Boring but I need to ask

[maggiethecat]

Is there a picnic rug/blanket etiquette?

We were at park with a few other families and 2 families were quite keen that kids should not walk on picnic rugs with food on it.

I can understand that you don't want people treading in/over the food but it was almost as if rug should be regarded as dining table - place to have food on and which you would never walk on.

I'm a bit more relaxed and provided I don't get someone's toe dipped in my hummous I don't think the rug should be sacred.

I feel the same as your friends. It's Ok to sit on, but not to walk on IMO.

I would be in the Dont Walk Over The Rug! camp.

i am "don't walk on the rug" mum!

and on a beach i'd set up a buffer exclusion zone otherwise the little feckers come running over and EVERYTHING gets showered in sand!

That's what I thought from the reaction of other mums at the time ie most seem to practise what we apparently don't.

Ok, just so that they are not considered social outcasts at picnics what to I tell them - try to place self on the rug to sit on but with legs/feet dangling off?

you could take shoes off and leave them at the side of the rug and then you can sit cross legged on the rug.

We have one to put food on and 2 more to sit on. I don't let people walk on the one with the food.

Seona, they do take shoes off which is basically a follow on from our shoe at the door policy at home so they would have been barefeet or with socks on but it was still an issue.

Harriet, I was thinking same thing - have a very distinctive rug reserved for food which is the exclusion zone.

Aaah! it could all get complicated around an occasion that is supposed to be quite chilled.

Picnic rugs aren't usually all that big so generally are quite tight for space by the time everyone has sat down and the goodies have been laid out.

I would definitely encourage mine to sit on the rug but not walk on it. Otherwise, why have the rug at all as it won't be keeping an area cleaner for picnicing.

I don't think it needs to get complicated though. Play on the grass/sand - sit on the blanket.