to find other people's table manners disgusting?

[NigellasDealer]

sorry but i am sitting in the 'spoons at the moment and right in front of me is a family whose table manners are making me feel ill!!
the mum and dad are holding their knives and forks like pens and sticking out their tongues to meet the food.
the son is is just stabbing at say a sausage with a fork and then holding it up to take bites out of, alternated with putting his face down to the plate to hoove up peas and insert the knife into his mouth. He is about 18 at least.
the daughter is eating chips in quite a normal fashion however. no! she is stabbing at them with a wooden skewer!
am i being snobby about the knife and fork holding?
should i give a toss anyway? it IS in public though!

Yabvu expecting good table manners in Weather spoons. But it glue meeting food yuck. When you described the teenager, I thought it was an 8 year old until I read the age.

I agree with you OP. I'd be unhappy to see this.

You are in Wetherspoons, people in glass houses and all that...

just because i am in wetherspoons does not mean i start grazing peas off the plate and licking my knife though.

They're eating with bad table manners and, presumably, you're sitting at a table using your phone/tablet? That's bad manners too. If you're not eating move away and, if you're not - you shouldn't be doing it then either.

MN seems to have become a 'show and tell' flaky kind of daytime reality show lately.

It's not bad manners to be on your tablet if you're eating solo.

I'm not really bothered about how people hold their cutlery although have been very strict with the DC's with regard to that but I cannot abide being able to hear people eat or catch a glance of half masticated food. It makes me heave and am not above hissing at my teenagers if I catch them eating with open mouths.
The slurping, slobbery noises are revolting be they from eating or kissing at the table.

YANBU. I was in agreement as soon as licking the knife and bringing out tongues to meet the food (I do have an image of that in my head now)was brought up, if you'll pardon the pun.

Now, if you could just have a word with my otherwise perfectly mannered DH, who even knows which way to pass the port, about sounding like he is fucking mining for tin when he clashes and scrapes his cutlery on the plate, I'd appreciate it.

presumably, you're sitting at a table using your phone/tablet? That's bad manners too
no it is a laptop I always come in here for the free wifi - no food though just a coffee - that is normal in here.
sorry for bringing down the tone of mumsnet lyingwitch - do you have anything interesting or vaguely amusing you would rather we discuss then?

Anyone just been to the kitchen to get a knife and fork to see how they hold it?

Just me then? I honestly couldn't remember, can I also say I do NOT hold them like pens thank goodness I was worried there for a moment! Lol

Nigella... Not really, I was just idly musing that posters don't seem to have anything of their own to post about now, it's not their own experiences, it's observing other people constantly and having a gossip about their behaviour. My mum loves a gossip about other people; she'd probably fill your thread up agreeing with you.. I think I'll direct her to MN.

I just remember funny threads where people would post about themselves more, what amusing things they were doing rather than focusing on other people all the time. Some people can't seem to visit any place, for the shortest duration, without finding something irksome about it. This thread is just one of a number of the same, I wasn't intending to pick on it or you.

fair enough - but if i started a thread about myself it would just be downright depressing.

Oh go on, Nigella, I'm intrigued now! I can't do much this afternoon as I had my ear syringed this morning and I'm dizzy... so whiling away the afternoon channelling Mary Whitehouse and trying not to.

oh it is just sad i am sitting in the spoons hoping for a little job to come in from my online business, just enough to put petrol in the car to get home, that is the car that i just found out is uninsured; at least the people with vile manners had enough money to eat, unlike us this week, it is fukcing easter and i am wondering if i actually exist. the kids are home alone.
rant rant moan moan

Aeroflotgirl "But it glue meeting food yuck."

If that's a typo I can't work out what you meant to type.

Bloody hell. Cars are the stuff of nightmares where costs are concerned. Exhorbitant and bills come in just when you don't want them as if you ever do.

What's your online business about?

YANBU, I notice anyone with bad table manners within a mile radius. (You can imagine what fun I am to eat out with.)

it is academic proofreading and editing - April is usually busy......

slight diversion of thread!!

I recently experienced a weekend with some friends, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM CHEWED WITH THEIR MOUTH OPEN.

Punishable by death in my book. Revolting!

I was in a fairly nice restaurant on Saturday that specialises in seafood, specifically mussels. They do a 1kg moules & frites dish which basically comes in a large saucepan.

I had to endure the loud man at the next table lift the pan up to his mouth so he could drain it of all the sauce.

I did also catch my DS eating popcorn off the sofa once. With just his mouth. And his bum in the air. The popcorn had been in a bowl, he just thought it would be more fun to eat it his way.

He was only about 2 though. And we weren't in Wetherspoon's.

I let him get away with the sausage thing (for the moment), as long as he eats all of his peas and does so properly. Thankfully, he hasn't tried hoovering them up with just his mouth since he attempted it the first time!

MrsSteptoe What do you mean when you say your DS uses his knife and fork in the wrong hands? Do you mean he keeps trying to cut things with his fork, or that he is right-handed and uses his knife in his left hand (or vice-versa)? Because out of 5 siblings, I am the only one who doesn't use my knife in my left hand, and all of us are right-handed. They all think I'm weird and I think they are [grin}

I don't like to see knives & forks held like pens - I think folk think it "more delicate" or some such - it is actually bloody difficult to exert much pressure onto the food at all using that method so not even an efficient way of eating. Ho hum - not offensive though as long as food is being cut up & eaten without mess.

Like the OP I have seen teenagers stabbing food & biting lumps off it & slurping up stuff from the plate. OK so they might have had "hidden special needs blah blah" but it didn't look or sound like it. Quite horrible to see. My DH & DS (not as bad as DH) have a bad habit of talking with food in their mouths - drives me berserk

So in typical MN fashion, and something that needs to be said in this case.

My son has disgraphia , he finds using a knife and fork very difficult.

Be sure before you judge.

Especially when you see unusual handling of things

I have seen teenagers stabbing food & biting lumps off it & slurping up stuff from the plate. OK so they might have had "hidden special needs blah blah" but it didn't look or sound like it.

One of them might have been my DS, he doesn't look as if he has any 'blah,blah' SN but needs a scribe for his A levels due to the way he uses a pen (or cutlery).