More like money issues.

perhaps they haven't seen each other in a while and were on a date. perhaps he bought dinner and was buying dessert, but spent more than he thought. what's the maximum age for going out for an icecream with your mom?

I'm 35 and took my 62 year old mother out for ice cream 3 days ago. There should never be an age limit for spending a little quality time with your parents.

Ice cream has no age limits :)

Some places have a minimum spending limit before accepting cards

What credit card company are you using? That sounds like a horrible company.

It's very likely that that has nothing to do with your credit card company and more to do with the store policy at most places. Because credit cards charge the store running the card a transaction fee as well as a percentage of the sale, a lot of stores will not accept cards for small purchases. I managed a convenience store for a while that had that policy. Let's say you were buying a candy bar for 75 cents. That candy probably cost the store about 40 cents. Depending on their merchant contract, the credit card company is probably charging them 35 cents plus 2% to run the card. So for a small sale, the store could actually be losing money on the sale by allowing you to pay with your credit card.

I second 95's comment. There are many stores (mostly family-owned convenience stores) that won't accept credit or debit card purchases below a certain amount of money. I learned the hard way when I visited an ice cream store that wouldn't take less than a $5.00 total for credit card purchases. I ended up having to buy an ice cream that was way too much for me to eat, even after buying a bottle of water. I don't know if it's the same up North or out West, but in the Southeast, it's a common practice.