I just spent a little over a week with my buddy on a trip. I love my bud, I knew he was a smacker. But after one day I had to go do something else while he ate, because the smack, smack , smack drove me bat-shit insane. It was either walk away and let him smack his heart out or tear his head off eat it, and smack away with a silly ass grin on my face.
The closest I came to confronting him was. “Supper good ?” Yup, smack smack. “Sounds like it’s good” nom nom, smack, nom, nom, smack…
Any dopers out there been told you’re a smacker when you eat ? I’m pretty sure he isn’t aware he’s doing it. I’m pretty sure he’d be offended if I asked him to close his mouth while he ate.
It never really got on my nerves before because we always shared meals in noisy environments. But spend a week in the quiet of the bush, it was amplified times ten.
That would indeed drive me crazy as well. And I bet you are right that he is not aware of it, or he associates that sound with eating and so it seems very natural to him to hear it and so he thinks nothing of it. Somehow he has made it this far with no one calling him out on it. You need to save the next person by finding a way to tell him. Do you have a digital recorder you could use to clarify what you are talking about? No matter how you do it, he is going to be embarrassed and hurt and probably defensive, but maybe he will get over it and start eating like an adult instead of a 3-year-old.
And this is why I rarely travel with anyone, even if I think I know them.
Do threads like this make anyone else paranoid that they might have some obnoxious habit they are unaware of and everyone they know is too polite to call them on it?
Recording it cross my mind. I also thought of mimicking the beahviour by smacking away myself while increasing the volume times ten, and wait for a response.
Like everything else, my father drilled into my head the necessity of eating with my mouth closed. Along with not shuffling when I walk and not mixing the vegetables with the mashed potatoes. And a million other things. Too bad there isn’t a way to help correct someone’s behavior without being a dick like my father.
And, yeah, I have a friend who simply does not comprehend how to eat without chewing with his goddamn mouth wide open. GROTESQUE. You not only hear everything, you SEE it. He simply doesn’t get it at all. His friends have all told him, hundreds of times, to cut it out, and he cannot. It’s worse than just a blind spot, it’s total blindness to the phenomenon at all.
Yes. Mom straightened me right out, though, and by the time I entered school I ate like a normal person.
I encountered this yesterday. I couldn’t quite figure out a polite way to tell a complete stranger to chew with his lips closed, though, and I’m sure he had no idea why I kept looking at him.
Eating noises are normal, but opening your mouth (so wide that people can see what is making those noises) is not. If he is really making some obnoxious sounds, it might be that he is taking too-large bites.
Once upon a time, I was eating dinner at a friend’s house and drank some milk. In the process, I made a slurp sound and the reaction from the table was like E.F. Hutton himself started talking (is that too old a reference?). The mother chastised me saying something like “Dearie, in this house we don’t make inappropriate noises when we eat”. Ever since then I have made it a point not to go to great lengths to unnaturally mask the sounds of my eating.
To that end, you won’t find me eating ‘audibly yummy’ food in places where it may stand out, such as a library or the State Dining Room in the White House. But in a cafeteria or busy restaurant? I’m going to enjoy my meal, dammit.
Sure - I won’t make sounds like a pig eating from a trough, but I am not going to stifle myself for fear of making some incidental chewing sounds.
Since I hoped w/ all my being never to see this person again, I didn’t hesitate to tell a openmouthed chewer that the food falls out of your mouth less if it’s closed when you chew. When they agreed, I followed it up w/ adding that it would also be nice not to see inside of their mouths as they chewed.
But when my friend’s mom smacked her food and sucked her teeth through a Mongolian BBQ meal all I could do was focus on other sounds and stare at her forehead as she talked, smacked and sucked.
Slight diversion, but I also hate radio interview programs where the microphones are so sensitive that you clearly hear the host’s and guest’s mouth noises. There is a degree of audio fidelity we do not need!
I’m not a smacker, but I do make low “mmmmm” noises when I’m eating something I really enjoy. I didn’t know that this was something I did until I was on a date with my (now) husband and he said he thought it was adorable. I don’t do it consciously and find it a bit embarrassing, but he still likes it - he’s the cook in the family and says that way he always knows when he’s made something especially delicious.
My ex-husband was a smacker. More so with certain foods. I absolutely hated it! We talked about it and he would try to not do it, but failed most of the time.
Not since I was five. On the other hand, just last Saturday I had to remind my mother to eat with her mouth closed. Yes, she was in her kitchen. Yes, most of the time when she’s eating something in her kitchen she’s alone. So what? I don’t eat with my mouth open when I’m alone!
She always takes offence when we remind her to close her mouth, but our response to her “well, I’ll be…!” is “keeping your mouth closed while you’re chewing? It sounds like a very good option, thanks Mom!”
I dated a woman. Went to her house to have dinner and met the kids. 12 and 18. My head about exploded when I saw both of them grab their flatware ‘fist’ style. You know like Jethro Bodine? This came complete with mouths open and lots of smack’n.
