Are you English speaking by any chance? In Germany I often notice that the waiters act totally differently whenever my American parents are visiting than when I'm just out with friends and speaking German.

With Germans they just show up with the card reader and we pay one by one; often people will ask to round up their bill to the nearest Euro but it's not expected.

With my parents (or other Americans that have visited me) they often act like American waiters and bring the bill and then kind of hover next to us and wait for us to initiate what we want to do next. I think they've learned that most Americans will assume 'this is the part where we work out how much tip to give' and the waiters often end up with a (for German standards) gigantic tip. At least this always works with my parents since 'we feel bad not tipping!'

I've never once experienced that in any of those countries.