AIBU - cutlery etiquette

[FantaIsFine]

Hi,

Self-acknowledged total snob so I have MANY things on which people may differ but.

I keep trying to ignore this, but it makes me wince every time I see it. Someone I love dearly and grew up with, licks eating knives mid meal. Is it me? What can I say, if anything?

Thanks

italian they eat all those things? Wow, heaven!
My 6yo : chicken nuggets. Chips. Smoked salmon. Sausage rolls. Apple. Crisps.

Mine won't even eat chicken nuggets, they're yucky biscuits apparently she does actually have good table manners though, despite having a heathen like me for a mother

Lol miss my 6yo is so feck in picky I actually buy the good nuggets so he's not eating shite all the time.

We've only just got a table, so he's got no idea. I'm also a terrible mother.

I was raised like a feral child and never learned any table manners. At age 18, I was informally adopted by a Boston Brahmin (which is about as close to "posh" as us Americans get, I think) and it was only then that I realized how atrocious my eating habits were. I would lick my knife because either 1. whatever was on it was really good and I wanted to get every last drop, or b.) I wanted to use my knife for something else and didn't want to taint the next thing. I had no idea until someone told me that utensil-licking in general was considered gauche. It seemed perfectly logical to me! Complimentary to the cook, even. I mean, if I'm licking my knife, it usually means I really like the food.

One thing she hasn't been able to cure me of, though, is ice-cream-bowl licking. Because seriously. It's ice cream. I'm not going to throw away a film of ice cream, no matter how thin it is. I've even been known to lick HER bowl.

And this is reason #317 for why I should never be allowed out in public.

Oh and I've also licked utensils under the misguided assumption that I'm making clean-up easier for whoever has to do the dishes. I may be an embarrassment, but I'm a considerate one, lol

Growing up, if my father caught any child at the dinner table licking their knife, he would flick the back of their hand with his own knife. This practice was passed down to him from his own father, and, while I can't quite bring myself to do it to my own kids, I do trot out the anecdote if I happen to catch one in a careless lick.