Chapotraphouse

I like to bug my work pal about his rich parents. His mom received the Order of Canada for whatever she did (dude legit doesnt know what his mom did for a living) and his dad is an architect who designed a fucking shipyard (its a rectangle, great work). People with rich parents never ever think they have rich parents and they always have fucking weirdly formal relationships with them. Like not knowing what your mom's job was. He has never been inside a Wal Mart. He had never even heard of Giant Tiger (Canadian discount store chain) until he heard another co-workees brother worked their and was confused by the name. Today i was riffing on the first person to decide certain pointless rules of etiquette needed to be followed, like the first guy to decide thar having your elbows on the table was no good. Of course his parents told him not to eat with his elbows on the table. He then went on to explain he also used to not see the point in manners until he saw people without them, which was a hella snobby thing to say. I explained that I feel there is a major difference between manners and etiquette. Manners are things like chewing with your mouth full or going super hard on a burp and not covering your mouth, shit that matters. Not acting like you're in the French Nobility when dining on the scooby doo shaped alphaghettis. Elbow placement and stuff like that doesnt affect other people's meals and is therefore a Fake Rule, the world is full of those.

Apparently 'reaching across the table' was also a no-go in his household growing up and it was difficult to determine what distance counted. I was raised that you dont reach over other people's food or bey flop over your own to grab something that could be passed to you but that's just basic not eating like a toddler stuff, these complex rituals seem exhausting. Homie hsd to ask to be excused from the table.

They also take trips and expect him to not only go with them, but pay for it himself and apparently give him shit for 'not having a real job' cause he's a cook. Dude has a degree in geology but you cant get a non evil job with that degree rn, its all full. Like, it seems that even though his family has im certain millions of dollars more than me, he has less of a safety net and more financial responsibility in that he has to spend money on international trips to appease his family.

My family knows the door shut right after they got the goods and it's thanks to luck and unions they got where they are. They help my underpaid and overcharge ass out all the damn time, cause they also think its absolutely fucked up that someone working full time, especially at a few bucks over minimim wage and with tips wouldn't ever be able to keep up with the bottom.line cost of living without having a very spartan existence. They have bankrolled so much of my recent Gundam model hobby cause they love that im good at art stuff. Im good at drawing cause when I took an interest as a toddler my mom would sneak stacks of printer paper home for me. We play Mario Kart together when I visit and we played multi-player games together ever since my first game console. I could not imagine living like he does and having that kind of relationship with your parents. I recall seeing it when going to richer kids houses as a child as well. I cannot imagine for the life of me having dinner with my folks and then telling me to take my elbows off the table. I would assume they were joking and either work with the bit or laugh and tell em to piss off. He is 36 and apparently they still tell him not to swear when he does. Im a lifelong kitchen worker and my dad drove a forklift for the post office. When we play video games together the insults we direct towards Mario characters are genuinely uncalled for but we're doing it cause we all (especially my mom) think its funny to call Donkey Kong a "shit brained banana fucker" when he wins a mini game or something. Honestly last time we hung out i was kinda thinking he was throwing 'fuck' into sentences even more than I do. I really don't get how you live with not being able to relax around your immediate family and feel the need to maintain all these weird social protocols. Also based om my childhood you would always get the worst food wjen you were there fore dinner. Incandescent recall a rich friend in second grade, after hanging out and trying to play age of mythology but being too 8 years old to grasp it, we got spaghetti for supper. It was just canned sauce and noodles. My mom, makes an amazing spaghetti bolognaise and does a TVP batch for me when shes making a bunch. She has to make an industrial amoint and freeze a lot and give some to my extended family cause her spaghetti game is that strong. My dad handled a lot of cooking as well and had his own skills, my mom was good at sauces and pastas amd sruff, my dad had a good fry game. Now thst im a pro I cook for them a lot but they also pay attention to what im doing, learn from it and after going vegsn have learned no animal stuff from me and now tvp and seitan are part of their rotation cause they like it. This guy's parents dont consider cooking a real job. Both of our folks eat at our work semi regularly, mine did before I was working there. Mine tip 30% when they come, theirs tip 12. His normal is so different from mine and seems worse