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!

But it’s extremely basic table manners.

Why??

No-one has yet answered my question - 'Who decided this was basic table manners and why?'

So much fur coat and no knickers on this thread

Personally, I am a bit of a stickler but I would never ever comment on anyone else’s table manners. That’s just rude.

The only time anyone has ever challenged me eating like this was the father of a school friend who bellowed at me for having barnyard manners. I was 7 at the time and didn't have a clue what he was on about.

I'm left handed
Fork in left hand , knife in right hand ..
Spoon in left hand
Does it really matter?

@DappledThings Not that you really care but to clarify I meant I am right handed and wear my watch on my right wrist ..
that’s 3 secs of your life you won’t get back !

All of my family eat this way and none of us are left handed! I also wear my watch on my left wrist! Honestly what difference does it make to anyone else how you eat anyway? If someone points it out as incorrect then they are rude. Anyone with '' supposed class' and real manners wouldn't even care. Different if you were burping etc at the table. Although in some cultures that is seen as polite!

joyfullittlehippo Your father’s family may not have commented, but don’t kid yourself that they would not have noticed or judged and I doubt they would have been seen subsequently with you somewhere that it would have mattered.

Lack of table manners

Reaching over people's plates to grab something

Tucking into your food before everyone else has been served

Not passing the bowls of food around or taking too much

Slurping, chomping noises etc

Scraping your cutlery on your teeth or plate

Oh and of course staring at how others choose to comfortably hold their knives and forks...

Doesn’t it all depend on if you’re right or left handed? Also I’m right handed but eat this way and have done since being very young. It’s not a big deal. My husband is left handed and eats with his fork in his left hand for the same reason. I consider it bad manners that someone else thinks it ok to tell someone how to hold a knife and fork, an adult at that. Your MIL sounds like a narcissist. This isn’t the 1800’s for goodness sakes! Just so rude!

I think originally the 'wearing watches on the left wrist' came from the fact the winder was on the right hand side of the watch, so if you wore it on the right, you'd have to take it off to wind it.

Makes sense but I could be wrong.

joyfullittlehippo Not ableist. If someone has a genuine difficulty, that is a different matter.

housinghelp that's funny! Although I've never seen a cow eating with a knife and fork the other way round! 😂 😂 😂 No wonder you didn't know what he was on about.

Not that you really care but to clarify I meant I am right handed and wear my watch on my right wrist
that’s 3 secs of your life you won’t get back !

I do care and appreciate the clarification! . Yes, that is unusual then I think. Although even wearing a watch at all seems far less common than it used to be

@FizzyIce

I’m also right handed but wear my watch on my left wrist ..
Isn't that 'normal'? Don't people usually put it on the wrist of their non-dominant hand?

This is brilliant. I had no idea people cared so much. Isnt it the other way round in america? Dont large chucks of the world use chop sticks, dont french men do something odd with a foldy pen knife thing rather that use normal cutlery.

I'm with your MIL on this one. I'm amazed when people don't have basic good table manners (which includes holding knife and fork correctly)

You’re confusing manners with convention. There’s nothing inherently impolite about holding your cutlery in the ‘wrong’ hands.

Yet another one of those things that I had no idea people cared about

For the record, I don't think it matters which hand holds the fork and which the knife.

I do think both should be held properly, whichever hand. (Assuming you can, of course.)

Providing you don't eat with your mouth open, talk with your mouth full and use cutlery properly (as in, don't lick the knife) then I wouldn't be fussed about what an adult does at the table.
If you can't do the above, I can't eat near you.

Anyone that is judging how you use cutlery are saddos and need to concentrate on things that are actually important.

There’s no manual on being human is there, people need to stop with all this ‘correct’ way BS.

I’m right handed and I use my fork in my right. The rest of my family don’t. I also use my knife upside down most of the time and never even realised I did it until my partner mentioned it but apparently it’s a thing I do. My meals are eaten how I’m comfortable eating them. My partner thinks it’s a lovely quirk but I’ve had it where people said I was holding them wrong and quite frankly it’s none of their business it was just the way I learnt to do it. Tell them to stick it!

Tell them both to knob off. I’m left handed and I eat that way, I’d like to see how they’d manage to undo the habit of a literal life time.

This makes me incredibly uncomfortable to watch but I’d never be rude enough to comment on it. Do they also correct people on their speech as well?

It is etiquette to eat with knife on the right and fork on the left (in the UK) however it is far ruder to comment on how someone else is holding their cutlery than it is to hold yours the wrong way round.