Just Ask Georgia: 12/18/2024

Georgia, I have a question,

What’s the protocol for picking up the check when a couple dines with a single person?

When visiting our daughter for the holidays, my husband and I went out to dinner with her, her boyfriend, and her boyfriend’s mother. The mother is a single parent, and we have met her a few times.

My husband and I paid for the meal, which he thought was the polite thing to do. However, I disagree, as the boyfriend’s mother is loaded! She has pearls and furs and smells of Christian Dior. Why should we have to pony up for her meal when she knows she makes twice my husband’s salary? It makes me sick to think of her laughing at her free meal while driving her Lincoln back home.

Next time, would it be so wrong if we just excused ourselves to the restroom and then, once the bill is paid with her plentiful credit card, return it and offer to leave the tip?

Can’t I Just Tip?

Dear Tip,

My, my, my, Madam Scrooge, is that you? Your penny-pinching is showing, ma’am, and I suggest you pull your head out of your rear. Otherwise, you risk losing a relationship with your daughter over the way you treat her boyfriend’s mother.

A meal, especially during the holidays, is to show love and appreciation of each other’s time - not each other’s pocketbook. Why not split the tab? You do not know this woman’s situation, and dine-and-dashing until the check is paid is an absolutely despicable idea. I hope your daughter has better manners than you.

With love, Georgia

Have a question for Georgia? Email her at whledger@gmail.com.

Please note: this column is just for fun. No person, animal, or property has ever been harmed or in danger. Satire is “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.”