Oh, not AGAIN...how can I stop accidentally cutting my hands, without resorting to expensive therapy and/or boxing gloves?

[motherinferior]

I seriously don't think I do this as a form of deliberate self-injury or anything (have just edited a report on self-harm, in fact). But pretty well as far back as I can remember, when I'm stressed I end up accidentally hurting my hands in some way - banging them, scraping them, or involving them in the many sharp edges contained within the modern-day kitchen. I can ascribe this to all sorts of complex factors, blame my parents (naturally) and so on but ffs, I'm 42, I can't go on blaming my parents forever. It is extremely tedious (and painful); I'd just got over slicing the top of my thumb on the micro-plane grater (after I'd sliced the top of my finger when chopping veg) and now the breadknife took a sideswipe off a driedup lemon, through my rubber glove and into the joint of my left forefinger, which is now comprehensively plastered.

Advise me, please. Seriously.

MI, I do this all the time too. Since having DS I'm clumsier than ever, plus I'm trying to do things too fast. Also are you BF? My HV mentioned I might get a lowered immune system and weaker skin and cuts would take longer to heal once I'd been BF for 6 months (she wasn't trying to put me off, just advising me to get the vitamins in). She was right and I now have about 40 packs of plasters and germolene round the house.

Tee hee. It's like a clique! My hands are ridiculously scarred from various cuts and burns, most fairly minor, a few pretty nasty.

DH almost can't bear to watch me with knives/near anything hot. He says I use the wrong implement and badly (example: I can't cut potatoes up for boiling, so I saw into them a bit with a knife and then pick up knife- with potato embedded on end- and bang the potato on the work surface until it's cut in half). I think my biggest problem with knives is that DH insists on having huge knives in a kind of unconscious phallic extension scenario and I just can't use the bloomin' things.

Yesterday DH wouldn't let me cut some steak out of its packaging with a knife in case I hurt myself. Steak was frozen and stuck to the polystyrene tray. After much pulling, huffing and panting, I cut my hand on the bloody steak. I am truly hopeless!

I do this too when I'm stressed. Apparently it's a Gemini trait.

No advice, but have also have large gash on own left forefinger atm.

I sympathise have a huge scar from 2 weeks ago the oven door tried to close on my hand burning both sides, because dh left a box in front of the oven and i must have bounced it shut with my foot, !!!