Do you use a knife and fork?

I have a close family member with a progressive (and eventually sadly terminal) neurological disability. They are finding difficulty cutting up their own food now so someone else does it for them and they can then feed themselves using just their fork.

Why do people think it is OK to judge people who eat this way? It isn't offensive, if disabilities are the cause then you can't necessarily see those either.

Enjoy your ill informed judging! We'll be paying no attention.

I eat with just a fork due to my disability. You wouldn't know that my left hand doesn't really work by looking at me. Perhaps try not to judge in case they have a similar disability.

This is normal for left handed people. Why judge?

I completely fail to see how this will have any impact on you!

Were you in my house last night?!

I only use a knife if I need to cut something solid. Otherwise, I only use a fork: I’ve never really given it any thought, I’d be surprised and think someone tedious if they even noticed.

My British parents are late 60s and do the same, so it’s not an age thing or an “American” thing.

Always - even for eating pizza.
I witnessed someone eat lasagne with a spoon recently 🤢

As a left-hander I use my fork in my left hand, and it stays in my left hand even when ‘fork only’. Knife in the right hand (and also right as in ‘correct’ hand haha).

Right handers are the weird ones - usually it’s fork in left hand, knife in right hand until you eat ‘fork only’ when you swap it to the right hand!

I've seen quite a few young people holding their forks straight up and down in a fist-like grip while sawing away with their knives. I was both fascinated and shocked. 😂

This is me too. I do use a knife if things require cutting but if, for example , I’m eating chilli and rice I quite often get to the end of the meal and my knife is still lying unused on the table. And to think when I first had babies I struggled to eat one handed 😳

I do yes, I sit with my left elbow resting and eat with the fork in my right hand. In fact, for the majority of our dinners at home I eat with a spoon. I do this because in my house eating isn’t a performative task and I don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks!

Really? You wouldn’t care if someone’s elbows were in your space, squashing you into a corner? What if that was on both sides? OK with that?

I mean - you do you, of course.

My ds insists that roast chicken dinners are finger food 😂 fucking savage 😂

Not with soup.

My elderly mother fell and broke her shoulder. It was very badly smashed up and consequently she could only use a fork for many months afterwards. She was mortified by this, truly embarrassed, and if I caught you staring at her eating, I would have given you a very long, very hard stare back until you had removed your gaze.
She was even more embarrassed that, for the rest of her life, even when she was able to use a knife again, she was only able to hold it in the dreaded pencil hold. I'm guessing you probably think that's "wrong" too.

Can't remember which book of Bill Bryson's that it was when he pointed out that it was bloody stupid to squish peas down on the top of a fork. He wasn't wrong. It is rude eating with your mouth open, but how you get the food into your mouth isn't that much of a big deal presuming you don't drop it all down your front.

Whether i eat with a fork and knife or not depends on the food. Some people eat pizza with a knife and fork. What matters most is the health and goodness of the food. But we should be respectful around the dinner table.

Where do you stand on chopsticks, OP?

AFAIC, so long as a person doesn't jostle others at the table, and manages to convey food from their plate, bowl etc. into their mouth without it falling out, or them drooling or slobbering, and I don't see it again (so no talking with a mouthful of food), then I couldn't care less what utensil they use, nor what hand(s) they hold it in. It really doesn't matter.

The correct hands? The only correct hands are your own hands. Some people are left handed and prefer to use their cutlery accordingly. Why on earth would that attract judgement?

You do realise that left handed people usually need to do it this way?

I often eat with just my fork. What's so dreadful about it?

It seems to me it's far more bad mannered to comment on the eating habits of others.

I know this opinion upsets people on these threads but I think poor cutlery etiquette is awful. And many people will judge it. Should be ingrained from a young age.

Yes I use a knife and fork, in the correct hands.

I use a fork and knife because that’s the way I was taught but I would never judge anyone or make them uncomfortable for eating a different way. It’s the height of bad manners. Thinking my way is the only way is the height of arrogance.

Now that’s the really odd manifestation of cutlery etiquette! (USA, isn't it?)
Changing the fork over to a different hand is presumably the polite requirement re cutlery at the table, yet any other such rules (eg the GB way) are sneered at.
Sneer by all means, but only from a position of ‘Anything goes’!