Dear LPG,  


I read with interest what DH had to say about the family picnic and a few memories came flooding back for me too.  With all that nostalgia inside me, I also tried to get my family to get involved in a picnic but my success ratio was not that high.   


I have been advocating the advantages of such a day out for ages.  My three children, 7 grandchildren, and various nieces and nephews etc.  must amount to a fairly typical family group but they all live so far away now.  I tried the picnic idea which I believe to be a good and reasonably cost-effective way to spend a sunny day. 


But DH is right, my children come up with every excuse under the sun. They need so much notice to all be available on the same day that, even with the long range weather forecasts we are lucky to have these days, there is never enough notice of guaranteed good weather on any pre-picked day.   There are always the timings and the children’s routines which cannot be interrupted, and wherever you choose there are guaranteed to be parking fees to be considered which make for a more hurried eating experience.  Then there is the trek with all the chairs, blankets and food from the car to the actual picnic spot which has to be chosen taking the need for either a possible public loo or suitable daisy-picking spot for those little emergencies.   


There are no longer any motorway verges, lights or even a hard shoulder to inspire and the service stations are out to make sure that there is a guaranteed and expensive alternative to all that inconvenience. Even a trip to the local eating house for 18 can be a really expensive affair, so there is the other alternative…the barbecue.    


We oldies don’t drive anymore so our house is usually chosen for the annual ritual.  But the boundaries surrounding the limited space in our garden and the need to have a few flowers left after the event, added to the mixture of ball games, will put most of us grandparents off of that idea. The situation is compounded by the risk of broken windows and possible fire risks being deemed so dangerous that the youngsters again end up watching the television or on the computers, tablets or mobile phones inside the house, even when the weather is good.    Then there is the wait while the male-masters of the barbeque-production work on not overdoing the charred aspect of the cook.  And when the meal is finally ready, the electronic- game concentration overtakes the children’s need to eat.   


DH is also right about the family-feud-fixing aspect of such an event.  There is less space for family adversaries to thrash things out verbally.  


But the food is hotter, the location being closer to the fridge means that less stuff gets forgotten on the day, seating arrangements are more comfortable, going to the loo is a more relaxed experience and if it rains you just turn off the barbecue and put the food in the oven. 


I started out with a plan to defend the benefits of the barbecue over the picnic but I think that, having taken the pros and cons into consideration, I might have destroyed my own argument…  


AK, Sydenham. 
 

 

 

AK offers some internet evidence to back up her thoughts…

 

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