What is the etiquette? HELP!

[MrsDylanBlue]

I adore my sons girlfriend.

We went out for dinner and met her family tonight who were also lovely. They clearly adore my son and even though they are divorced it was all lovely and amicable (unlike my sons Dad and I).

Thing is girlfriends Dad went and paid for the meal for 10 of us, three courses and I had 2 glasses of wine. We tried to pay for ourselves but he wouldn’t let us.

Apparently this is par for the course and he’s not swimming in a river of gold.

WTF do we do next time? I am so uncomfortable with someone else paying for me and not being able to reciprocate.

My dad is similar and I know will try to pay at an upcoming family event that I am going to want to pay for. So my plan is to book a restaurant we use often and discreetly nip off and pay once the meals have been ordered and then leave a tab open for the drinks. I get to pay and there is no argument.

Or maybe you could invite them to something where you pay in advance?

300 rules

One of them must have been, don't try and pay?

I am a massive embarrassment apparently who can not navigate social situations

Sorry, but did you say you are certain you earn more? If that's the case why is it a problem to return the gesture. My parents always pay whenever there's a big family outing, they make no show of it, just pay and thank everyone for coming and hope everyone had a nice time. Once or twice siblings partners have protested but my parents line is usually "please accept it in the spirit it's given" and that's it.

Apparently it’s impossible to pay with him.

If you really want to pay,pretend to go use loo...and go up to counter and pay the bill on 'the qt'. I understand you don't want to start a trend of this being a regular thing,so I'd do it once as a nice gesture....