Do you use a knife and fork?

[beebee25]

I was in a pub the other day and was queuing at the bar for a drink. There was a group of people eating a roast dinner nearby. One of the diners was just using a fork to eat her food. Scooping it up on her fork and shovelling it in. She seemed to be struggling with her Yorkshire pudding and got her knife out for a bit and chopped it up and then reverted to a fork.. why would somebody eat like this? I appreciate she may have been American but I have noticed recently a few young people eating like this. This makes me irrationally irritated and I have no idea why.

Im afraid I picked up this shocking habit when I had no choice but to use only my right hand to eat. Apologies.

Iv called into a terrible habit of eating with a fork. It goes back to breast feeding and holding babies for years and eating with one hand. Im trying really hard to break it

I don't inquire into other people's bathroom habits, so why would I know which hand anyone uses to wipe their bum. 🙄

Why are table manners important?

Because eating is (or should be) a social activity and no one wants to share a table with someone chomping with their mouth open and spreading their elbows across the table.

So table manners are preferable, not actually important. Thought you were gonna say it prevented cancer.

Social mores are important to anyone who isn’t an idiot.

I eat like this most of the time, it’s just easier and more comfortable for me. Like others I prefer using my hand for certain foods or chopsticks given the choice.

I use my hands mainly, occasionally a spoon, very rarely a fork and never a knife beyond food prep.

I don’t really eat food often that needs to be cut up so I tend to just use a fork and not a knife. Don’t eat meat, never have. I don’t give a flying fig what anyone else thinks, I eat neatly otherwise.

What about left handed people?

My tall for 6, autistic, dd sat on my lap and had me feed her her nandos tonight

I definitely got stares 😒😔

Lol

Dd2 with no special needs and good behaviour in general insists on stabbing food with a fork and eating without using her knife. Drives me insane. She’s 14. I’m hoping she’ll grow out of it!

Table manners and intelligence are not related.

I think the setting and circumstances play a big role but would agree that good manners are important. If I were eating at an Indian restaurant, for example, I'd use my hands for the most part but I wouldn't sit at the table at home and cram fistfuls of spagbol into my mouth. If I fancy putting my feet up with a bowl of risotto on the sofa then yes, I'll use a fork. If I'm attending a formal meal in a restaurant then I'll use my cutlery 'properly'/as I was taught. I think it's important that children are taught how to use cutlery correctly alongside good table manners and I do pull mine up on it. I don't want to sit at a table with someone shovelling huge forkfuls of food into their mouth, talking with their mouths full and spraying food everywhere.

Well, yes, but which hand you hold your knife has no impact whatsoever on anybody else's enjoyment of their meal. So some table manners are more important than others.

Well I'd imagine it would be tge dominant one. Cant see how people would use both hands to wipe their bum

Well the former is not great, but I wouldn't be bothered in the slightest by the latter.

Now that’s the really odd manifestation of cutlery etiquette! (USA, isn't it?)
Changing the fork over to a different hand is presumably the polite requirement re cutlery at the table, yet any other such rules (eg the GB way) are sneered at.
Sneer by all means, but only from a position of ‘Anything goes’!

I use a fork and knife because that’s the way I was taught but I would never judge anyone or make them uncomfortable for eating a different way. It’s the height of bad manners. Thinking my way is the only way is the height of arrogance.

I know this opinion upsets people on these threads but I think poor cutlery etiquette is awful. And many people will judge it. Should be ingrained from a young age.

Yes I use a knife and fork, in the correct hands.

I often eat with just my fork. What's so dreadful about it?

It seems to me it's far more bad mannered to comment on the eating habits of others.

You do realise that left handed people usually need to do it this way?

The correct hands? The only correct hands are your own hands. Some people are left handed and prefer to use their cutlery accordingly. Why on earth would that attract judgement?