Author Topic: Kids and cutlery  (Read 6007 times)

hellymedic

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Kids and cutlery
« on: 18 October, 2015, 12:50:56 pm »
Over on Food and Drink, the topic of kids and cutlery arose.

I am not a parent but was a bit surprised when the nursery used by some friends expected Junior to be using knife and fork at 2½, as I think friends were.

I'd expect a 5 year old to be OK simple table irons and toddlers to manage a spoon.

At what age does which cutlery seem right for Smalls?

Wowbagger

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Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #1 on: 18 October, 2015, 02:26:33 pm »
My grandson (2.5ish) uses a spoon and his hands. He may have mastered spearing suff with a fork, but I am not sufficiently attentive to have noticed.
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Ruthie

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Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #2 on: 18 October, 2015, 06:14:19 pm »
Max was using a fork today, with assistance from his other hand.  He'll be three in January.
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Kim

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Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #3 on: 18 October, 2015, 06:15:26 pm »
Max was using a fork today, with assistance from his other hand.

Thus putting him at the same developmental level as the average leftpondian  ;D

tiermat

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Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #4 on: 18 October, 2015, 06:41:19 pm »
It doesn't matter, by time they are 11 they act like they have never learnt how to use cutlery properly, anyway.
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Feanor

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Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #5 on: 18 October, 2015, 06:44:17 pm »
I don't think there is a 'right time'.
It will depend on what implements they are given at home, and their own take on how they should be used!
As Kim mentioned, some leftpondians still have not got it figured out by adulthood.

It's like the whole over-wrought stuff about whether they are walking by age 1 or not.
"Oh, look at him! He's such a good walker! and only 11 months old!"
"I'm concerned junior is still bum-shuffling and he's 13 months!"
It's mostly all crap.
They will all be walking when they get around to it.

Nobody looks at a 20-year old and says "Ooh, look how well he walks! I bet he was walking by 11 months!"

Eccentrica Gallumbits

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Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #6 on: 18 October, 2015, 07:23:05 pm »
When fat-tongued twat Jamie Oliver took Jamie's School Dinners to the US of A, the dinner ladies were amazed that the UK expects primary school children to manage cutlery - they just serve finger food.
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Andrij

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Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #7 on: 18 October, 2015, 07:48:25 pm »
When fat-tongued twat Jamie Oliver took Jamie's School Dinners to the US of A, the dinner ladies were amazed that the UK expects primary school children to manage cutlery - they just serve finger food.

 :o

No finger-food-only options for the younger kinds at my USAnian primary school, i.e. most lunches required cutlery.  I wonder if it was a difference between private and state-funded education (I had the former), or if the population is just devolving.
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Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #8 on: 18 October, 2015, 07:54:08 pm »
...or if the population is just devolving.

Cutlery-free fast-food chains have something to answer for.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #9 on: 18 October, 2015, 07:59:49 pm »
There is some evidence that things taste better to adults and kids eaten from fingers than from cutlery, chopsticks, etc. It's to do with the warmth of fingers releasing subtle aromas, or summat.
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Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #10 on: 18 October, 2015, 08:23:46 pm »
My daughter (18 months old) has been using a fork and a spoon for the past 3 or 4 months to feed herself.

She seems quite advanced - an early walker, has lots of words but we recognise it doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things.  Development rates aren't linear either, she could easily stop developing at such a rate.

She's happy and healthy.  Surely that's all that matters.

Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #11 on: 19 October, 2015, 11:39:42 am »
It doesn't matter, by time they are 11 they act like they have never learnt how to use cutlery properly, anyway.
Yup. Drives me round the bed. Actually, no, it really pisses me off. Watching a teenager fruitlessly trying to saw through something with the side of a fork when their is a knife sat next to their plate.
Or even worse, pushing food back onto their plate with their fingers rather than use the knife next to their plate.

Same teenagers are perfectly capable of using knife and fork when presented with, say, a steak. They just won't do it out of stubbornness.

If my brother or I had acted like that, we got our elbows hit with a spoon. Same if elbows rested on the table.
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hellymedic

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Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #12 on: 19 October, 2015, 04:07:13 pm »
We'd get our elbows banged on the table if rested them  there.

menthel

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Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #13 on: 19 October, 2015, 06:04:15 pm »
The boy can use a knife and kfork but often chooses not to, citing his Indian heritage as a reason to use his hands. Usually when shoving snossages and chips into his face.

Kim

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Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #14 on: 19 October, 2015, 06:21:16 pm »
Ah, table manners:  That intersection of practicality and arbitrary rules that has an uncanny ability to bring out the irrationality in nearly everyone.

Cutlery is great, if it's up to the job and you can use it in the culturally appropriate manner.  This may include random acts of violence required to indoctrinate your offspring into the culture.

Sufficiently clean fingers work just fine, but tend to result in greasy/sticky fingers.  Not recommended if you're trying to read, or operate a fondleslab, while eating.

Tables are indeed excellent for resting elbows on.  Why else would they be molished at elbow height?

Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #15 on: 19 October, 2015, 06:41:31 pm »
Whatever happened to the notion of leaving the child in the nursery with nanny until it had been civilised and was ready to appear at the family dining table – usually about the age of 7.

Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #16 on: 19 October, 2015, 09:17:07 pm »
Never understood the elbows rule.  ???

We try pretty well to indoctrinate the kids to cutlery use, but it does seem like some foods are built for fingers.  Well worth learning to eat while keeping your hands clean.  I get most grumpy when they're bludgeoning lumps of food rather than using the knife provided for cutting.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Kids and cutlery
« Reply #17 on: 19 October, 2015, 11:16:28 pm »
Okay, I think we all know by now that the Guardian is just recycled YACF: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2015/oct/19/knives-out-table-manners-american-style-fork-switching

I'm not at all surprised to find this catching on here (if it is). I remember switching the fork from hand to hand when I was v little, but in time I learned not to. I think it's partly just a matter of learning the necessary manual dexterity and maybe lacking the required hand strength in the very young. Except, of course, when it's adults doing it, in which case it's just, well, culture. Fingers were indeed made before forks, but so what?
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.