In this 27-year-old woman’s family, she and her 28-year-old sister Jen have started a sweet tradition to show their appreciation to their parents.
Their mom and dad are lower-middle class and worked extremely hard to provide for them. She and Jen were able to graduate from the same college with the same major, and they decided that as a thank you to their mom and dad, they would take them out to a nice dinner once a month and trade off paying for that.
She and Jen also do anything they can to help their mom and dad out when they need as a way to be appreciative of their sacrifices as well.
In her final year of college, she met her 33-year-old husband, Tom, who is incredibly wealthy. Tom’s parents are doctors, and he’s an only child.
Tom loves her mom and dad, and after they got engaged, Tom said he wanted to pay for their special family dinners.
Ever since then, Tom has been footing the bill and spoiling her parents by taking them out to fancy restaurants, saying you only get to live once, and they deserve it.
“Jen chose to do what she loved, and while her pay could have been better, she never struggled financially,” she explained.
“She was able to take the family out until last year when she decided to pursue a graduate degree, thus not earning. Tom and I said we would still have our monthly nice meal, and we would just pay for everyone.”
9 months ago, Jen started dating 29-year-old Rick. Five months into Jen seeing Rick, she asked if it was ok for Rick to attend their special family dinner, and everyone agreed.
Rick has a job similar to Jen’s, though he’s more senior than she is. Back when Rick began joining them for dinner, their parents wanted a very specific type of food, so the restaurants they went to were not pricey at all.
Rick picked up on how she or Tom always paid for dinner, and he mentioned that next time, he would like to be the one to pay.
“My mom chose a nice restaurant for our last outing,” she said. “My parents and Tom proceeded as usual, but I noticed Rick and Jen looking a little tense.”
“When it was almost time to pay, Jen pulled me aside and asked if she could borrow some money. I told her I would happily pay for the meal.”
“Jen said it would make Rick look bad not to be able to pay when he said he would. I told Jen Rick could put everything on his credit card and I would send him money later.”
Rick did pay for the bill that night with his credit card. After their parents left to go home, she turned around to ask Rick how much money he wanted her to give him to help cover the cost of dinner.
Rick retorted that he didn’t anticipate having dinner with “elites,” and he shamed them for spending so much money on their dinners.
Tom pointed out to Rick that if it was a struggle for him to afford dining at that particular restaurant, he could have asked them to switch to a more affordable place.
“Rick then accused Tom and me of calling him poor and beneath us,” she continued. “He said he would rather go into debt than accept our help. I could tell Tom was mad, but he just took me home.”
“Jen later called me and said I was inconsiderate for not asking our mom to choose a less pricey restaurant.”
“She said if Tom and I thought the restaurants we had been dining at so far were normally priced, we were so out of touch with reality. She said Rick was also mad at her for making him lose face.”
She’s left wondering if it was wrong of her to let her mom pick the restaurant without making sure Rick could afford to pay first.
What do you think?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
