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AIBU?

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First meal out with son’s wife’s parents and they let us pick up the whole bill.

676 replies

50sandFabulous · 02/06/2026 21:43

What would you make of this? Son got married recently. Obviously, we have met his parents. However, we have never been out with them before.

The other day we met for lunch, there were six of us there in total. I had said to my husband that we should pay for the whole thing just as a nice gesture.

We went up to the bar at some point and paid for the whole tab. No one knew that we had done this.

When it was time to leave, everybody just left the restaurant and absolutely nobody queried about the bill. Is this not a bit mad?

So basically, we have paid for everybody (which we were always going to do), but there has been no acknowledgement from anybody about the fact that the bill has been paid and absolutely no thank you. I just find this really really weird!

I was expecting somebody to say, oh we need to get the bill, and then I would have said don’t worry it’s covered, but that did not happen!

OP posts:
ClovisWrites · 25/06/2026 12:00

Scottishmamaagain · 05/06/2026 20:42

I hate it when people stealth pay for the bill. I feel like it’s so under hand and patronising.

if you want to pay for the bill you either mention it before hand and say ‘this is our treat’ or you do it when the bill comes.

I completely agree. Sneakily paying for the bill is kind of patronising, but also it’s sort of making a weird competition out of it. I’ve actually stopped going out to eat with certain people in my life who keep doing this sort of silly rubbish.

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