Terrible table manners

[sherrardk]

Went out for lunch today (cooker still dead and no replacement bought yet). Sitting at the table nearest to us were (what looked like) gran and grandad, mum and dad and two boys (about 6 and 13 years old). The lunches came and the elder boy picked up his whole (large) Yorkshire pudding, folded it slightly and poured some gravy on it and then proceeded to eat it out of his hand. His parents and grandparents didn't appear to tell him off. He then snaffled another pudding from somewhere and did it again (this time the younger brother joined in.) I was itching to go over and give them a clip round the ear. (Sorry it's just been bugging me all afternoon.)

[Mosaic]

4getme - are hog roast weddings the fashion now? I just went to one - shurley we were not at the same one?

[4getmenot]

large family so easier to have hog roast than sit down meal. Had ice cream stall too for kids and alcoholic icecream for adults

[4getmenot]

shad dont take it to heart. Im sure if kids were swearing would be different. People just wernt as offended as you. Ignore the ones that have made rude comments back. You are entitled to have your own opinion x

[Mosaic]

Yummers 4forgetme!. No, not same wedding.

[sherrardk]

Hi 4get - not taking it personally, just putting my point across, x

[4getmenot]

thats good, just seemed you were getting upset when you said 'let them all eat with their hands and swear' im sure no one on here agrees with swearing.

[sherrardk]

Hi 4get - maybe I was getting a bit het up. With us having so many small children we get a lot of attention when we are out and about and we (myself and my husband) have brought the kids up to have good manners, etc. Just surprised that so many people on here think I must be stuck up or something. Oh well, never mind. x

[craft1948]

I'm with you sherr............I'd have battered his parents round their heads with it.

[boxtops]

I don't think it's stuck up sherrard - I like to see children well brought up - but hand-eating seems to be very common these days - I blame the takeaways. When I was a child, eating in the street was one of my mother's no-nos - I wish it were the same now.

[4getmenot]

no its nice to know you feel strongly about it.

[Caran]

Sher I'm with you all the wq, cannot stand bad manners.

[emmie]

Sherrardk
totally agree, would have felt the same. If any of us had done that at the dinner table, my mother wouldn't have liked it, but my gran would have told told us off. The one thing i can't abide is someone taking food off my plate, unless they ask if they can try it, then i would offer, otherwise its a no no.

[Sqad]

sherrardk....odd....I have just been to the UK for the weekend staying in what was a 5*hotel, but now offering weekend deals. I did indeed intend to post a remark, but you have beaten me to it.
I agree with you entirely.

Sitting with your elbows on the table whilst eating was at one time greated with a "clip around the ears" for bad manners.........now kids do it and so do their parents.

When at the table, our kids could never get down until the end of the meal, but even in a restaurant I saw kids running around, getting up with food in their hands and parents doing "bugger all".......grandparents particularly paying no attention.

With parents with that attitude, what chance have the kids got?

P.S I met a family from New Zealand...mum, dad and two girls, one of 8 yrs old and one 10 years old and chatted with them at breakfast. A delightful and well brought up family with daughters to be proud of.

Yes, I know times and attitudes of changed....but for the better?

Well done sherrardk.

[tigwig]

I agree with Sher too, my 7yr old will quite happily eat with her fingers given the chance but she gets told not to as it bugs me too! She would never be allowed to do it in a restaurant.
I am also sure that when Sher said she wanted to clip them around the ear she didnt mean it, nor did she really mean it had genuinely annoyed her for the rest of the day. It's just a figure of speech, not something to be taken literally.

[spam_face]

I agree, too many people are bad mannered when it comes to eating, fair enough when your at home, but not in public..

[milly143]

I think it's something about yorkshire puddings. Two of my sisters let their children eat their yorkshires with their hands but they insist the rest of the meal is eaten with cutlery.

I can't say I've ever really understood it.

[Old_Geezer]

Seems to me that using ones hands to eat with is hardly a capital crime. Some folk will mind, others not. But I can't see why someone would itch to give them a clip around the ear. I can think of lots worse table manners; and this is more of an etiquette issue than manners as such, surely? I think it is a sign of the times that folk are not so formal with etiquette these days. I'd be moere concerned if he was chucking it at the waiter and yelling his head off.

[rowanwitch]

I eat pizza by picking up a slice and eating it like cake ex uses knife and fork and tells me its disgusting to eat it the way I do...

Some food just lends itself to eating with bare (clean) hands

[Old_Geezer]

Adults complaining about sitting with your elbows on the table always seemed to me to be one of the more foolish moans. It's most convenient to do so, and one has to act unnaturally awkward when not. I've no objection to manners evolving to take out the stuff that's just insisted on for the sake of it, and leaving that which really does have merit.

[whiskeysheri]

I'm with you, sher. I hate how much poor table manners bother me, but they really, really do. My sister and I are the same, though, but we were always told we weren't to leave the table until everyone had finished; knife and fork together in the middle of the plate when we'd finished, etc. Someone eating with their mouth open is likely to send me over the edge, though! Might seem petty to others...