Using a plate or bowl when eating yes or no?

[Colango]

We had a very bad ant infestation earlier this year, took weeks to get rid of them. We have pets and hard flooring, and I like to keep the floors clean.

Coming down in the morning to tread with bare feet on someone else’s gob crumbs gives me the ick but even more so, I don’t want the ants back

Members of my family seem to be allergic to using plates or bowls to eat food from? Or sitting at a table to eat? Is this normal?

DH is terrible for eating without a plate and it makes a mess. He brushes his fingers together over the floor too to get crumbs off them. I would do this over a sink or a bin if I did not have a plate, not just straight onto the floor in the house? Am I the weirdo?

I asked DH he said he doesn’t want to do extra washing up, but the kids are wandering around eating food as well. I hoovered after dinner then he let them have toast and all of them stood in the middle of the kitchen and created a carpet of crumbs - which I trod in and then I have a foot covered in toast crumbs from someone else’s mouth. Yes I made him sweep it up but we have a kitchen island with chairs they could have sat on to eat, then it can be cleaned off the worktop?

USE A PLATE? or perhaps I have PMT 😒

Oh I’m often hovering around with the hoover and he acts like I am hyacinth bucket!

I once caught him wiping his hands onto the duvet from some messy crisps he had brought into the bedroom I said go wash you hands fgs! Eat them downstairs!

He wouldn’t buy kitchen roll for this he would say a waste of money 😂

@MadameSzyszkoBohusz i am moving in. I will be there at 6pm

I’ve taken to serving food in the garden every weekend even if it’s not that warm 😂

@Colango so a tight wad as well ?

Crikey, I even decant crisps into a bowl. I can't imagine it! Sounds feral.

Yep! I do tell him when he is being stingy. He doesn’t like us buying nice food unless it’s very cheap and a lot of volume for money, so like he will pay £5 for a massive load of cheap sausages with like 60% pork content but will complain if I wanted to buy £5 of nice fish as it’s smaller and worse in terms of value and doesn’t reach as far. He will spend loads on treats like crisps and crap. This means we have a lot of crunchy crumbly snacks in our house and he eats a lot, so in the evenings I will have cleared up and he will still be eating all night so more mess comes out 😭

His youngest has this habit to try to finish eating faster they will put absolutely HUGE mouthfuls of food in their mouth, which take like 10 mins+ to chew up they often end up spitting it out as it’s too big and they chat chat chat chat at the table I say DH, could you not just tell them to put smaller portions in their mouth? The other child shreds all the food into tiny pieces with their fingers as if mice had a party

he is a dirty bastard and the kids are copying him. Eating crumble from his hand is gross 🤮

It’s not just my own family, we had people round recently and some of their children also ate like feral animals. Giant handfuls of things shoved Into their mouth, talking with mouth full, food everywhere.

Not that dh doesn’t use plates but for toast/sandwiches/cheese crackers between meals he like small cutting boards.
especially ones with handles.
We also have a floor robot and other gizmos to make life easier (central vac with multiple ports).
I was a skeptic but highly recommend the floor robot, and the cutting boards.

@Colango sorry you have to put up with this, using the duvet cover to wipe Dorito dust is so unnecessary

Our dog just barks too much at things like this or I would already have one. Dog thinks it’s an evil robot invader 😂

We have nice plates too!

Eww nope! One of my pet hates is kids wandering around with food.
DH and my teens occasionally try to get away with it but I’m having none of it.

This is absolutely disgusting.

Cancel all upcoming holidays. Replace with trips to Paris (or possibly elsewhere in France)..

Ban snacking. Eat only meals seated at the table with a table cloth nice delph, table settings and candles.

I haven't RTFT so apologies if this has already been mentioned.
Though your family should use plates obviously, a robot vac may both help keep your floor clean and your sanity intact .

I'd make sure his job is laundry and hoovering.

Could he eat off of a paper towel? Or I think you might call it kitchen roll? I know it's not the best for the environment but if he put the food on the paper towel to eat it then he could use the paper towel to wipe his hands when he was done and throw it in the trash.

I ate tonight's dinner with my fingers. It was on a plate, just easier to pick stuff up. I actively enjoy walking around with a piece of toast or a biscuit - this is because I live alone, am solely responsible for my own mess, and never did any of this while living with other people!

Get them to at least USE KITCHEN PAPER, for god's sake.

Talking with a full mouth is incredibly bad manners because nobody wants to see the chewed-up mush in there. Maintaining conversation while eating is a finely-tuned skill that takes years to perfect: first you have to learn NOT to open your mouth while chewing. It's unwise to let children get away with it, as it'll reflect badly on them (and their parents) when they're older.

As kids, we'd have to point at our (full) cheeks if someone spoke to us while we were chewing. It's ungainly, but a useful step in learning good manners. The correct response - at home - to someone displaying/spraying the contents of their gob is "Eeuuww! 🤢"

Tell him he can either wash a plate or clean the floor after each time he's eaten, his choice but what he won't do is leave it for you to do. I know what I'd rather do. Put consequences in place for the kids when they do it.

Gosh OP that sounds awful, don’t know how you dealt with this for so long.

We are firm on plates, sitting in the kitchen to eat and table manners. Table manners are much overlooked in many households. I know which of DCs friends haven’t been taught them.

I don’t know if people just don’t eat out or with others much anymore. I suppose if you’re just guzzling solo it doesn’t matter, but if you are ever going to eat in public, with friends, at a work event, in a nice restaurant you must have a basic awareness of table manners.

Your post made me rage OP. I hate crumbs with a passion. Seems like no one else cares though, so I have to wear ballet flats in the house to avoid trodding on them, and sweep floors constantly 😫

He takes hold of the toast and then can't decide whether he wants to actually eat it or not? What is he wondering? Which spread to put on it? How long does this indecision last, and why does it create so many crumbs?

He is disgusting. Who eats like this? Even a dog eats from a bowl. I can’t believe anyone walks around just eating like that unless it’s in a wrapper?

You have crumbs with a dog?? Our dog cleans up crumbs quicker and more effectively than any hoover could

It would never occur to me not to use a plate or bowl when eating! My kids do too. I guess because they have never seen anyone not use a plate!

My ex didn't even bother to sweep them onto the floor (and we had a robot hoover) - he'd just leave them all over the side.

Luckily I have a significantly greater influence on my children, and they use a plate and prefer to sit at the table. My youngest even chooses to use a fork to eat things like cake, because he doesn't like getting sticky/greasy fingers.

🤣🤣🤣 OP I genuinely cannot believe he was eating a crumble out of his hands 🤣🤣🤣 I also thought this was going to be about what foods you eat from a bowl versus a plate

Buy a load of cheap paper plates. No washing up and if you get compostable ones they can go in food waste