Would you say this was a red flag on a date?

Thanks for proving my point @JoeSikoraTommysStory

🥱 don’t remember asking!

Will add that the thing about eating and walking is the other person doesn't get to see you much, simply because you are a passer-by, and it is in the open air.

Compare that to being on a train, and a person or family sit down and get out their stinking fast food and prepare to devour it at their leisure, and you can't escape or stop them doing it... yet in theory this is polite behaviour compared to walking along a street sipping a Diet Pepsi or eating a sandwich.

So did you sit in the end? Next time he orders you around, say no and stick to it - how he reacts will be your answer.

funny how 'eating' always turns into stuffing/guzzling/shoving/jamming etc

Several posters have explained why they feel that way without insulting the OP (or anyone else)

The only standards I’m seeing are double standards HTH

I'm also seeing quite a few chips on shoulders on this thread and defensiveness

Whatever you say champ👍

So Your mother is a hypocrite; who eats (ice cream) in the street but tells you it’s impolite and bad mannered to eat when out & about.

The only standards I’m seeing are double standards HTH

@Margaretbaxter just got notified of the poll results and very surprised indeed. I came to make a last supportive statement YANBU! All the best 🙂

Sometimes manners are just social conventions and the reasons can vary in cultures. In some it’s seen as rushing food and not appreciating it. There’s also the sloppiness of it and how you’re more likely to make a mess if you’re eating while doing something else. You could drop some food or get it on yourself.
Ice cream in a cone doesn’t fit a sit down meal as well so maybe that’s why things like that get more of a pass, but personally I wouldn’t like to eat it on the go either.

Why is it I'll mannered? No-one has actually explained why it's an offensive action?
Also no-one explains why ice cream is magically exempt

You are ill-mannered and he's been considerate enough not to point this out to you. Don't worry about red flags. He's seen one and is unlikely to be available to school you in future.

Maybe your standards are too far adrift.

In my view walking and eating is grim, but I can understand that you must have felt very forced into sitting down by him, which isn’t a good sign.

I don’t see eating and walking favourably but I do think it might be a potential issue that he couldn’t take your answer. It could just be that he saw it as rude and that’s why he was insistent and there might not be other issues that would come up with. If you like him I’d still go on other dates.

I’m not a fan of eating while walking, but if I’d offered to sit down and the other person said they were happy I eat and walk, I’d let it go. Agree with other posters though OP, your reaction to this post is a bit of a red flag. You reacted to your date’s perceived unwillingness to accept your stance on a matter and you’re continuing it here.

I'm 50 and same. Clearly been dragged up with no standards.

Pp said it use to be associated with prostitutes !

Blimey! I have never in my (nearly) 50
years in this earth heard that it is bad manners to eat while walking. I wonder what the problem with it is supposed to be.

And he'd be welcome not to see me again, the Rude twat.

Doesn't mean they're not outdated & rudiculous with a stuck inserted.

funny how 'eating' always turns into stuffing/guzzling/shoving/jamming etc

🤣🤣🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

@JoeSikoraTommysStory

Never heard so much shite in all my life that eating while walking is bad manners that’s absolutely ridiculous and anyway the whole point of the thread is whether her date was showing red flags insisting she sits down; and yes he was. He sounds like a right prick!

You might think it's ridiculous but it's pretty clear from this thread that not eating whilst out and about is a major no-no for a lot of people. I wouldn't do it and don't like to see it (sorry). As a child it was worded to me as "never eat out on the street". Exceptions are ice-creams at the beach or candy floss at the fair - and street food areas now I guess - like a lot of cultural things it doesn't always make 100% sense! When I took DC to theme parks we always found somewhere to sit and eat. So you may not have heard of it but many many people see it as impolite.

Of course it is relevant as posters are suggesting it could be the reason the date was so insistent.

However, I agree with you that, once OP had said "no", he should have let it go.

You don't know where people get the idea that it's bad manners to walk and eat in public? You can't possibly imagine that, just maybe, some people have grown up instilled with different standards than the ones you were raised with?

The only thing I've ever seen my mother eat while walking down the street is an ice-cream while at the seaside. I'm not that strict but to not even be able to comprehend why different people have different social mores is astonishing. Do you have a problem with putting yourself in other people's shoes in general, or is it only when it comes to manners?

I'm with you OP. A most bizarre collection of responses.
It seems that street food stalls need to be banned.
I have to assume that everyone saying it is common must be older than me as I had the strictest of upbringings and wasn't aware of this. I mean back in the day the only things we would have eaten while walking would be ice creams and maybe a cone of chips down at the seaside, but now street food is more widely available it's a widespread thing.
And no, you don't drop more because you're walking and eating, yyou don't nd up with it all over your face and you can certainly hold a conversation, just as you would if you were sitting at a table.

Screech in Saved By the Bell said you shouldn't eat standing up or you'll get fat legs. The 90‘s were harsh.

Bang on.

Honest to God, the hyperbole over someone eating a sandwich whilst walking is astonishing, not to mention ripping apart someone's manners and upbringing.