Teenager makes relatives pay to dine at dad's restaurant; family says 'you cheap ruthless AH.' AITA? MAJOR UPDATE.
When this teenager is at war with his relatives, he asks Reddit:
"AITAH for forcing relatives to pay after they dined at my dads restaurant?"
My dad(44m) owns a restaurant and my mom(41f) had some of her relatives visiting our city so they made a reservation for 25 people at our restaurant.
My dad handles most of the things happening the restaurant but when he's gone or tired he asked me(17m) and my older brother(19m) to manage everything in the restaraunt(just making sure all the ingridients arrive in the morning cross check the money in the register,the usual things)...
my brother has evening classes in his college so he would take care of the restaraunt in the morning and i would do it in the evening(we've been doing this regularly since i was 16 so i know the gist of things).
Unfortunately my dad had a meeting with the investor about opening another branch so he wouldnt be there that week.
So the day arrives and the relatives(my aunt,her family and in laws and their friends)arrive at the restaraunt and they order a lot of food and everything goes smoothly and they are happy with the food and service...
after this they were given the bill by one of the servers and a few mins after my aunt comes downstairs holding the bill and asking me what this was for.
I told her for the food that they ate and she says that she didnt expect she would have to pay since her parents dont pay when they dine here.
I tell her thats just for two people and they only visit our city once or twice a year at this point shes pissed and she keeps repeating that she wont pay the bill for a large amount because shes family and some other bs.
So idk what to do at this point,I called my brother and my dad and as expected neither picked up so i left a voicemail to both of them explaining the situation and asked them what i should do.
During this time some of the guests started leaving and my aunt and her family (except her husband who was no where to be seen)tried to leave the restaraunt but luckily the Guard had heard the commotion and understood that she hadnt paid...
and stopped her from leaving,at this point everyone in the restaraunt is looking at her and shooting angry looks at her so she calls my mom and tells her everything and my mom asks me to exempt them from paying.
Now this is the part where i might be the AH,I tell my mom they are gonna have to pay for what they ate and i would call the cops if they refused,my aunt started throwing another tantrum...
and i put went back to grab my phone to check if my brother or dad had responded but her family thought i was going to call the cops and she starts calling me every swear in the book for not being helpful to the family.
At this point her husband comes from upstairs and he asks me how much the amount was and paid me and told his family to go to the car and apologised to me for the mess his wife created and left.
Less than hour passes by and my brother comes to the restaraunt and i tell the whole situation to him and he tells me i did the right thing.
The next day when i wake up and check my phone i find hundreds of text messages from relatives from my moms side calling me an asshole for not helping family. So,AITA for making my aunt pay after she got quite the bill on my dads restaruant. My family is calling me a "cheap ruthless AH."
Before we give you the full update, let's take a look at the top responses:
nofig8 writes:
I am so happy your uncle did the right thing and even apologized for her behavior and for even putting you in that position. You are still a child!
A very responsible one at that. I was so happy to read your response about the two people vs 25 point you made cuz that was my exact thought.
The fact that they would even expect your hard working father to eat the cost of their gigantic feast is so incredibly disrespectful as well. You are NTA.
You did what was right and thank goodness u had security to back you up cuz that grown ass woman was about to seriously walk out of the restaurant after you told her it was not free! So crazy. She embarrassed herself,you did not embarrass her.
aggressiveharing8 writes:
Your aunt’s math ain’t mathing. So they threw a lavish lunch for their friends without getting clarity on who’s to foot the bill.
They were brazen enough to assume it was free - like little kids - and had the gall to argue that a meal for an elderly couple would cost you the same as that of a party of 25?
Moreover, this was a lunch to which nobody in your immediate family was invited, and that your mom didn’t get clarity from your dad about funding (if it was indeed meant to be a freebie).
I think they were hoping you’d be pushovers at your (and your dad’s business’) expense. Look, I don’t know you, but I’m freaking proud of you for standing by your principles. You’ve got a good head on those shoulders. Well done for being so professional and making the right call at every step. Nta.
rumblingaxe writes:
OP, you are probably facing one of the most difficult lessons you’ll have to face. These people are related, not family. Family would always pay. Without question. Without expectation.
They would never willingly expect their loved ones to comp them. That’s real money out of their loved one’s pocket. Family supports each other in their success. By contributing to that success.
These people showed their true character. Even your mom is showing her nasty side here. You did your job. You did what is right.
Good for you OP. You’re a person of principle and strong character. It takes stone to stand up to people like that. NTA.
Then OP provides this major update:
Its not that he can't afford to hire staff,he's had several people to manage the restaraunt beofre this but from what my brother told me,they were secretly stealing money or sabotaging the buisness so my dad doesnt trust many people,and he wants me and my brother to take over the buisness after college so he wants us to have a bit of expirience.
My mom has nothing to do with the restaraunt,my dad opened it before he married my mom,and as far as i know my mom has never done anything related to the restaraunt,ig she was too busy with her own job.
And no i dont think paying 25 peoples bill is gonna look good to my moms family,we meet them only during holidays as they live a bit far away from us.
I dont think my dad and aunt like being in the same room with each other too much although both never said anything abt it and so my dad just told me to make sure they were comfortable anf they got all the dishes they ordered i think thats kinda the reason.
Yeah my dad hired one,there were a lot of dine and dishers like half the days my dad used to come back home he would tell us that someone dined and dashed today so my dad decided it would be cheaper to hire security than keep entertaining these dine and dashers and also in case any roberries happened.
There had been a lot of dine and dashes and my dad got fed up and decided it would be cheaper to just hire a guard to prevent dine and dashers and in case there were any attempted roberries.
Yeah we've had a lot of dine and dashers in the past so my dad just decided to hire a guard to stop them and in case there were any roberries.
Dad just told me to look after them and make sure they're comfortable and they get all the items they ordered properly didnt give me any specific instruction whether they would not pay so i just treated the payment part as what i would do for every customer.
I dont know about that shes been refusing to talk to me ever since the whole incident went down making me feel like i did something wrong she just told me that my aunt and her family and friends would arrive for dinner and make sure they're comfortable but idk if she expected me to let them go without paying or anything else.
Yeah it was a bill that i didnt think would come from my dads restaraunt the length of the bill itself was from my entire hand till the elbow and i think my mom expected me to let her sister off without paying the more im reading the comments the more im starting doubt if my mom had already assured my aunt that the food was free.
The bill was huge and i was always gonna ask them to pay,the bill was around 500$(i converted the currency i use to usd)and they didnt finish half the food and asked to parcel it.For context for i had been in charge of another party of around the same size a couple of months ago and the price was around 300$ so i was shocked.
My mom was kinda pissed me after i cut her call in the restaraunt and hasnt talked to me since becuase ''i upset and humiliated her sister'' and she hasnt talked to me for the last couple of days thats the reason why i made this post in the first place just wanted to know if i did anything wrong.