My 15 year old daughter Ainslee is our most independent child as well as our best shopper She’s been to Guatemala with me twice and I always let her do the bargaining with the merchants in the market….she’s a brutal negotiator. The other day I took her and my son Chris to each lunch at a diner in Buckhead. When we went to the counter to pay for our $36 meal, I pushed the unsigned Visa receipt over to Ainslee and told her to add the tip to it. She looked at me for a moment and then asked could she tip $36 – the price of the meal. I told her absolutely. When she totaled the receipt, the lady at the counter asked me if the amount was correct. I smiled and told her we were generous tippers.
The next day, when my wife Jennifer got home from taking Ainslee shopping, she told me that Ainslee had unsolicited given money to the Salvation Army bell ringer in front of one of the stores. This doesn’t seem like much I know but I think it could be a big step in Ainslee’s own generosity. Like any 15 year old in our affluent culture, sometimes I’m concerned that she’s too self-focused on her own wants – the right clothes, the right cell phone, the right haircut, etc. And I share this concern for my own soul – the right clothes, the right I-phone, the right haircut. That’s why I like for us to go to Guatemala to experience cultures vastly poorer than our own. Perhaps this tipping project will help both her and I understand how blessed we are to have so much.
