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I come from a large Italian family. I have inadvertantly been yanked to the metropolitan area where my mother grew up, and now, have several support strands of my extended family (her five brothers and sisters and their families as well as her father) helpfully forming a noose of support tightly around my neck.
As a 24-year old, two years out of college and the only one of twenty-some cousins who is actually doing something with her life, they have a pretty good chokehold on me and I am expected to make a showing at every single family gathering, regardless of my plans. ("I would think, Precious, that your family would take precedent over your silly night out with your friends that you've been planning for two months and two of them are flying in for specifically.")
The problem with this is that my large Italian family is the biggest cluster[word] of SC's I have ever encountered. Entitlement, picky, non-understanding, snotty...Every possible problem you could have. I HATE going out with them. HATE it. Because it's inevitable that we're going to piss off the waitstaff or whoever we're dealing with.
One of my favorite examples is when we went to a middle-eastern restaurant for my birthday last year. (I'm not a huge fan of middle-eastern cuisine, but guess who picked it out, loves it, and wanted to go? LA FAMILIA. And I'm not picky, so whatever.)
My youngest aunt is the worst. She ordered some falafel appetizers and picked them apart once they came, declaring that they were 'not quite right.' She called the waiter over and whined to him about how they 'weren't right' and they looked different when she made them at home. To his credit, he was very patient with her and told her exactly what she was doing wrong with her recipe.
Of course THIS went over well.
My aunt, instead of understanding that she was doing her cooking wrong, and actually let the people running the restaurant DO THEIR JOB, insisted that they take the falafel back to the kitchen and cook them THE WRONG WAY.
This is about the point where I'm head-tabling repeatedly.
The waiter takes back the food, brings out another plate of falafel. My aunt whines about how it's still 'not quite right' and mopes about how 'it's good enough, I guess I'll keep this plate.'
I apologized to the waiter on the way out for the horrendous way she was acting.
Another incident was for my uncle's birthday - we went to this Italian place. Now the food was kind of sub-par and the service was not very good. How would you react to this?
A. If you don't like the food, then shrug it off and don't come back, leaving a little less tip than usual for the poor service.
B. Whine about it constantly, demand reparations, and yet greedily shmooze up the $5 giftcards that are given out because certain meals were ordered.
Personally I'm an 'A' girl myself, but.
Over the course of the carnage, one of my other aunts-by-marriage got annoyed with my passive response to everything, and snidely said, rather loudly, "Honestly [TQ], your mouth is good for something other than stuffing food in it."
I wanted to make a comment so badly about how I didn't want to know about her nightly forays into five-dollar prostitution but I remained silent.
Every. Time. I have gone out with my family, I've gotten humiliated and had to be the one to pick up the pieces with the poor waitstaff and the management that my aunt involved in everything. I'm glad to see them look grateful that SOMEONE acknowledged that the family was being horrendous, but it's terribly embarassing.
Goodness that went on forever.
Ever been embarassed by SC's in your family?
As a 24-year old, two years out of college and the only one of twenty-some cousins who is actually doing something with her life, they have a pretty good chokehold on me and I am expected to make a showing at every single family gathering, regardless of my plans. ("I would think, Precious, that your family would take precedent over your silly night out with your friends that you've been planning for two months and two of them are flying in for specifically.")
The problem with this is that my large Italian family is the biggest cluster[word] of SC's I have ever encountered. Entitlement, picky, non-understanding, snotty...Every possible problem you could have. I HATE going out with them. HATE it. Because it's inevitable that we're going to piss off the waitstaff or whoever we're dealing with.
One of my favorite examples is when we went to a middle-eastern restaurant for my birthday last year. (I'm not a huge fan of middle-eastern cuisine, but guess who picked it out, loves it, and wanted to go? LA FAMILIA. And I'm not picky, so whatever.)
My youngest aunt is the worst. She ordered some falafel appetizers and picked them apart once they came, declaring that they were 'not quite right.' She called the waiter over and whined to him about how they 'weren't right' and they looked different when she made them at home. To his credit, he was very patient with her and told her exactly what she was doing wrong with her recipe.
Of course THIS went over well.
My aunt, instead of understanding that she was doing her cooking wrong, and actually let the people running the restaurant DO THEIR JOB, insisted that they take the falafel back to the kitchen and cook them THE WRONG WAY.
This is about the point where I'm head-tabling repeatedly.
The waiter takes back the food, brings out another plate of falafel. My aunt whines about how it's still 'not quite right' and mopes about how 'it's good enough, I guess I'll keep this plate.'
I apologized to the waiter on the way out for the horrendous way she was acting.
Another incident was for my uncle's birthday - we went to this Italian place. Now the food was kind of sub-par and the service was not very good. How would you react to this?
A. If you don't like the food, then shrug it off and don't come back, leaving a little less tip than usual for the poor service.
B. Whine about it constantly, demand reparations, and yet greedily shmooze up the $5 giftcards that are given out because certain meals were ordered.
Personally I'm an 'A' girl myself, but.
Over the course of the carnage, one of my other aunts-by-marriage got annoyed with my passive response to everything, and snidely said, rather loudly, "Honestly [TQ], your mouth is good for something other than stuffing food in it."
I wanted to make a comment so badly about how I didn't want to know about her nightly forays into five-dollar prostitution but I remained silent.
Every. Time. I have gone out with my family, I've gotten humiliated and had to be the one to pick up the pieces with the poor waitstaff and the management that my aunt involved in everything. I'm glad to see them look grateful that SOMEONE acknowledged that the family was being horrendous, but it's terribly embarassing.
Goodness that went on forever.
Ever been embarassed by SC's in your family?
(incidentally, EVERY time I eat at my parents' house, I have digestive issues *grumble*)
) :
HER PART OF THE BILL? It's her birthday! I paid it, because I wasn't goign to let her pay for her dinner on her birthday.
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