What Would You do?

I quite agree that children, and ourselves, need exposure to 'germs' but there are simple matters of being careful.

@Jenny namaste The spread of flu type bugs is quite a serious thing nowadays and, so, taking reasonable precautions, such as not shaking hands, is recommended. Howard Hughes syndrome is not really significant in this sort of situation. Shaking hands in other situations is not quite so important as you're not going to be eating immediately afterwards.

As I said, it's also not the correct etiquette for restaurant staff to offer to shake hands anyway.

The incidence of Norovirus on ships is considerably lower than the incidence of it in holiday hotels. There are a lot of cruise ships that have virtually no incidences because of the care that is taken.

@pete getting a case of the trots after foreign holidays occurs very infrequently nowadays. Most cases are brought on by too much sun and too much booze. Intolerance toward food and stomach flora doesn't happen so much because we have become accustomed to a much wider range of foods and cooking methods.

We travel all over the world and to some really out of the way places. We eat the local food, enjoy it and rarely have any problems. We still don't shake hands with people just before eating our food. A lot of the food we eat in those places is eaten by hand. When we use their utensils we make sure they're as clean as practical. We've eaten street food in India, Peru, Chile, Indonesia, Malaysia, up the Amazon (with vultures in the trees above), French Guiana, Cambodia and loads of others, and never had a problem. That doesn't stop us from being careful when we can.

What we had for lunch in Old Delhi a couple of years ago.





Followed by some lovely fresh fruit.

 

I've been travelling the world for almost 55 years. Never drunk the local water, just bottled water. Ate lots of local food (wasn't too keen on grilled guinea pig in Peru!) and never had stomach problems.

No problem with the rationale. We only ate what we saw being cooked properly and immediately before we ate it.



Shaking hands in a restaurant is totally unnecessary and poor restaurant etiquette on behalf of the staff. So an easily avoidable possibility is the way to go.

The maître d's job is to greet you and not shake your hand. My butler is a very nice person but he wouldn't dream of offering his hand to guests!!

 

Most countries I've been to the staff wouldn't even think of shaking your hand. With regard to the etiquette, well trained wait staff are not allowed to offer to shake hands. It's too familiar. Hugging by people you have known for many years is quite acceptable.

I know that the example I gave at the start of the thread appeared rather exaggerated but it actually happened. You never know what the person's hand has just been doing

When I was at college and studying the Theory of Catering it was one of the standard rules that you don't offer to shake hands. If the customer offers you their hand you then take it. you should wash your hands immediately afterwards if you're also serving food.

I've just, quickly grabbed this off the internet

10. Don't touch me I know that sounds like a super rude way to start an etiquette post, but seriously, there is no need for you to touch me. I'm not one of those people who's weird about strangers touching her, but I'd rather you didn't place your hand on my back to guide me to my seat or pat my napkin in my lap. If you want to shake hands as I'm leaving, that's fine. But any other touching is unnecessary and, frankly, kind of weird.