are you weird like me

i have this thing about certain people smacking when they eat (or for what ever reason they do it). it's bothered me just about all my life from a very young age. i dont know, maybe something tramatic happened when i was young. anyway it actually disgusts me. now its only 1 in 50 people, & im sure i do things that might disgust them as well, i dont know.

but anyway i work with this one guy who absolutely disgusts me all day long (& it doesn't help that he is very argumentative, he'll argue that the sky is not really blue). if we have dinner or lunch as a work group i just can't deal with him. last xmas i had to sit with him and listen to him talk about bs as well. (he is actually smacking right now, yick, my upper curls up in disgust). maybe i need hypnotherapy.

i have this other friend who feels the same about gum. she freaks out when anyone chews gum or when she see's gum.

anyone else out there like me & my freak friend?

My college girlfriend was like you, and she more or less trained me out of smacking.  It got to where all she had to do was look at me and I'd go 'oh, sorry,' and eat more carefully.  LOL!

Anyway, yes I know people like you.  There's another person I know who cannot stand gum, for similar reasons.

I think it's disgusting as well. However, every Korean I've encountered smacks their lips, talks with food in their mouth and makes horrible slurping noises. I've learned to tune it out.

My husband used to have a real problem when I would eat chips, saying that I crunch too loudly when he's watching tv.

We've coming to a happy medium- he's gotten more used to it and doesn't complain as much, and I eat less chips!

I don't run into many people who smack but I imagine that would be highly annoying.  I hate any kind of noises made while eating.  My husband slurps and it drives me BATTY!  I try to eat quietly yet he claims he can't help the slurping.  I don't understand it.  Sooo, I just avoid making soups and I leave the room when he is eating cereal.  :)

My old boyfriend used to get all pissed off if I would "crunch" hard candy instead of letting it melt in my mouth.  And he HATED the sound of the fork on teeth if that ever happened.  And it would drive him nuts when we would go to the taco stand and get these really good burritos then eat them in the car as we drove around.  I would hate to get juice running down my chin or on my clothes, so I would take a bite and then kind of slurp up the juice as  I did so, lol, I knew that drove him nuts!!!! hahahah!!   And the sound of crunching popcorn.  But it used to really irk me to no end to see him eat one piece of popcorn at a time and envelop in his mouth and barely make a sound as he mauled it behind closed lips.

I dated this other guy who could NOT CLOSE HIS MOUTH when he ate and it drove me NUTS.

I actually find this super annoying too. I'm pretty sure I've ended friendships over it. I mean, your stomach just TURNS when you hear it! Ahhh I had a "pizza friend", the girl who you always order pizza with. Anywho, one night she got to pick and ordered a meat lovers with extra cheese and sauce, blah blah (yeah we were reaaaaallllly healthy eaters at 15). She grabbed the first slice and started making the most disgusting sounds I've ever heard in my life. I mean, calling it smacking is just soooo understated. It was so slobbery and icky and well, I haven't come CLOSE to a meat lovers pizza since. Not even close. The sight of them reminds me of that horrible moment.

I haven't escaped the smacks though. I work in a baseball office with volunteers, and there's this one man who's been involved with the sport for 40 years and is super dedicated. A good person. But he has no teeth, and he really struggles with eating. He has to smack his mouth down pretty hard to chew, and he's a spitty talker as well as a spitty eater. Then when he doesn't smack hard enough, he choaks a little and coughs the food up. Thankfully he eats out most days, but it's pretty funny how nooooobody wants to go out for lunch with him. I mean we love him and will go anyways, but it's one of those shared glances with your colleagues when you KNOW that it's going to be an appetite-losing experience for everyone else!

And yes, I feel pretty mean about hating that smacking. But it really truly turns my stomach. I could lose my appetite for the day just thinking about it. Food has the potential to both delight and disgust!

good, im glad im not the only one, makes me feel less weird. i've had people say, its just a mind over matter thing, tune it out. but i just can't, i've tried & tried for nearly 20+ years to get over it. i've learned to tune other things out sometimes, as im generally sensitive to a very small number of noises. but smacking, ugh!!!

I had a boyfriend who was totally annoyed by smacking.  I was suprised when he constantly complained about my smacking because no one else had ever told me that I did this and my mother is a very critical of proper etiquette and table manners and would have eliminated that behavior in me immediately.  No matter quietly I chewed (and trust me I really did try) he still seemed to be annoyed by it.  I ended up having to let that relationship go.  15 years have passed and he hasn't been in a single lasting relationship.  Maybe the "noise sensitivity issue" is part of his problem?

