It is human nature; most of us do it in one thing or another in our life. At some point we judge others based off of their eating habits. This is especially true in America. We have the largest quantity and vastness of delicious and scrumptious food. Because of this, our citizens eat a lot of food and many of them turn in to manner zombies. They pick apart everything as “bad manners,” when it shouldn’t be.
Who came up with the standards for what manners and etiquette should be anyway, and who decided that everyone needs to follow these “rules”? Eating is supposed to be an enjoyable time of the day, not a time to be perfect and delicate with your food.
One example of these “rules” is that we are not supposed to use our fingers to eat. Once, I went to pick up a sausage with my fingers and my mom threw a fit. She began to list off reasons of why you don’t use your fingers when you eat. The thing is that the reasons didn’t even make any sense.
Why can’t we, the enjoyers of food, use our fingers to eat food? We were given fingers for a purpose. Our fingers come together in a perfect way for grabbing of foods. When the extremists say that people, who want to enjoy their food, can’t use fingers to eat sausage, eat chicken nuggets, or some other delicious food, that is going too far.
There are numerous foods that you need utensils for, but for many of them, they are not necessary. You can enjoy the food either way, it is when those few certain people say you can’t use fingers at all because it is “wrong and unsanitary” that blows my top off.
One time at a restaurant the epitome of all mannerist’s was there cutting up a hamburger and taking a bite out of it with his fork. This is the joy of eating, picking something up, examining it, and then devouring it. Food is not meant to be eaten just out of a daily habit; it is the single greatest thing ever.

The rules are endless, and half of them are useless. Why can’t the food police accept that people are different? Everybody eats differently and they shouldn’t judge them for it. There is nothing wrong putting your elbow on the table. It doesn’t matter which side you give the food to them and which side you take it away from. All that matters is that they get the food and are left alone with whoever may be with them. People shouldn’t have to deal with criticism about the way they eat. Give them the food. It is not as complicated as the “experts” make it seem. I learned some of these things at an etiquette dinner my mom made me go to. The food was delicious, but all the rules took away from enjoying the food.
Telling people that they are doing something really bad while eating is ok but constantly doing it is not good. You shouldn’t lose sleep over the way a person ate at the restaurant. That is just sad. I know it’s so hard not to, but when you become a member of the manner police; friends, family, and people in general will get annoyed. So go home and eat your heart out. Use manners, but don’t judge people in the way they eat.