Whenever I go to a place, I try to make everyone’s job just a little harder than it needs to be because “it is their job” and “I’m a huge douchebag who lacks empathy”

I have a relative with whom I’ve had no choice but to go to a restaurant before, even though I knew it would be difficult from experience (we road tripped together to a funeral many states away). This relative has borderline personality disorder and can be a rude customer without seemingly meaning to be. The only way…

I was forced to sit next to a friend of a friend at one of the Batman movies because she was awful and none of her actual friends wanted to sit with her. Just before the end of the last preview I turned to her and said “you’re going to stop talking when the movie starts, because I’m not going to sit here and take you…

That’s such a good point—not only are these people horrendously embarrassing to be seen with, they cost a fortune in apology tipping.

I will not eat out in public with my partner’s extended family - his immediate family are fine, if inexperienced with any cuisine other than Italian, but his extended family? If I’m not humiliated by their loud explanations about why Muslims are what’s wrong with this country, about how refugees are scum (hello,…

I’m a total bitchbaby about confrontation. But, in one case I actually did just that, although it was even more extreme than what you’re suggesting.

Twice. I’ve done that twice, with two different people.

Ah, that sounds like my mom! “What’s happening? Who’s that guy? What’d he say?” I DON’T KNOW BECAUSE YOU KEEP FUCKING TALKING TO ME! SHUT UUUUUUUPPPPP!!!!!

Double stars for use of the term “extinction burst.”

I’ve occasionally refused a second or third date because of poor treatment of waitstaff and/or bad tipping, and once broke up with someone I’d been seeing a while who turned into a Surprise Asshole with one waitress (I have no idea what got into his britches that day, but hey, it wasn’t her fault). I told them all why.

I live in California where waitstaff must make at least minimum wage. Tipping standard here is still 20%. It’s expensive as hell to live in California so I don’t mind tipping the standard+ even though we don’t do that $2.13/hour bullshit. My boyfriend thinks we should be tipping 15% (or doubling the tax which is more…

I am aggressively polite, and I have no problem nicely but firmly explaining why somebody should not do something in a restaurant at the time of the event, particularly when I’m hosting. Obviously I pick my battles, but I have many places I am recognized as a regular, so if one of my guests is being a boor, I do my…

This is my mother-in-law. She would do it for the whole movie. At Christmas it got so bad my poor 15-year-old sister-in-law just snapped. “OH MY GOD MOM SHUT THE FUCK UP! NOBODY KNOWS WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW BECAUSE WE CAN’T HEAR OVER YOU!” I’ll be making sure we get her a larger-than-average gift for her birthday next…

This reminds me of a story that is legend in my family. My parents took my older sister, who was 3 at the time, out to a nice restaurant. They ordered, but when the food arrived, my sister pitched a huge fit about the meal she was served, that she had chosen. My father told her that if she did not calm down and…

It’s amazing how well that threat works with kids if you actually follow through. The other one I use when my kids are being difficult about leaving someplace like the pool is “If we can’t be nice and follow directions when it’s time to leave we can’t come here again.” It only took one time of them asking to go…

They weren’t bad, just... overexcite-able maybe? It helped that it was a Rainforest Cafe, so they were SUPER looking forward to going there and then forced to leave because they weren’t listening. But I figure it was the fact that I followed through with a threat that forced them to realize they should probably listen…

Passive-aggressively. A lot of lip-pursing and not talking to me, but then trashing me behind my back to other family and their friends. Which is pretty standard, really...same thing happened when I started enforcing other reasonable boundaries (i.e., please don’t smoke in my car) with people who have none.

Sort of. My parents have been friends with another couple for 35+ years now and the husband half of that couple is the fucking worst to anyone and everyone in customer service. When I was in high school I became fully aware of how awful he was and stopped attending any outings that would include him. One day he gave…

Kind of... and I say kind of because I had this discussion with a good friend of mine because her children, not her, was hell-on-wheels for a while.

Has anyone out there just refused to go to restaurants with someone? Like sat them down and said something along the lines of, “When we go to restaurants I feel very uncomfortable. I think we have different ideas about tipping and how to treat waitstaff and these ideas are things that I do not feel comfortable…