Perhaps it is so but on how I was raised and what culture has instilled within me, if someone invites you out to dinner, they are paying for the meal and you are there just as company. Then awhile later, when you have time, you invite them for company and you pick up the tab. It is reciprocal harmony and should be taken seriously if you are among friends.

Now with that stated. My friends went to a birthday party and the birthday girls invited them to dine out at a nice restaurant. The company was in good spirit and the tab was drilled higher with the guys ordering rounds after rounds of spirits. Nothing wrong with that. At the end, some guy said to some extent, “I’m a pharmacist but it doesn’t mean I have to pick up the tab so lets split the bill in ten parts”. Wow, what kind of uncouth a comment is to be said to a crowd of friends? I’m sure he makes more money than everyone else but to use that as an excuse to exclude him from picking up the tab is ridiculous and a slap in the face. Where’s the face value in this coin? Who expected him to pick up the tab? Can’t he just say “hey, lets exclude the girls tonight and us guys will pick up the tab”. Simply and to the point.

To my recollection it was the party of the birthday girls’ and they invited everyone to accompany them in good spirit: they should have picked up the tab. Gender does not influence the outcome of this event. I’ve been to a few of these parties and I say it’s pretty damn pathetic. To all the parties where I’ve (we) thrown a party for a friend, we all paid together and excluded the friend who’s party we threw for. That’s natural for group tribute because the party was thrown for the occasion of someone else but to have the group pay for themselves- excluding the birthday girls, is poor etiquette.

I myself, have never once paid for my birthday- ever (only when Duyen takes me out do I take the tab even though she insists) when my boyfriends take me out. I don’t ever ask to be taken out, they just naturally want to spoil me. I naturally want to spoil them on their birthday too. It’s not etiquette btwn us that we take each other out, we just want to do a nice outing for a special occasion with no strings attached. That’s how it should be.