Great Expectations

'Single Mom' Leaves Outrageous Note On Dinner Receipt

(Photo Credit: Huffington Post)

I found this story last week, and it got me thinking about a problem that is widespread among almost all walks of life, but for the sake of this blog's context, we'll limit it to parents. It seems that nowadays, everyone expects something (or everything) to be done for them, or they expect their particular situation to warrant some kind of special treatment. Individual sense of entitlement is at an all time high, and parents are no exception. In this case, a single mother doesn't leave a tip on a $138 meal. Pretty reprehensible behaviour, if you ask me.

Now, there are many unknowns here. Was she actually a single mother, or trying to weasel out of paying a few more bucks? Was it horrible service, and the patron was trying to spare the server's feelings? Who knows. There are so many other variables. The server could be a single parent themselves, or trying to get through college, or just another person trying to make ends meet. What makes the single parent's situation more paramount? The common complaint has been "If you can afford to go out for such a luxurious meal, you can afford a tip, parent or not". This complaint has come from parents. I applaud that, favouring fairness over loyalty to one's own kind.

The restaurant incident was isolated and unique, but it got me thinking about social attitude as a whole. There is so much expectation that certain things will happen. Government benefits, for example. Here in Canada, we have multiple monthly benefits offered by the federal government, sometimes in excess of several hundred dollars a month to a single family. Once upon a time, I worked in a government call centre. On the day those cheques and direct deposits came out, we were inevitably flooded with calls asking "where's my payment?". When we tried to explain that the day the cheque was delivered was an approximation, not an absolute, people would flip their lids. they needed that money to feed their children. They expected it. When there were holidays, or if the mail service was delayed for whatever reason, some people demanded that their cheques be delivered by the government department that issued them. If the direct deposit varied from one bank to another, recipients demanded that the government fix it. After all, they expected their payment. This was not a rare occurrence  Thousands of calls came in each and every month to the very same tune. It was seen as a crime for there to be a slight variation with respect to the day they got their free money from the government. These are people who clearly could not afford to raise children without assistance. In my opinion, that's the equivalent of biting off more than you can chew.

I would like to say that the expectation ends there, but it doesn't. I've seen delivery people ring doorbells or buzzers, and have the door open to the bright red face of a fuming parent. "How dare you ring the doorbell, didn't you think that I might have a child sleeping?" they say. "There's a tricycle and chalk drawings in the driveway, and you can clearly see a car seat in my minivan. You KNOW there are children living here. You should know better". Suddenly, it's become the job of all of society to handle nap time, as though disconnecting the doorbell, or even putting a sign up in the front door aren't viable options. No, mama and papa have fulfilled their most basic biological function, and it's the responsibility of the other 7 billion people in the world to work around that.

Specialized parking spots, special treatment on public transit, and so many more little things come into play every single day. But there are more and more CFBC people out there, and more and more businesses are catering to them. I don't know about you, but I expect things to change soon.