Dushawn Thomas (@dushawnthomas) recorded his 11-year-old daughter lying about her age at a restaurant to receive a discount on their check and uploaded the clip to his TikTok account. The video of his subtle scam has acquired over 3 million views as of Wednesday morning.
The video received a litany of different responses—some praised Thomas’ daughter’s perspicacity for understanding, at the moment, that her father was trying to save some cash, while others thought he may’ve been reinforcing unhealthy behavioral patterns just to get a discount on a restaurant ticket. Others called out the unbelievability of the lie, with many saying she didn’t look 8 years old.
“I love my daughter she already kno what too say mind u shes 11,” a text overlay reads.
In the clip, a waitress holding a plate of finished food stands above the table as she speaks to Thomas, who tells the employee his daughter is “not an adult.”
“She’s a kid,” he says.
“No, no, how old?” the woman asks while looking at Thomas’ daughter—it doesn’t seem that she believes she is a child. He flips the camera around on the 11-year-old, who is seated across from him. The waitress asks her how old she is and she tells her that she’s 8, twice.
“You 8?” the server asks. “OK,” she concedes while grabbing the bill, intoning that she’s going to adjust the price of it.
Several commenters were impressed by Thomas’ ability to teach his daughter to lie in order to finesse a business out of a few extra dollars.
“The blank stare of confusion she aint new to this she true to this!!!!” one person wrote.
“She look confused but truly understood the assignment,” someone else penned.
“8 is crazyyyy,” another wrote.
“The way she said 8 with a straight face,” someone else said in disbelief.
“I would’ve said 9 at least to be more believable,” another remarked.
Others thought that Thomas’ daughter looked much older than her lied-about-age. “She look 22,” one commenter plainly wrote.
Someone else joked about how embarrassing they found the trick to be. “Saved a whole $3,” they said, followed by laughing emojis.
The Times Union writes that all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants, which is what it appears Thomas and his daughter visited, will often charge children around half of the price as they would adult patrons. The cut-off age at many restaurants for children, the publication states, is 14 years old, but different businesses apply different policies. “I’ve noticed interesting variations in age limits for kids for Easter and now Mother’s Day brunch buffets,” the story reads. “Most restaurants charge kids about half-price, but for some places that discount applies to anyone age 14 or younger, for example, while others charge half-price for kids age 5 to 10 or 4 to 12, and anyone younger eats for free (or, more likely, grazes from a parent’s plate).”
@dushawnthomas ME AND MY DAUGHTER ALWAYS FINNESSE 😂
♬ original sound – dushawnthomas
In the same article, the author speculates that it’s safe to assume a 14-year-old is capable of eating way more than a 4-year-old so sometimes pricing structures based on age may be a bit flawed depending on which one a restaurant adopts.
Other commenters replied to Thomas’ video and said that they were very familiar with this discount “scam.”
“My son was 13 my mom told him to say he was 9 and he taller than me with facial hair. Told my mom to go sit down and eat,” one wrote.
Another replied, “My mom used to always make us lie.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Thomas via TikTok comment for further information.