Original Post by ajazzymama:

I had a boyfriend who was totally annoyed by smacking. I was suprised when he constantly complained about my smacking because no one else had ever told me that I did this and my mother is a very critical of proper etiquette and table manners and would have eliminated that behavior in me immediately. No matter quietly I chewed (and trust me I really did try) he still seemed to be annoyed by it. I ended up having to let that relationship go. 15 years have passed and he hasn't been in a single lasting relationship. Maybe the "noise sensitivity issue" is part of his problem?

My dad hates these noises too. This reminds me of one time I ate dinner with him and he told me not to make so much noise! I never chew with my mouth open or make noise, and I've also been told I'm a nice eater (my grandma always says this), so I dunno what his problem was - at least I think that's the only time he commented on me. I don't like noisy eating either, not to the extent of him, but luckily most people I know are nice eaters.

i had an old boss who used to make the most horrible sounds while eating.  It was so gross I had to leave the office while he ate becuase I could hear him from his office, a mix between mouth slapping and loud chewing.  My DH's family hate crunching; so I have trained myself to be very careful while eating there.  My dad's teeth sometimes hit eachother while he chews (hard) and it drives me crazy.  Especially when we are all eating in silence!

I am very rude to people to crack their gum-  the ice queen look comes out-

bottom line is;  chew with your mouth closed; make sure you don't have food on your face after you take a bite (I really hate corn on the cob eaters), don't scrape your teeth on the fork; don't scrape the plate when you are done eating, and pls PLS don't chew loudly and harshly.

Original Post by vanessa1031:

bottom line is;  chew with your mouth closed; make sure you don't have food on your face after you take a bite (I really hate corn on the cob eaters), don't scrape your teeth on the fork; don't scrape the plate when you are done eating, and pls PLS don't chew loudly and harshly.

well said!

The woman I sit next to at work constantly chomps ICE.  I mean, you almost can hear it through the freakin' walls!  I can't stand it.  I bring earphones to listen to music when she starts it.  Summertime is the worst!

I hate to hear people smacking -- it annoys me too -- and apparently it's hereditary because my daughter (who's 8) calls me on it sometimes.  She can't stand it either!

Nice to meet you, my fellow freak!

There is a man on the morning BART (bay area rapid transit) train that sits in the same seat every day. Every morning, at 7:30am, he is SMACKING his gum. oh god, so annoying.

I used to (USED TO) sit in front of him. Now, I sit on the other side of the train and glare. hehe. So gross.

I used to always scrape my teeth on my fork as well and thank god it didnt break me and my husband up!

Now his father in law  was the King of slurping.  My husband and I would talk really loudly to drown out the noises!

all i hear in my head right now is loud chewing, teeth chomping noises and smacking!!  it's terrible!!!!  it's like getting a song in your head you can't get rid of!

Your coworker is right, the sky isn't intrinsically blue, though it does appear blue during the day quite often. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_scatter ing for more information.

Count me in...

People who smack when eating, shovel so much food in their mouths they can hardly close it to chew, eat with their mouths open, talk with their mouths full, insist on asking you a question when they have just seen you take a bite of something, and smokers who do that Ppaaa noise every time they take the ciggy away from their lips.

I'm not sure if I'm a freak or just really intolerant of others

Thank goodness I'm not alone!  I swear, the sound of my co-workers eating has helped me lose weight!  The breakroom is right outside my office door, and listening to them smack and chomp, talk with food in their mouthes, and then SUCK THEIR TEETH has put me off my lunch untold numbers of times.  Of course, here it is just a cultural thing.  Not all nations are so sticky about table manners as others.  Sadly, the Guamanians have been manners than the Japanese, and that's saying something.  The Japanese tourists just make me sick to my stomach sometimes!

I did notice something interesting the other day though about eating with chopsticks.  Those who grow up using them sort of hunch over the bowl and shovel food in with the sticks.  Works just fine.  Americans, on the other hand, try to eat "properly" and it really doesn't work as well.  Sitting up straight and eating with chopsticks is a recipe for stains on your shirt...LOL!!

I hate whistling. HATE it. I think it's because my father (and his father and their entire family) are big whistlers and now my brothers do it and it drives me positively mad. I find it to be obnoxious and grating. I think it's only really strange because I do love my dad so it's not a psychological thing.

My brother sticks his tongue out, places the fork on top of his tongue and then they both go in his mouth at the same time. Kind of like a conveyor belt. It is gross to look at as he has a big wide tongue. He makes no noise, but I can't stand to eat around him because of it.