LPT: If you intend to pay for dinner and don't want to create a argument, hold onto a menu after ordering. At some point, hand the menu back to the waitstaff with the credit card facing them and away from the eyes of the table. No has to know until it's time to go.

It just feels like the right thing to do. I can't understand why we can't just pick up the check every other time. It's like they feel like they'll lose track or won't get it in return and somehow at the end of the year I'll be one meal in the hole with them. And after so many attempts to set it right, I've given up.

My wife can attest, there's been times where I feel like treating, telling them have something special, etc. but they end up doing something that makes me realize it's just not worth it. let them have it their way. the real problem is they are house poor. They don't actually have any real money, but they want the thing that make people think they do. They have a beautiful house on a lake, probably worth 380k, which is nice in South Louisiana. It's their only home and it sits in a neighborhood with actual rich people who have places their as their second or third homes. The thing with my parents is all the money they have is tied up in the house. They still have a mortgage at retirement age. They still have car notes on all three cars.

I enjoy going out to eat with my in-laws. They pick up the check almost every time and its not even a second though. They live in an old, small house without central air...in deep south LA. They've probably never made six figures between the two of them a single year in their life. But they are generous. We do fight over who's going to pick up the check. I insist we catch it an equal amount because I feel like treating them once in a while. If they got a significant windfall tomorrow they would be planning how to share it. My parents would be hoarding it and spending it on toys.

/r/LifeProTips Thread Parent