A mother has earned praise for her parenting after she required her 16-year-old son to return to the restaurant where he’d had his first date so he could increase the $10 tip he’d left on his $104 bill.
Danielle Foster, who goes by the username @d.foster.president on TikTok, uploaded the video of her son’s learning moment earlier this month.
In the clip, Foster could be seen calling her teenage son into her room, before urging him to get her wallet and bring her debit card to the ATM so that he could take out $20 and bring it to the restaurant.
“You need to go get my wallet, you need to go get my Visa card, you need to go to the ATM, and you need to go grab $20 and drive your a** back to that restaurant, because on a $104 cheque, $10 is a sh***y tip,” Foster told her son. “Do you understand me? Go now. I’m not asking, I’m telling.”
In the video, Foster’s son could be seen smiling awkwardly at his mother as he listened to her strict instructions, prompting the TikToker to inform her teenage son that the situation was “not funny”.
“Do you know that that guy might have kids? Do you know that $104, he gets taxed on it? You are to go grab my credit card, get $20 and drive it back there,” she continued, before instructing her son to respond: “Yes ma’am.”
The TikToker then informed her son that she wanted to see him hand the money to the restaurant employee via FaceTime, before concluding: “You don’t know how to tip!!”
Foster shared the video along with a text caption that read: “When my son goes on his first date and goes ‘Mom the service is good.’ It was a $104 cheque and he said he tipped him a lot of money… $10.
“Yes, he’s on the way back to the restaurant,” Foster added, before noting in the caption that she “raised him better than this”.
The video, which has been viewed more than two million times, has prompted praise from viewers in the comments, with many applauding Foster for using the opportunity to teach her son about the importance of tipping in the service industry.
“As someone who works in a tip-based job, I love this,” one person commented, while another said: “Aww you’re such a good human for this.”
“Mother of the year!! Love this,” someone else wrote.
In the comments, Foster also added some background to the video, with the TikToker revealing that her son had just gotten his driver’s license, so he’d taken his girlfriend of one year on their first official date.
Foster then noted that her son is a “good kid,” and that he “fixed a mistake,” which made her “super proud”.
Foster also created a follow-up video in response to a request for an “update,” in which she added additional clarity.
According to Foster, her 16-year-old son did return to the restaurant, where he gave his server the additional $20. “So he gave him $30 on $104,” she confirmed.
Foster then revealed that she’d asked her son how much he’d tipped after he’d returned home from the date and told her about how great the service at the restaurant had been.
However, Foster also noted that her son had assumed a $10 tip was enough because he’d paid for half the meal with a $50 gift card.
“He didn’t think he had to tip on the gift card,” she explained.
Foster then reiterated how proud she was that her son returned to the restaurant to rectify his mistake, before sharing her own gratitude to “all the servers out there”.
The TikToker also urged other parents to remember to teach their own children how to tip.
Foster concluded the video admitting that she regretted filming the teaching moment because of some of the negative comments she’d received, before reassuring viewers that her son is a “good kid”.
“This is my explanation. He’s a good kid, and I do the best parenting that I possibly can, and, if you don’t want to tip, don’t go out to eat. That’s really all I’ve got to say,” Foster added.
The video prompted renewed praise for Foster, with one person writing: “You are an amazing mother for this! I have been in the restaurant industry for 20 years. We need to teach our children how to tip.”
“You are a wonderful parent just trying to show him what is right, kudos to you,” another person wrote, while someone else added: “As a server, great job mama, I appreciate you. And for those bashing on him, he’s a kid. He’s learning. Mom corrected him and that’s what matters.”
Speaking to BuzzFeed about the moment, Foster said that it was important for her that her son correct his mistake because she’d worked as a waitress when she was a single mother, and remembers it as “extremely hard work”.
As for why she gave her son the remaining $20, she told BuzzFeed that she felt she should cover the cost because she hadn’t explained to the 16 year old how to tip when using gift cards.
“Yes, Johnny tipped 20 per cent on the bill he paid, he just didn’t know he had to tip on the gift card. So, I taught him right, but forgot that info. I’m only human. I paid the extra $20 to the waiter because I felt it was my responsibility for not explaining gift cards,” she said.
According to GrubStreet, at restaurants, tips should range from 20 to 25 per cent, an increase from pre-pandemic etiquette when 15 to 20 per cent was appropriate.
As noted by the US Department of Labor, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.
The Independent has contacted Foster for comment.
