Table manners - What's important

[Float On]

I don't know anyone who eats pizza with utensils.

That would be my 20 year old son. He has an aversion to knives but he'll saw through pizza with a fork. Drives me batty. "Pick it up and bite it off with your teeth like God intended!"

[CathyA]

That would be my 20 year old son. He has an aversion to knives but he'll saw through pizza with a fork. Drives me batty. "Pick it up and bite it off with your teeth like God intended!"

LOL! My DH does that too! Maybe he feels like it lasts longer that way, or something.

[nswef]

I often use a fork and knife for pizza. I don't want cheese sliding off the slice.

[Gardenarian]

CathyA - for the misophonia - she saw a cognitive behavioral therapist, which didn't get rid of the problem but helped her to realize when her reactions were inappropriate. She finds meditation helps and usually leaves one earbud in playing music when people are eating. So she's coping pretty well, but occasionally flies off the handle with DH.

For most females who have this, it is a male relative (brother or father) who is the first to cause a trigger the symptoms. Bizarre.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/...-2017042111534

[Williamsmith]

I will often eat pizza with a fork and knife but not always. I experienced an increase in obsessive compulsive activity during my recovery from a traumatic spine injury. It manifested itself in orderliness and fears of contamination. Therefore, eating pizza with a fork actually triggers both responses.

I have always had a concern for perfection in my work. It could be that I simply take my slippers off and arrange them in the exact same place measured by a mark on the floor for many months on end but then the need will suddenly stop. These are called rituals. I eat left handed but I write and do many other things right handed. I have a strict bedtime routine. Because of this details can be very important. I believe this is part of the reason why I was a successful criminal investigator and part of the reason I suffered from stress related illness.

With me, it is all related to neurological injury. So, have a little sympathy for the person who eats pizza with a fork and knife. My wife knows when all there is available are cheap plastic forks and knives....that I’ll be breaking off the fork more than once.

[Suzanne]

Surely whether or not a person holds a fork in the left hand and a knife in the right, or uses utensils for pizza are personal preference?

I can’t imagine any scenario where slurping, gobbling, chomping, spraying food particles or dribbling from an open mouth while chewing or talking, or picking teeth with a fingernail would be other than off-putting.

I eat with a fork in my left hand and a knife in my right. I cut one bite of food at a time rather than chopping everything on my plate at one go. I don’t turn my fork upside down and use it like a spoon. I don’t know why this way of eating upsets so many people! It’s simply the way I was raised. It’s our cultural norm. I’ve heard strangers at nearby tables in restaurants comment very loudly on this; I’ve even been asked outright by people who stop at my table why I eat so funny. Now that’s really bad table manners!