To think you should eat outside in summer

Exactly. Except I think youre wasting your time, OP appears to have only come for validation that one should indeed eat outside, otherwise they're missing out on the true meaning of life.

If someone doesn't enjoy it, they aren't missing out.

I always come away from BBQ's, picnics etc feeling disappointed and annoyed by flies/wasps and on some occasions, badly behaved dogs.

I don't like eating outside, insects buzzing around my food, sun shining in my eyes, potential for swooping birds, maybe even a bird pooping close to where I am eating. YABU.

I only enjoy eating outside if in shade. If there’s no shade and flies/wasps I couldn’t stay outside.

They don’t. You only have to look at restaurants and cafes with outside spaces in the summer. Indoor: empty, outside
: packed.

Exactly! I enjoy the seasons for their differences. While we can we eat differently , dress differently and use our garden .i also can’t visit a cinema on a sunny and warm day.

We live in SW France. This week is the first time since probably May that we've eaten inside (because it's gone suddenly cooler). We have a fan over our dining table on our covered terrace and rotating fly fans at table height. We haven't cooked inside for months (our BBQ also has a hob so we can cook pasta etc.). Al fresco dining is something we spend all winter looking forward to and if we go to a restaurant in the summer we always sit outside (although always in the shade).

Night markets outside under the shade of the trees in the square, their leaves lit by coloured strings of lights, are a magical thing.

But then once I visited a friend with a holiday home on a lovely September evening and was really disappointed that we sat inside all evening with the telly burbling on in the background. "Oh, I thought we'd be outside" I said. "Oh no, we never eat outside because of the insects".

So although there's no "should" about it, my preference is always for dining Al fresco. I think it's odd that people don't like it, but each to their own.

Just enjoy your holiday....life is too short... just relax....

To answer these:

• I’ve had a couple of picnics and can’t say I enjoy sitting in the floor eating outside. Tried one once when my kids were little and they ran away screaming from a wasp or something and never tried again. Plus it’s just easier to eat at home inside where all the knives, plates etc are.
• Terrace… maybe would be ok. A proper table, if it was well set up. I’d choose to eat inside if possible though, especially when abroad as I’d want the air con,
• I probably wouldn’t do the strawberry thing. I need to wash my hands before I eat and wouldn’t want to eat food with my hands when out and about and when I couldn’t wash stickiness off afterwards.
• I don’t think I’ve ever sat on my doorstep, never mind drank a beer at my front door. This one definitely doesn’t appeal to me.

I enjoy eating outside in the park or if the weather is nice, not hot, and in some shade but not so much at cafes and restaurants where smoking is allowed which is an issue in the local town centre, the smell alone puts me off. Part of eating is being able to smell my food.

Oh wow I had no idea so many people hate eating outside.

Each to their own. It never fails to astound me how one person expects another to want to do the same thing as they do? Especially in informal situations.

I'm another who prefers the idea of al fresco dining to the reality. I don't object to the occasional BBQ, but I can live without picnics. Many years ago, after an appointment with our solicitor re some conveyancing, we bought items for a picnic and visited the local park. We settled down and as soon as the cake came out, we were accosted by a gaggle of geese. Their leader was a huge white goose with the demeanour of a school bully come to snatch your lunch money. He/she had a nasty-looking beak and hench-geese, so we wrapped up the remains of our picnic and got out of there.

I can't remember the last time I had fish and chips in the open air. If you live in much of the UK, you're taking a risk and I'm not far from Whitby, where the herring gulls are basically thugs. If I want fish and chips at the seaside, I have them inside!

But you can enjoy the sun without eating outdoors.

If you want to sit outside and eat, then that’s fine. I probably would too.

But if your DH and DD want to sit inside and eat, then that’s fine too.

Just eat separately.

I agree. I can't bear being cooped up.when it's glorious outside. I'm sitting outside now with the fire pit on awaiting my dinner. I eat outside all through the summer unless it's raining.

I wouldn’t. I’d rather be inside an air conditioned room than eating and marinading in my sweat while swatting flies. Saying that as someone who grew up in Europe whose family insisted on eating outside in summer (and wasn’t even as hot as now back then).

I hate eating outside, either at home or on holiday. Don’t like staff plonking down my cutlery on pub garden tables where pigeons have been walking and shitting. Not to mention pests like seagulls, wasps, flies, stray cats in abundance in many holiday resorts, etc.

If your DH and DD don’t like eating outside, why not eat inside and sit round the table chatting, but all spend time together outside too, playing in the pool or having an evening drink or whatever?

Yes it would. But they want to eat inside and you want to eat out. So why should you “win”?

They don’t seem bothered about eating together as a family, they’re happy to go inside without you. You’re the one that’s bothered so you need to choose between eating outside or eating together. You can’t make them sit out just because YOU want them to.

For the record I do prefer outside as well, but I can understand everyone is different and has different preferences.

He sounds like a bore but it’s his preference. You can’t change him, you’re just mismatched. Why does your daughter go inside? Don’t let him dictate where she goes!!

Because people clearly enjoy summer differently. Your way isn't the definite right way to enjoy summer.

DS hates eating outside after he was stung by a bee (slightly paranoid about them now but getting better). DH isn't keen as he took a bite of a sandwich on a picnic just as a wasp landed on it once (only good thing was he was encouraged to have an ice cream by the first aid person on duty at the event we were at). And I don't like being bothered by flies.

So we tend to do something very radical. We spend the day outdoors, eat indoors...and then go back out again! It's an amazing compromise!

@greengreyblue Ah now that's different. Eating outdoors in a restaurant or pub is lovely. I'm not setting the table / bringing the food / cleaning up. They're also usually well set up with parasols

I also live abroad (which many pps seem to have missed) I only eat inside at work or in the Winter when it's cold. We dont really have many wasps etc like in the UK, so I am always outside eating 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️