Pay a Waitress? Pay your own Waitress!

Every company in the world pays their own employee, at least I hope they do. What a place it would be if someone else had to pay them. Well that is exactly how it is in the Restaurant business. They work their waiters and waitresses to death and WE have to pay them. Don't we pay for the food, the expenses and everything else with the higher than average funds we pay for our food? Why should we now HAVE to pay the waitress? Now, I clearly do not mind tipping a waitress IF she/he does a good job. Just like tipping the doorman, or the cabbie, or whatever. But, why should I have to be concerned with what his/her pay is going to be?

Last night, I ate at the local friendlies. I realize that my children are a little hard to manage, there are 4 from the age 13 down to 4. They were tired and so was I. We went to friendlies to get the 99 cent cones on the OUTSIDE window. They were having pirate day and they invited us inside for face painting and prize. My in-laws had come down from out-of-state, and we had gone to their hotel to bid our last adieu to a lovely week. So, we had just come from the pool at that hotel, and we were wet and cold. But we went inside anyway. The sign on the door said that kids eat for $1.99. We WERE going to spend $0.99 on just a small cone, so that sounded like a plus. So I started calculating what I have in the bank. Since I cannot take them out to eat most of the time, I figured I would treat them. I was not hungry and did not want to eat. Before I even made that decision, they had us sitting at a table. So I told the kids they could eat the $1.99 food. They told me that my 13 year old had to eat off the 3.99 menu because she was not a kid. Wow! Good thing that they don't run a government, they would have my kid driving a car by 10.

Anyway, the waitress told me that I had to order to get the special. The special was based on me spending $10.00 on a platter. So I did, because I did not want to embarrass my kids by stating the obvious. WHY DOES THE SIGN SAY KIDS EAT FOR $1.99!!!. Ok, deep inside, I knew that there was a trick. So I went to look at the sign. It was only like 3" x 4", and down at the bottom in a very light color, in a very small print, it said only 3 kids could eat at that price and a with a paying adult. I don't understand why they cannot just say that. I never would have walked in the door and sat down.

So anyway, our waitress takes our order and the kids get their face painted and dig for treasure. We get our food and start eating. But they did not give us barbeque sauce for the chicken strips; nor did they even ask if we wanted any. The waitress stops at another table and is talking to another customer. Without being rude, I try to signal her so she knows I need something, but to no avail. So I decide to walk past her and go to the front and ask for barbeque, no big deal. But my waitress was not talking to customers about their order, she was chatting with them. And she chatted on and on and on. So, although I was annoyed, I continued on with my quest and I sat down to finish eating. My 7-year old began to get a stomach ache. It was an upsetting night and a since they had been swimming, it was also a tiring night. So we decided to just get everything to go and go home. It was, after all, after 8pm. So, I waited for the waitress and she was STILL TALKING. Finally, I got her attention and told her we were leaving and wanted everything to go. She asked if there was a problem and I said that we were tired.

Finally, I am feeling a lift because we are getting ready to go. But the waitress began serving others. Ok, i can wait. But 15 minutes went by before I saw her again. Did she take a break, go to the restroom, leave for the night. And then she reappeared, with more food. Not one word to me about being back soon, or anything, she continued to talk to other clients. Then she brings these small containers. They are okay for the girls, but not for mine. But I squeeezed my burger and fries into it anyway. Shortly after, she brings out larger containers for another customer. Hmmmm...... But trust me, she made sure that I had the bill first.

There were two bills, one said $35.00 and the other said $22.00. She quickly said something about the bill, but made sure that I saw the $35.00 one and I was not sure why I was getting two bills and why on earth 3 dinners @ 1.99, 1 dinner at 3.99, and one dinner @ 9.99 could add up to 35.0o. I am a math teacher, and in english that equated to approximately $20.00. So all I cared about was the $22.00. I asked the waitress if we could get some cash back so that the girls could use the CLAW to try to get a stuffed animal. They had allowance at home that was burning a whole in their proverbial pocket. She said yes.

