Friends refusing to pay for their dinner

[cayennews]

Unfortunately I don't think you will ever see the money. I had something similar happen to me with an employee of mine. The fact that they are making you feel like the bad guy is indication enough that you should cut ties. They should be bending over backwards to make this right. Some people are just entitled.

 

[goofyernmost]

Perfect example of how some people come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. What if, they temporary came into your life for your son to have a lifetime friend. That to me is priceless. Treat the dinner tab as a gift and lesson learned. Let the kids be friends. They can, will, and should navigate their own friendship. That your house is always open for them to hang out and vice-a-versa. They won't and don't care about any parents' thoughts. As parents, we've never been friends with our kids' parents.

All that is fine and quite true if they were around 16 or so, but they are both 9. I'm sorry, but in this society of iPad, etc. at 9 they are probably technically savvy, but worldly not so much. At that age it really is the parents job to protect them from conditions that they cannot understand.

One cannot control what access they have in school, but it must be made clear that the family, in general, at this point is a very bad influence. They are not going to let their child come to your house and with that degree of nastiness, I sure wouldn't want my child anywhere near their place. As time passes they will either find a way to maintain the friendship until they reach the age where they can be more aware of what has happened, but chances are they will at some point split that school connection and then if the friendship is still there, they will find a way to make it happen and once they have reached that age of "reason" they will understand.

 

[longboard55]

So a little OT, but we were eating dinner and the next table had 6 -40 year type girls and they mentioned they knew each other from their college sorority. They must have spent 20 minutes sorting out the check, which I just found classic if you ever dined with girls in sororities.

 

[Dina]

Id let the money go, but id also let the friendship go. Not nice people .

 

[Ricguz]

Write it off and drop them like a hot potato. This day and age you don’t need untrustworthy friends. One thing usually will lead to another.

 

[Ricguz]

Yeah also the bullcrap about forgetting their wallets was a lie. Do you think they were driving without a license? Such bull

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Do you think they were driving without a license? Such bull

The wallet is different because they were headed to a restaurant soooo yeah they should have had their wallet with them.

However, to the DL comment, this is purely general comment here but it is truly astounding how many people are out there driving around without their license. I watch On Patrol Live and all across the country it is the same craziness with people not having their IDs on them. I would not have believed it myself but truly it's somehow prevalent enough to show up time and time again.

Me? I always have my ID on me 24/7 so it's not something I do but without a doubt there's a decent portion of the population out there driving around or being the passenger without their IDs on them. In the U.S. having your ID on you is something that should be done as a matter of norm but as I found out it just isn't as much as it should be.

 

[Kae]

They have kid(s) in activities they Have Venmo, Money should have been sent before they got home.

 

[rwdavis2]

Scrape ‘em off. Move on.

 

[nycdisneygal]

Drop these people fast. They are not friends. Sorry that you will be out of the money but I would not even give these people a second chance.

 

[Skywalker]

Update- I received a long text today from the wife saying that she no longer wants to associate with us because she “doesn’t need the drama in her life”. And then she blocked me on social media and my phone number. I was just going to write them and the money off anyway, so no skin off my nose but I find in funny she’s convinced herself that we’re the ones bringing the drama. And in her long text she also mentioned how we have never offered to take them or their son along on one of our DVC Disney trips (this seems to be a hot button topic for her for some reason) how we didn’t ask them if they wanted to sell things at our yard sale and a bunch of other strange accusations that she apparently feels justifies her stiffing us for the $200. I’m glad I found out how she really is, it’s a shame it cost $200 to do so though. As for our kids, they go to school together and I’m sure will continue to be friends, I haven’t spoken about this in front of my son and I hope his friends parents will still allow him to hang out with my son.

It sounds to me like this dinner was set up as a "test". From the above they obviously have long standing issues with you over what they seem to see as selfishness? Forgetting their wallets was a way for them to see your response.

1. You say, no problem, we'll cover dinner = you are good friends after all.
2. You tell them to pay you back = you are cheap and selfish as they always suspected.

Therefore, you failed their test that you didn't know you were taking. I think you take up a LOT of space in their heads. Who knows why.

Bullet dodged though!

 

[jdb in AZ]

It sounds to me like this dinner was set up as a "test". From the above they obviously have long standing issues with you over what they seem to see as selfishness? Forgetting their wallets was a way for them to see your response.

1. You say, no problem, we'll cover dinner = you are good friends after all.
2. You tell them to pay you back = you are cheap and selfish as they always suspected.

Therefore, you failed their test that you didn't know you were taking. I think you take up a LOT of space in their heads. Who knows why.

Bullet dodged though!

The test was to see if O.P. would pick up the tab for dinner, then they'd try to con O.P. into taking their family to Disney World.