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Lessons From Dad: Always Tip With Cash
And reward good service
Two lessons I learned from my father — tip well, and tip with cash. Additionally, be polite to service people.
Growing up, I remember Dad would take the family out to eat once a week. He wanted to give my Mom a break from cooking as well as giving us kids a treat. We lived in a working class neighborhood in Queens, New York and my parents had to be frugal, so we weren’t going out for expensive meals.
Despite the tight budget however, Dad always tipped well. He also tipped with cash, rounding up so he could leave dollars, not cents. And he was always polite to the wait staff.
Unsurprisingly, since we frequented the same handful of restaurants on a regular basis, the waitresses all seemed to know him and were always friendly to our family. If we wanted something special they were happy to comply.
My father explained this to me at one point.
“They don’t make any money,” he explained. “And they work hard. They are always on their feet.”
The wait staff at the places we went to were usually middle-aged women who looked like life had treated them shabbily. I imagine they needed the income they got and didn’t have a lot of options, particularly decades ago when women had less options.