So now I had to wait on her to finish bring the cups. I completely cleared off the table, and even the underside and she still had not returned with the cups with lids for the drinks. So I took all our stuff in the 8-hands that I have up to the counter. I showed the receipts to the person at the counter. I asked her about the cash back and she said they did not do cash back. My kids were all like "oooohhh". Well, the waitress said that if I gave her more of a tip, she would give me the cash out of her tips....... ooooo kkkkkk??? '

I only had a little more than $30 in the bank, and this trip was only SUPPOSED to cost me about $10.00. The waitress informed me, NOT SO CASUALLY, that she gets taxed on the $35.00 bill. I did not know why she was telling me this. Obviously, I do not get out much. It seems to me, my waitress barely deserved ANY tip. Ok, so I wrote the bill for $30.00, which was the $22.00 plus a $2.00 tip (10% right???) and then $6.00 for that CLAW game for my kids. The waitress said, $2.00 is all that you are giving me? I said "10% right?". She started explaining that she gets paid taxes on the bigger bill and that is what she should be tipped on and it is no longer 10%, it is 15%. Ok, again, I am a math teacher. I happen to know that when you pay in percentages, you already have your cost of living raise. When the bill goes up, so does the tip. She was not happy and believe it or not, I did not argue with her at all. I merely shrugged my shoulders because all I had to spare was $30.00, and since she told the girls that she would give me cash for that game, they looked forward to it. So they were going to get the cash.

I whispered to the lady at the register that she was a horrible waitress, she kept having personal conversations with a customer and I had to go take care of things myself. She stood up for the waitress, which is okay. Then she began explaining to me how the taxes are calculated and how the waitresses are paid and how we are supposed to tip. Seems to me....

THAT IS THEIR JOB, NOT MINE!

Family - A lot of Fun, A lot of Work

You think you have life set. You graduate college, get a great job, have an okay place to live apart from your parents. It is happening. Life is moving right along and you can shoot for the stars. "Is this what you were looking for?" you ask yourself. Do you answer yourself? I do. Often. This was me 20 years ago. My life was ahead of me and all I could do was go up. I was 21 then and just graduated college. I had an absolutely beautiful 2-year old daughter, I had just gotten a great job at Cincinnati Bell in Ohio. I recently moved into my first house. What more could I ask for?

What a difference 7 years brings you. At 28, I had gotten married and had my 2nd child. I gained a child after my marriage, since my husband already had one, too. That made 3 daughters. After two years, I stepped down from software development and decided to focus on my family. Shortly after, I had another child. Then another, and another, and another. The last four were each 3 years apart, so at 38 I gave birth to my 5th daughter. That makes a total of 6 daughters. No sons. And, THANK YOU LORD, no grandchildren yet.

I wrote websites from home for a while, but clientele got short and children aplently. I found out that you can't just get back into the computer field, you have to go back to college and get more certifications to get back in and be competitive, and I needed a career that was a little less intrusive. So, I became a teacher.

I teach high school math, and I love it. It is too bad that the school systems in our country do not value our teachers. You value what you put your money into, and this country doesn't put its money into education. In the same school system, if I were a computer programmer without a degree, I would make 40% (approximately) more than if I were a teacher with a degree. We will blog more on that in another blog, I am sure many have plenty to say about that.

The education cut backs in Florida have caused many instructors to lose their jobs, and currently I am one of the teachers without a job. So I am looking at getting back into software. It is going to be hard, but life is hard.

Again, I look back. "Is this what you were looking for?" I ask myself again. Portions are better than I thought, portions more than I bargained for, and finally portions are more frustrating that I could ever imagine. I deeply love all of my kids and would not undo having them for anythng in the world. But, when do moms get a break? I have an entirely separate blog on this on weebly, you could call it a woman's discussion session..... you know what I mean?