Thursday, January 13, 2011

Should parents of young children tip more?

DSC_0087Here is a hard question for you. Should parents of young children tip MORE at restaurants? On the one hand, when a family has young children, that tends to be the time of life when they have the least disposable income. On the other hand, it also tends to be the time of life when children are the least controlled and most disruptive. One waiter argues that if you ask the restaurant staff to deal with your children's misbehavior, you should compensate them for their trouble.

What do Mod-Bloggers think? We have a number of young parents reading this blog, so this single, childless guy is interested to know what they think.

6 comments:

BH said...

We try too because we know that our table will have the most mess both above AND BELOW the table. The wait-staff will always get a bigger tip for quick crayons, quick drinks, and rushed food to lower the wait time. We are not there to enjoy company, we are there for a break from cooking and to make a mess in your house instead of ours. :-)

Ward said...

I agree with what BH said in general. And we always tip well anyway.

With that said, our daughters would never, in a million years, get away with anything like what this waiter writes about. They might make a little extra noise sometimes, and certainly they are messier than an adult. But his article seems full of the most extreme possible behavior being held up as the norm.

shadowmom1 said...

Unfortunately, the parents of the unruly children are the most self-absorbed and don't care about the wait staff. And most often, both parents work and don't want to make their family time full of disciplining the children. They want the kids to be "happy". Unfortunately, these times of keeping everyone happy catch up with the kids and make them less likable in general.

quizwedge said...

I don't think parents of young children should tip more, just because they have young children. I do think that, in general, the tip should be based on how good the service was and how hard of a table you were for the server. If the child(ren) were well behaved and didn't make too big of a mess, then the standard tip should be good.

Side note - it bugs me that tipping is expected and typically required for the server to get a decent wage. A tip should be more like a bonus for doing a good job. Not a required add-on no matter how poorly a job the server does.

Nomad said...

Good point, Wedge. It is extremely unfair that the IRS taxes every waiter/waitress on a 20% tip for every check. That way, if they DO NOT get a tip they are not only earning under minimum wage, but they lose money they never recieved.

BH said...

Good comments