What is considered a picnic?

[xatcat]

Does it mean you can't walk and eat something outside?

Or is it when your sat down outside eating?

Just trying to clarify the rules.

Exercise not ‘except use’.

@DownWhichOfLate

Pendants?

I am wearing my 'Do what you like' pendant today.

Ok pedants! (does spell check!) (cleans glasses ) mind you pendants saying your a member of pedants anon!

I can't eat whilst walking, as a child I were told it were COMMON. Luckily I don't like banana, no bench hovering for me. Phew.

@mumwon - “you’re” - check your glasses prescription

flibberty that was also one of my old ma’s BIG SERIOUS views.

Surely the point about a picnic in this context that a) a picnic usually involves sitting around eating with other people and/or b) that it implies that you are out doing a recreational activity that isn't actually for the purpose of exercise, and therefore isn't technically what you're meant to be out for.

It's not really about any inherent problem with eating food outside (on your own), because that has literally no repercussions. Walking for exercise and eating a snack or drinking while doing so - how can that possibly be called a picnic and how can it possibly be a Covid risk?!

You don't have to be running or speed walking for it to count as exercise, so why on earth would it have to be using a water bladder or just 'having sips of water'? We walk for hours in the mountains sometimes. It very much is proper exercise, and drinks and snacks would be normal, sensible or even vital things to take. It's easy to see that a lot of people making these kinds of comments barely knew what outdoor exercise was before Covid!

I cannot for the life of me understand why an adult going for a walk would need to eat something. Can you not wait until you get home. You shouldn't be out for so long that your child needs a snack either, Have breakfast/lunch and go for your walk, No snacking needed.

@HeronLanyon

flibberty that was also one of my old ma’s BIG SERIOUS views.

I took my 2 and 4 year olds out for a walk yesterday and we ended up doing about 5km. Yes we sat on a tree stump and ate some crisps and yoghurts, and drank some water in the middle of a deserted woodland, because walking far and being 2 is quite hard with no food for three hours! They then ate their bananas whilst walking for fear we had stopped too long...

I'm in Wales as well and there's a very real possibility in our dictatorship that Mr Drakeford himself may have popped out from behind a tree to drag us to our feet.

@Barton10

I cannot for the life of me understand why an adult going for a walk would need to eat something. Can you not wait until you get home. You shouldn't be out for so long that your child needs a snack either, Have breakfast/lunch and go for your walk, No snacking needed.

You don't have to understand it because really it is none of your business.

Maybe if people like you stopped trying so damn hard to find a way of getting around the rules, we wouldn't be in quite so much of a mess right now.

There might not be a problem if you do it. The problem would be if EVERYONE did it. And if you do it, it's not fair that everyone else can't.

If your child is likely to get tired on a long walk, go on a walk that they can manage. Equally, there's no need to take snacks etc on walks. Surely you're not going to be out for such a long time that you genuinely need something to eat?

Do people really picnic while they’re exercising?

Take a cereal bar if you need it, munch on the move. Or wait til you get home?

@ImAllOut

I took my 2 and 4 year olds out for a walk yesterday and we ended up doing about 5km. Yes we sat on a tree stump and ate some crisps and yoghurts, and drank some water in the middle of a deserted woodland, because walking far and being 2 is quite hard with no food for three hours! They then ate their bananas whilst walking for fear we had stopped too long...

I'm in Wales as well and there's a very real possibility in our dictatorship that Mr Drakeford himself may have popped out from behind a tree to drag us to our feet.

So why the hell would you take such young children for a 3hr walk if you know they a) can't cope with it and b) need a picnic (because that's what yours was) mid way round?

Just go on a short walk for goodness sake. You are not special. You don't get to do things that are against the rules, while everyone else struggles to stay within them.

@ImAllOut

I took my 2 and 4 year olds out for a walk yesterday and we ended up doing about 5km. Yes we sat on a tree stump and ate some crisps and yoghurts, and drank some water in the middle of a deserted woodland, because walking far and being 2 is quite hard with no food for three hours! They then ate their bananas whilst walking for fear we had stopped too long...

I'm in Wales as well and there's a very real possibility in our dictatorship that Mr Drakeford himself may have popped out from behind a tree to drag us to our feet.

That does sound picnic-esque TBF.

