Dad Will Never Change

I went out to dinner with my mom and dad after we all had a bad day. I can’t remember the details, but my mom was reasonably angry with my dad, and he was tuning her out.

We got seated and ordered our food at a Chinese place that serves one big pot of soup for the table before the dishes come. As they brought it out, the woman spilled the dark and oily soup on my mom, who was wearing white.

My dad waved the waitress away mid-apology while my mom went to clean herself up, but she had no luck with the stains. She said she’d deal with it until we got home; however, all the food came out extremely slowly. Even when all the food came, my dad ate excruciatingly slowly because he likes to “savor” his food. My mom was about to explode, so she put some money down for the dinner and left before another argument ensued.

One thing about my family: my mom is in charge of all our finances because my dad cannot be trusted. And that was never more evident than when we paid the bill. I left first to find my mom, and my dad paid with the money she gave him, and left all of the change.

Our dinner was maybe 40 to 50 dollars. My mom gave him a hundred.

When we found this out, we asked him why in the world he thought that was okay. His response was that it’s my mom’s fault for not saying what to do, and she had “wasted her breath” while arguing with him, while she should have been explaining how to pay the bill.