing up, but the kids are wandering around eating food as well. I hoovered after dinner then he let them have toast and all of them stood in the middle of the kitchen and created a carpet of crumbs - which I trod in and then I have a foot covered in toast crumbs from someone else’s mouth. Yes I made him sweep it up but we have a kitchen island with chairs they could have sat on to eat, then it can be cleaned off the worktop?

USE A PLATE? or perhaps I have PMT 😒

OP posts:
HundredMilesAnHour · 09/07/2025 10:52

This is why I live alone. So I don’t have to put up with this bs. I would murder the lot of them.

I was brought up to always use a plate. And to clean up after myself. Crumbs on the floor get spread everywhere. Maybe enforcing a rule that anyone caught eating standing up and/or not using a plate has to hoover the entire house will focus everyone’s attention?

Colango · 09/07/2025 10:49

Rosesanddaffs · 09/07/2025 10:46

Tell them to use a bloody plate and refuse to hoover up the crumbs, once they start sticking to their feet they will wisen up xx

They don’t care about gob foot crumbs at all. It’s just me!

ok glad I am not going insane alone. I also notice a lot of people who don’t use plates or cutlery, don’t sit at a table or don’t sit at the table to eat properly. My own family is included despite nagging and trying to teach them, no we are picking food up off its plate and milling around feeding insects and rodents with it

OP posts:
KrisAkabusi · 09/07/2025 10:48

You're not unreasonable for wanting them to wipe up properly instead of scooping crumbs onto the floor. But you are being unreasonable for thinking they all come out of their mouths. Gob crumbs? Unless they are actively spitting everywhere, it's just normal crumbs that fall off toast.

Rosesanddaffs · 09/07/2025 10:46

Tell them to use a bloody plate and refuse to hoover up the crumbs, once they start sticking to their feet they will wisen up xx

Serpentstooth · 09/07/2025 10:45

"Dearest, there were ants all over your pyjamas/ whatever when I tidied the bedroom earlier, I think they've all gone now". Make him itch. It will help him focus.

Stillundertheduvet · 09/07/2025 10:43

similar here. Drives me fucking insane

garlicktoms · 09/07/2025 10:42

When I eat I like to sit down at a table and eat off a plate, seems like the civilised thing to do. Obviously there are exceptions out at a festival for example but I do notice lots of people do eat, on the hoof outside (which could be fair enough depending on their circumstances) or even at home. In the morning I make breakfast and put it on a plate for my DH but he will lift the toast out and wonder about eating it leaving crumbs everywhere.

thenightsky · 09/07/2025 10:41

Same here. DH eats his toast standing up next to the toaster. We've had mice in the past and I worry we'll get them again from all the food on the floor.

soupyspoon · 09/07/2025 10:39

Mine is like this, it drives me absolutely insane. Thinks that 'wiping up' (when he does it which is rarely) is just wiping things off the table or worktops on to the floor. Which of course he never hoovers or sweeps.

I also wear bare feet in the house and am forever treading on bits in the kitchen, makes me rageful