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Kids are often embarrassed by their parents, and that doesn’t always change when they grow up and become adults. In fact, they may be even more embarrassed by their parents because they’re more aware of what they’re doing wrong.

In this story, one person shares how embarrassed she is of her parents when they are at restaurants. She gives several examples of things her parents do that really bother her, but she’s also wondering if she’s overreacting.

Are her parents as bad as she thinks they are?

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

Are my parents awful?

Servers, please let me know your thoughts because this is causing a lot of family strife.

Four people in the family, one that is in a wheelchair, one that uses a cane and two non-disabled family members.

We all go out to eat as a family a couple of times of month in fancy restaurants, chain restaurants and local restaurants.

Here’s some behavior that truly bothers me about how my parents act to waitstaff:

The first problem is her mother.

My mother’s tone is smarmy and she appears to think everyone is an idiot.

Example: We were out for Father’s Day at a chain restaurant and the server we had was new.

My mother is very particular about her food and drink (ie, I want my bacon crisp or I will send it back. One time I said to her do you think anyone wants their bacon not crisp? There’s no reason to point that out to the person when she’s not even cooking the food.)

There’s no pleasing this woman!

She got iced tea but didn’t feel she had enough ice or enough lemon. She asked the waiter at least five times “where is that extra ice and where is my lemon?”

The poor guy kept saying we ran out of lemon but we’re getting more and I will bring it out to you as soon as possible.

He finally came out with a big cup of ice and with a whole coffee cup full of lemon slices at which point my mother said well, we’re almost done with our meal so I don’t need it now.

Her mother is picky about things besides her food.

It is difficult with a disabled person in a wheelchair dining out.

First the difficulty of where to put the wheelchair where it is out of the main path of traffic.

My mother does not like that and feels we should be able to sit wherever we want to sit.

If there is even the least little bit of something like sunlight shining in on someone’s face or a draft she will insist that we be moved to somewhere else of her choosing.

Here’s another thing that bothers her about her parents.

There are many people who are not comfortable with disabled people, especially those who are profoundly disabled and may not be able to speak clearly.

When waitstaff takes our order, my mother insists that whoever it is come right over to my brother and his wheelchair and attempt to figure out what he is saying that he wants to eat.

Example: We went to a very fancy restaurant last weekend. The waiter was very nice man and was standing between my mother and father as he was taking everyone’s order.

As I said, my mother is very particular about her food and wanted dressing on the side for her salad.

Gosh she’s rude!

When the waiter didn’t say “uh huh” to her if immediately after she said she wanted her dressing on the side, she said are you paying attention?

He said ma’am I’m writing this down.

When it was time for my brother’s order he was still standing in the same place and she said why don’t you go over there and ask him what he wants because you’re not going to be able to hear it from here.

Easier said than done.

Guess what. Unless you are familiar with him and how he speaks no one’s going to be able to hear him.

Instead of just telling the waiter what he wants and letting the poor waiter get on with his job she has to basically make him stand there trying to understand my brother and a lot of times looking very uncomfortable.

I feel like the man’s doing his job and he doesn’t need to be made to feel uncomfortable because my mother is on some kind of disability equality kick.

It gets worse.

TIPPING. Neither of my parents has ever worked in retail of any type not to say any type of restaurant either. They believe 15% is a great tip no matter what.

I cannot tell you the amount of arguments we get into over this.

At the same fancy restaurant referenced above, our waiter got hung up trying to cash out our order. I could see him so I knew he was waiting for some of the people in front of him to get finished.

My mother says loudly “every extra minute this takes, your tip is going down.”

Her mom is so unreasonable!

This man had been an excellent waiter.

I said he is back there trying to get the ticket and there are people in front of him who are also trying to cash out their customers.

That means absolutely nothing to her.

I would say 95% of the time I add at least $5 to $10 to the tip just because I’m so embarrassed, not only at their cheapness but at their general behavior.

She is so embarrassed by her parents.

I work two jobs and I understand what it’s like to work for a living.

I’ve tried to explain to them that tips are vitally important and that when you don’t tip that’s basically stealing out of your waiter’s pocket.

My dad has said before I don’t really care about that, that’s not my problem if the restaurant owner doesn’t want to pay them.

Thoughts? And I apologize to every single person who’s ever waited on us. I told both my parents if I waited on you and you acted to me like you act to everybody else, I’d throw the food in your face.

Yeah, her parents sound pretty awful. I’d probably try to avoid eating in restaurants with them.

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

This is a good question.

One server feels sorry for the families.

Another person calls OP’s family a “nightmare.”

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a grandson who is tired of driving 5 hours one way to work on his grandparent’s investment property for free.
There’s another name for OP’s mom.

Why can’t people be more considerate when they go to a restaurant? Or at the very least, be understanding and not rude. Servers are not robots. They are people doing their job. Some awful customers don’t seem to realize that.

They’ve never worked retail, and it shows.