to think that no-one knows how to hold a knife & fork anymore - YOU DON'T HOLD THE KNIFE LIKE A PENCIL

[Proudnscary]

...It doesn't make you look 'ladylike' when you hold your cutlery like knitting needles/pencils with a stupid pinchy grip. It makes you look like a pleb.

When, pray, did this momentous change take place and WHY??? I see it everywhere and it makes me worry for the future of our children who will all look like cack-handed imbeciles if they grow up to eat like that.

Must be pretty impossible to actually cut anything too.

I dont get your problem. Why does it matter to you how people choose to eat. There are also people who choose to eat with their fingers. Are savages???

How should i hold chopsticks?

and english people hold the fork the wrong way anyway. ...

What is holding your knife like a pencil?

Is that when you have point of it between your index finger and middle finger and have the rest of it resting on the bit of your hand between your thumb and index finger.

If so I don't do that. Seems very hard. But if there's another definition then yes, I probably do.

I also eat with my fork in my right hand and knife in my left which I know infuriates some MNetters but nutrition matters to me more than table manners.

As long as they can cut/spear food without shooting it across the table and eat with their mouths CLOSED, why does it it matter?

I also don't understand how you could ever hold a knife like a pencil. Please can you take a pic of such a hold and post it on your profile. Thanks.

This one on of my pet peeves! It really aggravates me to see a knife held like that.

Dsd does it, and it looks really awkward. But she also holds her knife and fork in the wrong hands, so ends up tearing her food rather than cutting it.

i hate using a knife and will use a fork only when i can get away with it

I find that eating from a nosebag eliminates the constant worry that I may be upsetting other people with the way I hold my knife...

Very common - It's one of my pet hates too

Had moment when discussing this very thing with DP and FIL at dinner recently (they hold their knives the same way as me and we were in agreement that we had been brought up to regard 'our' way as polite) and realised on looking round the table that MIL and her relatives were doing the knitting needle/pencil thing. Had just assumed that as FIL and DP hold with finger over blade that MIL would as well. Tried to change the subject away slightly and turn it into a conversation about cultural differences in what was 'the polite way' in other countries - using hands/forks in right hand/chopsticks - though not sure it worked

TO CLARIFY

It is absolutely fine to eat with your fork (held correctly and not as Limitedperiod eloquently describes) in your right hand as our American cousins do.

If I was remotely computer literate I would find a link of the holding technique I have described and would post it. But we warned iyou might find yourself experiencing feelings of rage and despair.

limitedperiodonly,

serious question. Have you always used your cutlery in the 'wrong hands'? Doesn't bother me except I seem to have seen an increase in people doing this(must bother me then if I've noticed it...

Just the majority seem to have a problem and struggle to cut/eat etc.

DS1 (4) is a savage mostly eats with his hands still, despite me bribing him with chocolate buttons encouraging him to use cutlery in preparation for starting school. I'm not sure about the pencil-knife thing... I think I'd prefer that to him ignoring the knife altogether though.

OP - I could have written your post!!!

I have to shout at the television when come dine is on, as you have these complete ignoramous knobs on there, who believe they are something else, and do immediately give it away with the pen scenario.

I cannot bare it. And yes, you see it everywhere. My parents would have rapped my hands with the cutlery if I had done that at home.

Can't bear the wrong hand cutlery either. ds is left handed but still holds it correctly.

You see whole families doing it at restaurants!

One of my pet hates too, but actually only because my dad's DW and her parents do this (so consequently my dad to) and we hold ours 'properly'.

Cue lots of sideways glances and eye brow raising at each other when we're with them because it means we're not as good as them!

Grrr....

'wrong hand cutlery'

wtf is that?

As a general aside, Americans have no idea how to use a knife and fork simultaneously. A summer across the Atlantic has enabled me to confirm this time and again.
Oh and thry also refer to people who are present and part of conversation as 'he' and 'she' which sounds faintly discourteous, whereas Brits would use the person's name.

Most odd.
I love Americans btw.
As you were.

does it really really matter OP?

Oooh but what really gets on my norks is when ds spears a whole roast potato and eats it like a toffee apple off the fork

My Sister does this and it looks idiotic - she holds her knife and fork in the way you'd hold a pen. Actually she holds her fork in the same way you'd hold a spoon, which is fine if you're shovelling up food . Less so if you're trying to cut up steak or something.

Can't really complain about the wrong handed cutlery.

I'm left handed but hold mine 'properly', DS is right handed but holds his left handedly. He just can't do it the other way round. DD can do it properly either way round so we encourage her to eat fork in left, knife in right. But then, she appears to be ambidextrous in other ways.