Do you use a knife and fork?

My FIL does this sometimes and it drives my MIL mad. It sets my teeth on edge a bit because it results in so much more cutlery scrapes on plates, which is a horrible sound and can damage the crockery. I think it's becoming more common though, in general table manners seem to be steadily relaxing.

Gotta say I prefer chopsticks. If you think about it,

I eat with a knife and fork in public, and although I'm left-handed, I eat in a so called 'normal' - right-handed way.

At home it depends. Sometimes I use both knife and fork, sometimes just fork, sometimes slob out and shovel food, sometimes I eat in bed. My home and my business.

I couldn't care less how others eat. 'American' way or any other way, with a knife or not, don't care where they keep their elbows. The only thing I care about is people eating quietly, mouth closed, no slurping, etc.

I use a knife and fork the conventional (UK) way. To be honest I would find it a bit fiddly eating the American way. Surely your food gets cold by the time you've chopped it all up in small pieces and then juggled your cutlery? And personally I would find the sight of a cooked meal partially cut up, as if for an invalid, overall less appetising. I also find the knife useful for scooping up the required amount of condiments on the side of my plate.

I use the bread and fork technique.

I just stick my face in it, like a lovely, lovely horse.

I have two types of plates I use to serve food - one is a large traditional dinner plate and the other is a large pasta bowl type plate. I was surprised to hear from DS last week that he generally finds that the food I serve in the pasta bowl type plate is the food he likes, but that he mostly doesn't lke (as much) the food I serve on the big dinner plate.

That made me think about what I am serving, and when. And I realised that I use the big dinner plates for sort of traditional meat and 3 veg type meals, but a lot of what we eat is a bit more ... slurpy (for what of a better word). eg yesterday we had stir fry and noodles, tonight we're having paella.

And now with this thread, it occurs to me that many of those "slurpy" meals are meals that would routinely be eaten with just one hand - a fork, chopsticks perhaps, or even a spoon. And if other people are eating a lot more food like this too, perhaps the use of a traditional knife and fork for all meals is changing, and that as a result, even when it is a more traditional meat and 3 veg (like a roast dinner) the pattern is already set?

ETA : except steak. Ssteak is served on the big dinner plate and he LOVES steak! Also, fajitas and tacos - but those are eaten by hand anyway!

Right handed, use my fork in my right hand because it's my dominant hand.
I use a knife but keep it in my left hand, you know, the non-dominant one that doesn't need to be used for every mouthful?

Loads of people can’t use a knife and fork correctly. Let alone hold them correctly. Influencers are the worst, can’t use cutlery and eat with their mouths open, talking away. It’s disgusting.

I hate it too and I have a Y7 child who struggles with cutlery, if you saw them eating out you’d judge.

But he has SEN and is hypermobile and the NHS don’t think he needs any help, despite diagnosing his as below the 1st percentile for motor skills.

I use a spoon and fork for most things. Not steak!

Hands is better.

Swing the hand down, the opposite shoulder back. Then as you counter swing the opposite hand comes down to grab food while the other hand crams food in the mouth. Effort wise it's very efficient.

At the end liquids can be slurped up by lowering the head to the table and sucking up like a vacuum cleaner.

Eat with whatever you like in my opinion just don’t talk to me whilst you’ve got food in your mouth or then I will judge you.

I use a knife and fork for pizza😅 Mainly because I usually have salad with it. If it’s just the pizza, I use my hand.

Honestly, I assume anyone who has this level of angst over a fork is a class-sensitive Hyacinth Bucket who misguidedly insists people say "serviette" and "settee".

I mean priorities😀

YANBU. Peoples' table manners have become non existent or at best disgusting.

My 10 year old was eating a roast potato like an ice cream - stuck a fork in it and was biting at it. I could not bear it!
Realised we need to up our manners at home...

Yes

I started eating more with a fork when I lived in the US. While I probably wouldn’t for a roast dinner because there is a lot of cutting up, for some dishes it’s neater.
Anyone who eats peas with their fork in their left hand with the prongs down is being silly. So much easier and less likely to drop them if you scoop.

Another one here with a dc whi just uses a fork. He's ND and also has physical fine motor skill problems and struggles to cut food even though he's an adult. Usually family or friends will have cut it up when his meal arrives.

How tragic 😂

And incorrect its actually more effort to just use a fork but how else am I supposed to keep one hand free so I can browse Amazon at the same time? 🤷‍♀️

Because they think these people are uncouth. greedy and lazy

On the flip side we were out a couple of weeks ago and someone was eating pizza with a knife and fork which did seem strange

Shovel....scoop.....why do people use these words? It's very dramatic and over the top.

I just move my fork across the plate and food gets on it. Or if its something like a carrot just put the fork in it. None of this wildly exaggerated shovelling/scooping 🙄

Those who just use a fork , do you stab the food so it is stuck on the ends of the tines or use it like a spoon so it is on top of them? If I do the latter I inevitably end up dropping some on myself.