Influencer ripped over controversial birthday dinner etiquette opinion: ‘Unfair’

Happy birth-pay!

California influencer Christina “Tinx” Najjar divided opinions online after controversially claiming that the birthday person should pay for everyone’s dinner during their special celebration. She aired her inflammatory etiquette opinion in a TikTok video with nearly 800,000 views.

“If you invite a person to a restaurant of your choosing for your birthday you should pay for everybody,” declared Najjar, 33, to her 1.5 million followers on the platform, where she posts under the handle @Tinx.

The Los Angeles resident was responding to a video by fellow content creator Sean Lans, who claimed it was “unfair” that he had to cover his own “expensive” meal during someone else’s special occasion.

Najjar seconded his assessment, declaring: “I know that is going to be deeply unpopular, but I just think that you can’t pick a restaurant and ask people to come and celebrate you and pay for themselves.”

Tinx said she found it especially ridiculous that some peer groups expect the guests to “split the cost of the birthday person’s food.” 

“If I invite a group of people somewhere to celebrate me, that’s my treat, I organized it and I’m expecting them to come,” she concluded. “To pick an expensive restaurant and expect everybody to pay, and in this person’s case, then get pi–y when they say, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t afford that,’ is really bad manners.”

Birthday traditionalists on TikTok were quick to criticize Najjar’s stance, which seemed to go against US b-day etiquette dictating that the B-day person shouldn’t have to pay.

“This is a crazy take,” declared one detractor.

“I would never let MY friend pay for ME on THEIR birthday ever,” another wrote. “What kind of friends would allow that?”

A third accused of her only thinking like this because she’s “rich” and therefore presumably able to foot everyone’s dinner bill during her special day.

Interestingly, some commenters shared Najjar’s opinion. “This is actual proper etiquette, but I find younger generations don’t abide by this,” argued one defender.

Another wrote, “This is how I was raised — it feels strange to ask people to pay on my birthday!”

Meanwhile, others pointed out that the discrepancy in opinions is due to the fact that the person who pays varies depending on the culture.

For instance, in many countries in Europe and Asia, it is customary for the b-day boy or gal to cough up the dough for their own birth anniversary bash.