A US influencer has sparked an online debate surrounding who should pay for dinner at a birthday party, and boy oh boy it truly is a heated topic.
One thing about the internet is that it’s the perfect place to have a good ol’ discussion. However, things get quite feisty over some people’s opinions *cough* that one Melbourne dad TikTok *cough*.
Recently, influencer Christina Najjar AKA Tinx, began an online debate on her TikTok account after she shared her opinions on who should pay at a birthday dinner.
“My opinion is that if you invite people to a restaurant of your choosing for your birthday, you should pay for everybody,” the influencer said in her TikTok, which has garnered more than 816.8K views.
Tinx acknowledged that her opinion would be perceived as “deeply unpopular” by the general public but doubled down on her views.
“I just think that you can’t pick a restaurant and ask people to come and celebrate you and pay for themselves,” Tinx continued.
“If I invite a group of people somewhere to celebrate me, that’s my treat because I organised it and I’m asking them to come.”
The influencer went on to reference Sean Lans‘ video — the original TikTok she stitched with — who shared a story about a friend who copped the shits with him because he decided to not attend their b-day dinner due to the price of the food.
However, Sean still met up with the birthday celebrant later in the night, but the b-day boy was still pissed about his absence from dinner.
The influencer added in the comments that if your friends invited you out for your birthday, then the whole pay situation is different.
Since posting the viral TikTok, the influencer has received a variety of opinions from punters online. Some people agreed with her stance, while others believed that everyone should just pay for themselves.
“Everyone should ALWAYS expect to pay for THEIR meal. Or say that you can’t go. I will die on that hill,” one person wrote.
“This is proper etiquette and classy, but in California I am inundated with people who nickel and dime EVERY bill. ‘But I didn’t eat any of _______,’” another TikToker commented.
“Wait this is wild — I’m not paying for the whole table girl what,” wrote a third.
Some people also believed that it depends on where you’re eating and that culture plays a huge factor into how the bill is handled.
In my culture (South-East Asian baddies, rise up!) most of the time, elders will fight over the bill. It’s almost like asserting dominance in the family, which is quite funny. However, when it comes to friends, we usually communicate and suss out what works for the whole group before the night out.
There are even times where we take turns shouting each other in the same night. One friend might shout dinner, while another might pay for the drinks and another grabs the Uber home all in the same night. But there have also been times where one person just pays for the outing for some sort of celebration. So it’s absolutely different per friend group, family, culture or whatever the case may be.
I think the moral of the story is that communication is always the key, and it’s best not to assume (or expect) someone can afford a night out.
If you get pissy because your mate refused to come out due to money issues, like Sean’s, I reckon you need to rethink your perspective.
It’s a bit silly to be pissed off at someone because they’re broke and honest about it. Don’t ya reckon?
