Restaurant bills can be an eye-opening experience.

Some sports teams make their rookies pay for a dinner, and the tab can be in the 5-figures.

Some families try to watch their wallet when they head out for dinner.

Others just cook at home a lot more!

This story is somewhere in between. And ego got in the way.

AITA for letting my brother-in-law think he might have to pick up the bill at a restaurant.

I travel a lot for work so I rarely see my family. I try and get back to see them a couple of times a year. When I do get to town I like to take everyone out for supper at a nice restaurant.

Not a three star Michelin restaurant or anything like that. But still a pretty hefty price tag. The party would be myself, my parents, my sister, her husband, their two kids, my brother, his girlfriend, and their two kids. So 11 people all together.

OP explains what he usually expects to see for this yearly dinner. And he says it’s worth every penny.

He even gives some context as to where this treat-my-family gene might have come from.

The bill is usually between $600 – $1,000. It is a lot of money but I like to treat them. I look forward to seeing my nieces and nephews without their faces buried on a screen. They love going out to a fancy restaurant.

I don’t know why but the whole thing irks my brother-in-law. I just found this out. He seems to think that I’m doing this to show off. I’m not. I have an uncle that helped me get started on my career that used to do this same thing when I was growing up. He went more extravagant as well.

I remember one year he took our family, about 26 people to Disney World. That was thirty years ago but I imagine it wasn’t cheap. He said it was our Christmas and birthday gift for the year. He lied because I still got a card with $50 in it twice that year.

So it was time to pay the bill after a fantastic dinner with a smiling and happy family.

I had a good year and this holidays I took everyone to a fairly expensive Steak House.

When the bill came my brother-in-law grabbed it and said he was paying this time.

I said for him not to be crazy, I invited everyone out it was my treat.

He insisted.

I didn’t want to cause a scene so I dropped it. When he looked at the bill he went a little white though.

The price tag was not cheap.

I had allowed all my nieces and nephews to bring along someone if they were dating. Three took me up on it so there were 14 of us. The bill was a little bit more than $2,000. Plus tip.

Call it $2,500 when everything was said and done.

He paid it.

So he had a conversation about it with his sister.

I went for coffee with my sister the next day. She didn’t bring it up but I did. I said that I was not mad but a little upset that he had done what he did.

She said she was mad because they didn’t really have a spare $2,500 to waste. I was surprised at this so I asked her if she thought it was a waste for me to take everyone out.

She apologized and said she was just angry that he blew a hole like that on their budget.

I gave her $2,500. She looked like she was going to cry.

I told her that I took everyone out because I am missing seeing them grow up. I miss seeing all the family stuff they get to do. I blow through town for a week and I just want good memories.

But of course, ego had to dig its way in where it didn’t belong.

My brother-in-law called me later that day and said I was an ***hole for letting him pay and then going behind his back with my sister.

I told him I wasn’t going to tell anyone about the money and that I wasn’t trying to hurt him. They could just keep it on the down low.

I’m just wondering if I should have insisted on paying instead of letting him think he blew his family’s grocery budget for a couple of months on one meal.

I think this is about as cut & dry as an AITA post can get, as far as answering the question!

But let’s see what others had to say.

One commenter was beside themselves with how absurd people can be.

And another NTA vote for this person who sees an old time sin creeping into this brother-in-law’s actions.

While another Redditor mediated a bit after the NTA vote.

Pride comes before the fall of the check to the table.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.