"Pumpkin picking" WTF

I honestly don't understand why taking photos is sneered so much about on MN. People have been taking photos for generations. So what if they then share them with friends and family on SM? I like seeing photos. Beats going to a relatives and then getting the photos out that you have to look at for an hour 😂

I obviously missed the memo on that! 😉

Going into the garden centre is free and we paid £2.99 for a massive pumpkin and were given 3 small pumpkins for free as part of our afternoon tea. Pretty cheap afternoon out in half term.

🤣

I think pumpkins aren't that easy to pick off the bush. It wasn't a thing when mine were little but I can see how it would be fun for little kids. Some have other fun stuff there for kids and food and drink. I'm sorry you were in a traffic jam but never mind.

We did it in 2020, due to be able to be outside and actually have a reason to be out! But I won't go now as a waste of money and difficult with sn daughter, but understand why families would go as a day out

I took DD and her friend to an event at our local garden centre. They have a 'pumpkin barn' with different sized pumpkins stacked on straw bales with decorations like ghosts and witches. We also had a Halloween afternoon tea. Just a bit of fun!

I would never associate this type of activity with the working classes, quite the opposite!

I think it's the "for the making memories crowd" remarks that indicate it's horrifically working class. Have to be careful not to be deleted, but make it clear we're above That Sort Of Thing all the same

Oh good Lord, the online pumpkin picking was clearly a joke!

It's hardly picking your pumpkin is it? It's a request for a pumpkin.

Riveting.

Goodadvice1980

OP I agree it does seem a bit cringey and another americanisation 🎃 however with the cost of living crisis I think if parent(s) are struggling with money and they can afford it for their DC it’s probably better value than a crappy amusement park!

Maybe but the one near us isn’t a cheap do at all. £8.50 per person to go in and pumpkin price of around £7.

When you see them in the supermarket for £2 it would be too much of a rip off for me.

Luckily I no longer have children young enough to want to go there so I’ve no tough choices to make.

My mum wouldn't have taken us pumpkin picking if it was a thing when I was little because she would have thought it was common. There were a lot of local things we didn't do, traditions in our little town, bonfire night etc as she didn't want to be seen as a commoner. It makes me want to do everything with my children. I'm

ManateeFair
Honestly I don't think it's inherently better or worse than any other outdoor activities in terms of running around outside. It's not my cup of tea because of all the other stuff.

I'm tight and have no desire to spend over the odds to traipse to the same place as half the county, queue to get into a muddy field car park, to mill around and dodge people having their hay bale photo shoots, or struggle to get through the gates/entrance for the family posing under the displays. That's before the online queuing for tickets that people sit waiting to open so they can get slots on the right weekend.

If it brings people joy then it's a nice family activity. I'm a miserable git and would rather go any other local outdoor places than these very popular and busy things.

I prefer to pick my pumpkin virtually from my grocery shopping app

I think it's a bit like PYO christmas tree. The ones I've seen have never been on an actual tree farm.

The two I've been to round me, and the one I used to go to when I lived elsewhere have all been farms... You get a ribbon/tag, wander around and pick your tree in the drizzle/growing darkness, and flag down a dude on a quad who comes and chops it down with a chainsaw for you. It's the start of Christmas for us here :)

We've gone 2 years in a row and we're turning it into a lovely little family tradition. When DS was 1.5, he enjoyed the mud and being pushed about in the wheelbarrow and he also carried his own little pumpkin all the way round. He didn't have a clue what was going on, but sploshing about in the mud and laughing his head off while DH pushed him round made it a fun day out. There was also a play area at this particular farm, so we did that too.

He's 2.5 now and this year, he rode in the wheelbarrow for a bit but mostly pushed his own little wheelbarrow and picked a pumpkin, then swapped it a few times for other ones that took his fancy. He liked the knobbly ones best i think because of the texture, so we taught him to say 'knobbly bobbly pumpkins!' whenever he found a good one and it turned into a lovely little game. We chatted about how pumpkins grow from little seeds and at the one we went to, you could also pick your own potatoes, corn and carrots too. We picked a few of each and when we got home, he helped to prepare the veggies we'd just picked and we made a cottage pie together which we ate half of for dinner, then on the Sunday we carved the pumpkins and he painted his. The rest of the veggies we picked we used for a Sunday roast and had some roasted pumpkin instead of parsnips.

When we'd scooped the pumpkins out, we put all the seeds to one side and made a ton of soup with the flesh. We had that for lunch and froze the rest, about 24 portions in total. DS helped to put the seeds in one bowl and the flesh in another, he loved sorting through it all.

We dried the seeds off with kitchen roll and left them to dry out, then DS helped to put them in an envelope and we'll be planting them in pots in April.

2 full days of entertainment for a toddler, about 30 portions of food (although obviously needed extra ingredients, so add about £10 to the cost for those) and it cost me £10.

I must admit I was disappointed when I took the kids to a pumpkin patch, thinking it would be like the Christmas tree place, or strawberry picking where you actually get to take them from the vine, but the pumpkins were just hanging out on bales/around a (very pretty) caravan etc.

They had little displays, and a play area, and a cafe, and you could walk a donkey pulling a little cart or with little baskets on to 'pick' your pumpkin, and I was won around.

If I was wading through a muddy field full of pre-picked pumpkins having wrestled through traffic to get there, I would have been decidedly less charmed I must say.

Nothing funnier than MNers tying themselves in knots trying to describe something as common or beloved of the working classes without actually using the terms ‘common’ or ‘working class’. On Baby Names they delicately suggest that a name is ‘a little downmarket’ 😂

So going to this type of activity to take photos with a dog is baffling to me, do you sit down years from now with the dog and reminisce over photos about the time you went pumpkin picking?

It's baffling to you that some people enjoy taking photos? Really? Or is it only photos of a dog you have a problem with? Are people who like dogs not allowed to like having nice pictures of them? Why would it be baffling that someone might take a photo of something they like?

Pretty much everyone I know who owns a dog or a cat takes loads of photos of them because a) they like their dog or cat and would probably like a record of them after they've gone and b) getting a good photo of something is a satisfying process.

Why do Mumsnetters think that photos have to have a purpose anyway? Some people just like taking pictures as a fun, creative activity. People go to places for the purposes of taking photos in a specific setting all the time.

If you are really that 'baffled' that some people like different things to you, you might have some faulty wiring in your head, because it's really not that hard to comprehend. I don't like (for example) camping, but I don't find it 'baffling' that other people might want do it. Grow up.

They have, they have just used the favoured MN euphemism ‘naff’ because they know they’ll get a flaming if they use ‘chavvy’, ‘common’ etc. It comes down to sneering at those they consider beneath them.