To think eyeing up people's food is beyond rude?

[ButteredRadishes]

My uncle will hoover his lunch and then stare at your plate like a hawk, and say stuff like "are you going to eat that roast potato?" Or he'll be looking at your packet of crisps and say "they look nice....". All the time eyeballs on the packet.

He actually made his 6 year old son cry at lunch on Sunday, we were out for a roast,and nephew was taking his toe , went to the loo,and whilst he was gone took his Yorkshire pudding (yes, I questioned it before he ate it and uncles response was "well, he's taking too long" and then he ate it. Nephew came back and was understandably upset.

it's fucking rude. Yes?

It’s disgusting behaviour. I’m surprised anyone is willing to be around people like this!

Sounds like ‘food noise’ is the modern madey up term for greed. Are you going to diagnose the greedy guts as neurodivergent too?

Clearly next time you’re all out, someone needs to eat his Yorkshire pudding!
My best friend broke up with a BF when he did similar re her last roast potato. It was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I’ve come across a few men like this. My friends BIL came for Christmas once and gorged himself all day, stole the children’s chocolate because he was ‘starving’ and complained how little food there was (there was tons) he was never invited again.

My own FIL was like this especially if he hadn’t paid. He stole someone’s entire meal once as they were called away and it was put in the oven. He snuck in the kitchen and ate it declaring that they ‘hadn’t wanted it’. He then had a tantrum because they got a second meal and he didn’t.

Greediness is unpleasant.

It’s beyond rude. But also, what kind of person takes food from their own child? He sounds awful.

Yep

What?! So he had had (stolen) a second meal and then threw a tantrum because the other person got a replacement first meal - but he felt entitled to a third meal as some kind of reward for being a thief?!

I wonder if people who do this kind of thing display the same lack of boundaries elsewhere in life?

Do they merrily help themselves to money from somebody else's purse/wallet? Do they grab a colleague's car keys and take their car, as they haven't bothered to put any petrol in their own car? Do they help themselves to somebody else's coat, because it's wet and cold outside and they feel automatically much more important than the person who actually owns and brought their own coat?

I bet these are the exact same people who steal other people's lunch from the work fridge; probably don't even bother taking any in as they reckon that there's always a selection to choose from, so everybody wins... except for the people who paid for and brought their own lunch in and then have to go hungry, but they don't matter, eh??!

Do they play by the same rules if somebody steals their food? Do they shrug and think that they just should have been quicker to eat/protect their food? I bet they don't; I'm sure they're furious if anybody treats them with the same amount of disrespect as they routinely treat others with.

What an absolute dickhead. I'd be blanking him from now on (with the exception of the occasional warning not to touch my food), this is who he is.

Yes. He could be incredibly childish. He used to over eat/steal food/alcohol at others houses because it was ‘free’.
He wouldn’t see it would be a third meal, he’d also have made himself unwell and then blamed someone else.

My XH used to take food off the baby's highchair tray 🤬 Fucking rank.

Even dogs usually only look longingly at the food and then hopefully up at you, waiting for the OK - they don't normally just help themselves unbidden.

“Sorry Uncle, you made me feel so uncomfortable with your behaviour last time we went out for a meal that I don’t want to go out again if you are going to be there.”
I feel sorry for the little nephew as this must happen to him a lot.

I had a (short lived) relationship with someone like this. We were out for dinner and about half way through I went to the loo. When I came back he'd cleaned my plate. Said he thought I'd finished! I knew his mum well and saw her do similar...we were at a group meeting and had bought pastries (just one each) to have at break time. One of the group had to pop out and when she came back found that the filling and bottom of her pie was eaten, with just the lid left. Bloody weird compulsive behaviour

I thought youbwere going to say people look at your food.... came to say that J dont see an issue..
but eating it too... greedy bastard😡

This.
It would be a hard no to eat together
in future .

I'm surprised you didn't call him out on it as a family. It's not ok to be a bully!

if he’s overweight then the bitching behind his back will be insane. Really gross behaviour either way and it happens because it’s clearly never been called out.

And his hands, wrists and elbows - gout goes for them too. If this obnoxious gannet of a man was so full of crystals he could hardly think straight, that would put a stop to him thieving from other people's plates. Lots of people get gout, not because they are feral hogs at dinner but because they like their meat/seafood/spinach

Why the hell are people still eating with this man? Stop inviting him.

I would refuse to spend another moment with this disgusting person. Absolute animal. That poor child!

I come from a family of seven (including parents) and we all loved food and eating, but no-one ever behaved like that. My parents always made sure there was enough for us, even if they had to go short and wouldn't have dreamt of snatching food from a child's plate. I don't think they'd have fathomed the odious sense of entitlement it takes and they grew up during post-WWII rationing. If there is a way to exclude this selfish glutton from future gatherings without punishing his partner and children, I would do it.

TThe husband of my friend is like this. When I stay with them we go to ‘all you can eat’ places and he’ll eat three times what anyone else does. He also sneaks any leftover food out of the fridge. His eating is completely out of control and it’s affecting his health.

My dad was similar, but fortunately never in public. There were quite a lot of issues around food when we were kids, and dad would get really annoyed if we ever expressed a dislike of anything or flat out refused to eat something.

It later came to light that dad had suffered massive food insecurity as a child.

Not to excuse your rude uncle, but weirdness around food can signal quite significant issues.

Poor kid. Bet greedy guts eats all the little fella's sweets as well.

Some people are just too hideous for words.

There seem to have been several threads recently all focusing on men who are apparently so selfish and greedy that they can't take anyone else into consideration.
What I don't understand is why are people allowing these men to behave like that? Why is no one challenging them about their repulsive & obnoxious behaviour?
Your uncle's actions were completely unnecessary. He needed to be confronted at the time & told he's a greedy, selfish bastard to his face. If he's allowed to continue with that sort of behaviour without any consequences, he'll never change.