Saturday late morning, I got the hankering for a juicy hamburger.  Bad Daddy’s seemed to be calling my name. As you might imagine, it didn’t take a lot of coaxing to get Bill to agree to a burger for lunch. A big, bad Bad Daddy’s burger. As I contemplated my burger, the idea of a few of the grands coming along with us appealed to me. So I texted Jll and asked if anyone in their neck of the woods would like to join Bill and me for lunch.

Well, they are a Bad Daddy’s family, and within a minute, I had a text back telling me that Dagny and Maggie Faith would LOVE to join us. But there was a caveat. Jll said she wanted to teach them a life lesson, so she wanted them to pay for lunch.

Well, if it didn’t take a lot of coaxing to get Bill to join me for lunch, it took even less coaxing to get me to agree to let those two girls handle the finances. I’m all for life lessons! And Dagny had, after all, just recently earned over $400 in honey sales.

A bit later we picked them up and drove to the nearby restaurant. I decided that since they were paying, they could take over all of the restaurant-related duties. So when the hostess asked how many, I looked for the girls to answer.

Four, said 11-year-old Maggie. The hostess asked if a booth would be okay. Yes, said 13-year-old Dagny. We were led to a booth.

We soon learned that while they would be paying for lunch, it wasn’t their own money they had to spend. Their mother just wanted them to learn how to handle all of the duties when it came to paying for food at a restaurant. That made me feel a tad less guilty. Dagny had the money tucked into her phone case, which she had tucked into her back pocket.

After perusing the menu, we all ordered our burgers and sides — homemade tater tots for Dagny, homemade potato chips for me, and French fries for Maggie and her papa. As we awaited the delivery of the food, we talked about all sorts of things, including Maggie’s upcoming trip to visit her Aunt Julie in Montana, school activities, and gossip about their sister Adelaide. This is a reminder to all that when you’re not there to defend yourself, you WILL get talked about by your siblings. It still happens to us, even though we are adults.

At the end of the meal, the server began handing the meal ticket to Bill. Nope, we told her. The girls are paying for the meal today. So if you get stiffed by the tip, don’t blame us, I told our surprised server.

Maggie and Dagny glanced at the check, and began doing the necessary math in their heads for the tip……

Sixty divided by two, move the decimal point, carry the one….

First you have to move the decimal point, Maggie said. (I didn’t necessarily understand the need to move the decimal point to figure the tip, but hey! maybe it’s the new math.) Snippity snap, before we knew it, they had paid the bill and left a generous tip. I tried to explain that you tip based on the kind of service you get, but since it was their mom’s money, she would have gotten 20 percent even if she had dumped the burgers on their heads. Heck! They even rounded up. As it happens, she was a very good server and deserved every penny they gave her.

It was fun being part of the life lesson with two of our favorite life lesson students….

Are you sure you’re figuring it out correctly?