To ask why people that take half put the other half back

[AlwaysPrettyOnTheInside]

Inspired by a comment on the crumpet thread.

I understand why people might take half a biscuit/doughnut/cake/pie, whatever. They are teeny tiny and can only manage a few bites. We all get that.

BUT why do they think it's acceptable to touch said item and put it back like someone else will want it?

If you do this, why do you do it?

Why don't you take the other half for yourself another time?

Why do you think someone else will want to eat half a squashed iced doughnut with your fingerprints in it?

Even more disgusting are the people that don't even pretend at hygiene and don't even get a knife, they just tear it in half with their hands and put the other half back

Yabu - it's fine for people to touch up food items with their dirty fingers and leave them for others.
Yanbu - these people are disgusting.

And I'm talking more in office spaces etc than your home, but still, homes count if you have people other than your immediate family there.

Oh my god. My mom is the worst offender for this, it drives me mad. She does it with everything. But the worst one is crisps.

Do you know those little gadgets you can get that reseal packets? Well, my mom eats half a packet of crisps or whatever else, re-seals it, and puts the half eaten pack back into the cupboard with all the other crisps - many of which are also ones she's previously eaten half of. So bloody irritating 🤣

Is this a serious comment or a jokey reference to the favourite Mumsnet bird-like undereating meme? Because, whilst I can respect someone wanting half a donut, the idea of being "mystified" that anyone "can" eat (i.e., is capable of eating) one individual donut is just silly. Everybody has a stomach big enough for one donut. One donut is a small fraction the size of a typical roast dinner, bowl or soup, pizza or thousands of other things normal people eat every day.

Also, sorry to break it to you but (taking Krispy Kreme Original Glazed as the benchmark) one glazed donut is not 190 calories. It's 384. So even your abstemious half donut is more than 190 calories. Donuts are indulgent treats full of fat and sugar. They are in no way healthy. That's the point. Of course, they originated in a world where people would eat such things because they'd saved up to go to the seaside for an annual treat, not just because it was Wednesday and Linda in internal comms had been to Asda.

If you want a half donut, have a half donut, but don't make a big performance out of marvelling at the 99% of the population who can eat a whole one.

Wait, are they all the same kind of crisps?

I do this with different flavours, eat some and reseal them...not sure why this is irritating? Sometimes I want a different flavour. But they are mine, not shared.

I don't want to put weight on, but do enjoy my crisps so I just eat part of the bag instead of the whole thing. Works for me I guess.

I am that annoying person who just has a bite size piece of donut or cake.

I do low carbing but allow myself the occasional bite of something sweet.

I usually wait until just the dregs are left as I’m happy to have a bit from the half donut or cake chunk. Or a colleague will give me a bit of theirs and eat the rest.

I also have a bite from other people’s meals, including at restaurants.

Shoot me 🤣

@Scalottia sometimes the same, sometimes not. It's irritating (or was irritating as a teenager living at home, anyway) because you go to take a pack thinking it's full, open it, and find that there's about five crisps left.

She has a special knack for sealing them in a way that it's hard to tell it's been opened before unless you really look. Why not just seal them halfway down so it's obvious it's been opened?! Who knows. My mom works in mysterious ways, god love her.

Ah ok @ShazzaF I get why that could be irritating! That would also annoy me. Don't open something if the same thing is already open! Argh 😂

Whats worse is when they take 2 different halves!

I had someone at a coffee morning once pull a jam doughnut in half (and the jam got on their fingers) and then also break a muffin or something in half and put both other halves back on the plate. With the excuse that they wanted to try a couple of different things but didn't want to eat two!!

I was shocked and I know a couple of other people where by their faces!

Some people have no manners!!!

If they're not shared, it's no issue.

But it's off-putting and unappetising to go into a shared space with shared food and find someone has left less than a full portion/serving.

I heard once of a Weetabix-off between two of my performative undereating relatives. One made a point of eating only one Weetabix at a time and took great pleasure in banging on about it when the last person into the box found themselves with only one of them at the end. "I just can't eat two, I don't know why that's a standard portion" etc. Not to be outdone, once the second person saw what she'd done, she then started cutting the remaining Weetabix to show how she couldn't manage even that much etc etc. I heard about how both the things got reduced to frigging sawdust in the end with all the cutting.

Some people are going to think I'm making this up. I wish, I really do.

If you have some special arrangement with someone so they're happy to take your cast offs, fine. Please do it promptly so we don't have to see sad, hardening, squashed half doughnuts dropping jam on to the plate as if it might be nice for us. If not, please just frigging take one portion, have what you want, and palm the rest off on someone privately or have it later.

To me it's absolutely not-done and no, I wouldn't eat half a sandwich left behind by a co-worker. At home.....well still nó to the touching and tearing in half etc., but we often ask "X, shall we share that last cupcake (or whatever)" and then proceed to put it on a plate, cut it in half and offer the other half to X. Even with good friends who come over regularly this would be no issue. But all of us have good tablemanners and nobody in my house would ever leave a piece of a squashed bun lying on the table.

I hate weeetabix but what’s the issue with only having 1? Surely you could just start a new pack and take the last one from the old pack and a new one from the new pack?

A standard portion is 2, so even if you break the next pack open to get an extra one - assuming you have another pack - you're still going to end up with one lone fucker at the end. If you're going to do that, please just have bran flakes instead. You can have as few as you like and nobody will care.

But she didn't actually really want one Weetabix. What she wanted was for someone to get to the last one and discover that there was only one left (not a full standard portion) so that she could make a big performance about how she only ever eats one Weetabix because she's not one of those gluttons who has two. It doesn't matter what the standard portion is, she'll halve it and make a song and dance about it.

And she met her match because the next person was as disordered and performative as she is, so she did the only thing you could do to outdo One Weetabix Wendy... cut the remaining one. This sent One Weetabix Wendy into a tizzy and competitive Weetabix cutting ensued. Have you ever tried to cut a dry Weetabix?

As you can imagine, these people are a joy to have at social events. Even more fun to share a food cupboard with.

Up North, we are mean but clean and eat the whole thing.