Barton10

I cannot for the life of me understand why an adult going for a walk would need to eat something. Can you not wait until you get home. You shouldn't be out for so long that your child needs a snack either, Have breakfast/lunch and go for your walk, No snacking needed.“

Ancient respondent here. From about 7, I was given breakfast, chucked out to play and went in for lunch. BCk out again til dinner. 2d animal bar as Saturday treat. Don’t think I ever fainted.

How things change. Some for the better (having to play out in winter is not fun) but some not. Most kids weren’t overweight then 🤷‍♀️

That does sound picnic-esque TBF.

And it’s spreading Covid how again?

@LindaEllen

Maybe if people like you stopped trying so damn hard to find a way of getting around the rules, we wouldn't be in quite so much of a mess right now.

There might not be a problem if you do it. The problem would be if EVERYONE did it. And if you do it, it's not fair that everyone else can't.

If your child is likely to get tired on a long walk, go on a walk that they can manage. Equally, there's no need to take snacks etc on walks. Surely you're not going to be out for such a long time that you genuinely need something to eat?

My children have spent 10 months living under restrictions, and I spent 5 months alone in a house with a 2 and 3 year old while my husband was in work from 7am until bedtime (as a "keyworker"). In Wales, we remained in lockdown until July and went back into it in September.

So no, I don't take my children out for just a half an hour walk, I ensure we are out of the house for as long as they can manage, because quite honestly, spending anymore time in the house with them after this past year could result in me seriously hurting them or myself. I had awful PND after my second and just as I started to see some light, this shit show happened. I live in a remote area of Wales, where we could walk for miles and not see another soul. Our hospitals were in a shit storm in December that finally has eased slightly. Me sitting on a tree stump in a woods is not spreading covid.

@ImAllOut - well done, that sounds fantastically good for your children’s mental and physical health!

So why the hell would you take such young children for a 3hr walk if you know they a) can't cope with it and b) need a picnic (because that's what yours was) mid way round?

In what world does 'needed a snack' mean 'couldn't cope with the walk'?

I live on the edge of the Lake District. You see loads of smallish children (mostly not as young as 3, but certainly from about 5) walking in the fells with their families. They cope just fine. It's good for them.

The fact that so many people find it an alien idea or think it's some how 'showing off' to go outside for anything more than a walk around the block or in the local park is sad and frankly a bit pathetic. The human body is designed to be active and is able to be outside in all weathers and cover considerable distanceon foot, not to sit in front of Zoom all day.

@DownWhichOfLate bit tactless as prescription is over minus 11 & I shouldn't go for annual eye test at moment (glasses are scratched & need changing)

Yes good for you @ImAllOut. I think the ‘stay the fuck home’ brigade are those that never get off their arses anyway so a long walk or a run is an alien concept to them.

Sitting having a snack on a walk near nobody isn’t spreading the virus so give it a rest.

We did an 11.5 mile walk on Wednesday and a 7.5 mile walk yesterday. On Wednesday we ate a sandwich and had a drink of water standing up in the middle of a field. I don't think the sheep in the field minded! We didn't actually pass anyone else on foot on the entire walk. Yesterday we had a KitKat and water in the middle of another field. My porridge from 3 hours earlier had worn off by that point and climbing broken stiles and wading through mud is quite hard going. I fail to see how I've broken rules or put anyone at risk.

@ImAllOut anyone would think you were licking the tree stumps.
And to be honest, even if you were in remote Wales it'd be very, very unlikely that someone would come along behind you soon after and luck them too.
This really is silly now. The government have intentionally left the guidance woolly so people pull eachother apart arguing instead of scrutinizing their response.
All this, driving to a place isn't local, a banana is a picnic is rubbish. It hasn't been defined in law therefore it has no power. Anything else is just zealous idiots interpreting it to suit them.
I live miles away from any footpath. According to some people this means me and my baby should never leave the house.
And if it were defined in law as such, yeah, I'd have to suck it up. But it's not so I can do as I see fit.
Like everyone else.
Going to go out for a banana walk later just to annoy you all.
You're welcome.

@TheKeatingFive

That does sound picnic-esque TBF.

And it’s spreading Covid how again?

Who knows. I was just commenting as OP was worried about it looking like a picnic. I think. I think OPs banana is less picnic like. 😂 But I think ultimately people have to make grown up decisions for themselves.