Using fork in right hand, knife in left..

[AG29]

I am aware it’s meant to be the other way round but I feel most comfortable with my fork in right hand and knife in left. The opposite feels uncomfortable and I was never taught any different growing up. It’s never caused me too many problems. I generally have good table manners.

My OH’s mum is a bit of a nightmare in general. If we eat there (not often thankfully but Christmas next week). She has told me to swap hands before but I don’t feel comfortable that way. To the point I avoid eating there as much as possible. OH reminds me to eat with fork in left if we are going over there too and I’m sick of being spoke to like a child.

Aibu to think they should just leave it be? Does it really matter. It’s not like I’m eating with my bloody hands!

I understood that but I was referring to the fact that in Britain it was acceptable in the past to use the left hand as well. It also was in continental Europe but this has changed. I don’t know if it did in Britain, therefor I mean it might be true that to these day it’s not a breach of etiquette in Britain whilst it clearly is in Europe (I had no idea such things could differ between UK and continent). I assume you’re looking at it from the British perspective.

It sounds silly but this thread has genuinely upset me. I’ve never in my life felt discriminated against as a left-hander, but this thread has revealed distressing levels of prejudice and ignorance about left-handedness. Everything that is being said about eating left-handed could also be applied to writing left-handed - are there people out there who secretly judge me for this too?

Wow, wow and wow again.

"I can't bear people that cannot use their cutlery properly". Bully for you that you have so few problems in life that this concerns you. My FIL is a horrible, rude arrogant man that frequently upsets decent people with his abruptness and total lack of tact. He has a problem with how a fork is held too. Jesus, get a life.

It even annoys me when I am going out with friends and eating sushi, they don’t bother to eat with chopsticks but ask for a fork and knife instead.

Assuming they live in the UK, why would that annoy you?

Would you get annoyed if a Japanese person asked for chopsticks to eat a non Japanese meal, because they said they preferred them?

@bookworm14

I think if people know you’re left handed, they won’t judge you for it. It’s more about not knowing table etiquette that annoys some people but not if you’re fysically uncomfortable and therefor have to eat differently.

I'm the same as you, as is my Dad. I physically can't eat the other way round. Food flies all over the place.

I spent years as a child with dm trying to get me to eat the other way round. I just can't. I do hold my cutlery properly, just in the opposite hands.

Aren't there some awfully rude, judgy people on this thread.

I'm much more concerned by the huge amount of children who can't use cutlery at all and have no concept of any sort of table manners. As a youth leader we see at least a third on every event.

I’ve always done this. I have very old fashioned etiquette-y manners and I feel very rebellious about it!

I'm left handed but had good table manners drilled into me so I eat the correct way. Table manners are vital. Have you ever sat opposite someone who insists on eating with their mouth open or talking spraying the whole time. It's vile.

@WorraLiberty

Have you ever visited Japan?

I have and when you go to a Western style restaurant, you’ll see the Japanese eat with cutlery instead of chopsticks. They even know how to eat spaghetti Italian - style (using spoon and fork).

I'm left handed but had good table manners drilled into me so I eat the correct way. Table manners are vital. Have you ever sat opposite someone who insists on eating with their mouth open or talking spraying the whole time. It's vile.

But how is this the same as eating with the knife in your left hand? In what way is it comparable? This is just utter nonsense.

Have read through this entire thread trying to figure out which hands I use. I've never even thought about it and not in a million years noticed what someone else did!

Get a life.

Imagine if someone said this:

“I'm left handed but had good writing skills drilled into me so I write the correct way. Good penmanship is vital. Have you ever sat next to someone who insists on writing with their left hand and smudging their work all the time? It's vile.”

I can't imagine caring about how people hold cutlery. How sad.
Next time she mentions it, I'd ask her what her problem is.

You are the only other person I've ever come across who remembers that Worraliberty. I want to invite you around for peas and honey 😁

...or peas in pork so you can eat with a fork.

bookworm14 I couldn't agree more. Let's tie our left hands behind our backs in Victorian style so we don't offend.

@Honeybee85 please re-read what you've posted. What a load of apologist crap. I would assume, rightly or wrongly, that someone holding their fork in their right hand and their knife in their left was left handed. Not that they were wrong/rude/ill-mannered/annoying until I established what their dominant hand was.

I think the 10% figure for left handedness may well be based on out of date information due to imposing non-use of the left hand as the dominant one, but I'm no expert in genetics.

I'm left handed but had good table manners drilled into me so I eat the correct way. Table manners are vital. Have you ever sat opposite someone who insists on eating with their mouth open or talking spraying the whole time. It's vile.

What on earth does that have to do with someone quietly and politely eating with their cutlery in the hands that feels most comfortable for them?

Damnloginpopup Years ago Spike was on the Richard Littlejohn show and I faxed in (shows how long ago it was!) to tell him how much I loved that rhyme as a kid

I agree @bookworm14. Eating with your mouth open or waving your dirty knife around when speaking, or talking with your mouth full is rude and revolting but eating quietly and politely with your knife in your left hand is not, it’s just not comparable- unless you’ve been brought up an insufferable snob!

Indeed, honeyroar - it’s nothing but petty, baseless snobbery. The irony is that the actual upper classes couldn’t give a stuff about this etiquette nonsense - they are already secure in their status and don’t need to signal it to everyone else!

@wowfudge

It’s quite ironic IMO that you’re trying to berate me about not being kind trough such an agressive and hostile post. Very hypocrite behavior.

I’m almost 40 years old, in the real world precisely zero times has anyone ever passed comment on how I hold my knife and fork. I’m ambidextrous in the true sense of the word that I can dk almost anything with either hand. The only exception is cutlery. For those saying it’s not difficult to change it, well I don’t think it’s difficult to write with either hand depending on how I feel that day, but I doubt most people would agree. I don’t think it’s hard to play piano swapping parts from left to right but agsib others would disagree. It’s ALMOST like people are different!

I can't imagine even noticing in which hands people hold their cutlery, assuming they're otherwise eating normally (i.e. not chewing audibly/ talking with mouth full, throwing food everywhere, cement mixing etc.).

Hence, you can sneer at the pearl clutchers all you want, but their kids aren't going to be embarrassed on a formal works occasion by not knowing which is the soup spoon or sniggered at because they hold cutlery in the wrong hand/like a pencil.

You haven't really hung out with many upper class people, have you?

Hence, you can sneer at the pearl clutchers all you want, but their kids aren't going to be embarrassed on a formal works occasion by not knowing which is the soup spoon or sniggered at because they hold cutlery in the wrong hand/like a pencil.

I genuinely LOLed at this

Being left handed does not make me inferior to a right handed person, it just makes my left hand dominant so what is the problem.

In actual fact I am able to do many things ambidextrously (if that's a word) but call myself left handed as that is how I write.

This problem with people not accepting others that aren't like them is so irritating.