A Waiter's Tip

Ok, so I have been wanting to do this for awhile. If you didn't know already, I work as a waitress and have been working as one for the last 4-5 years. I worked as a waitress while in college and since. Waiting table is good money. I usually only have to work about 5 hours, upwards of about 10-12 if I'm doing a double. It does a good job of paying the bills and giving me a little spending money afterwards. By no means do I consider serving to be a career. When I'm not working as a waitress, I am at home, taking care of my dogs, keeping house, and trying to start my own business, Koda. Working at a restaurant allows me the time and flexibility to be able to run my small business and that's why I stick with it. As soon as Koda takes off, I'm throwing in the serving towel.

Let me just say, I know what people outside of the industry think of me. Just from seeing me walk to their table, they're already thinking, "yeah, the only job she would be able to get would be as a server. Look at her tats and her blue hair." (and no, I don't say tats. But for whatever reason, people think that they can be on some super cool tattoo level with me if they call it that. Yeah, nice. You wanna grab my arm to look at em to? OR MAYBE, you wanna ask me what I'm going to do when I break up with Bob. Now that one will make me swoon.) Fact is, serving is not it for me, it's a job. My career is what I'm starting at home in my studio. And a majority of the people that I work with are in school and working as a means to pay for it. And for the rest, who cares that they work in a restaurant. Chances are that I make just as much as any of my peers who work an entry level job at cubical, but I work less and have more fun!

Before anyone jumps down my throat with a "Serving is so easy! Why are you complaining?". Serving doesn't suck. People suck. There are tables that come in that are just flat out rude, miserable, without manners, and looking to complain for a handout. So, once a week, I will be update my blog with a waiters tip for everyone out there that has not worked in the industry before, because I have come to the conclusion that tipping etiquette or any kind of etiquette is not taught in school these days and parents are dropping the ball with these brats that now dine out at restaurants. Also, I need to have an outlet for these rants because I'm sure Aaron could use a break.

Tip #1:

When dining with small children, leave at least 20%.

I can understand that dining out with small children isn't easy on the parents. They get antsy, the don't want to eat, they make a mess, they scream.. the list goes on. I do my best to accommodate families and I usually go above and beyond for them. My restaurant doesn't have a kids menu, but I can give you all sorts of kid friendly suggestions, make an entree kid's portioned, get them kid's cups, and whatever they could possibly need. Parent's are almost always receptive to this and thank me up and down. But when it comes time to collect the check and I'm looks down at a messy table, chairs, and floor, only to open the check book and find a 10-15% tip, I'm disappointed and angry. I went above and beyond AND now I have to spend an extra 5 minutes more that it would normally take to clean and reset a table to clean up after your child's mess. So parents, please leave me a nice 20% tip. It's well deserved. I also remember all of my tables that have tipped really bad. Even better yet, I remember all of my tables that have tipped really well, especially if they had kids at the table. And I'm always even nicer to those tables on their next visit.