Dads, whose job is it in your house to promote family time? Many men are content to leave it to mom to do all the social arranging and family fun planning, but I say that we dads need to take active part in planning and promoting family time. One fantastic way to promote family time is to plan a family picnic. What could be more pleasant than an afternoon outdoors with the ones that you love? If you put just a little planning into your outing, it can make all the difference between a memorable family activity, and a family fiasco.
1) Plan for a day that you and your kids can handle. If you have young children, you probably want to pick a picnic location that is conveniently close. Imagine driving three hours away to have an hour and a half picnic followed by another three hour drive home. Your kids would have a mutiny in the mini-van. The younger your children are, the closer you probably want your picnic to take place. You also don’t want to feel obligated by a long drive to stay all day at the picnic site. Don’t stay at the picnic site too long. It’s best to pack up and leave BEFORE the meltdown starts.
2) Check the weather before you go on a picnic. If the weather is going to be uncomfortably hot, then you may want to reschedule your family day out. Nothing makes me grumpier than being hot and sweaty. Also, nobody wants to get stuck in the rain, trying to cover the potato salad and baked beans in the middle of a downpour.
3) Don’t pack more equipment than you need. On our last picnic, I took along several balls, Frisbees, as well as other sports equipment. These are all things that my kids love to do at home. In fact, we often have to remind them not to do them in the apartment. The kids didn’t want to play with them at the picnic, though. Instead, they all wanted to walk along the pond, taking pictures, looking at spider-webs on the bridge, feeding the ducks, and looking at the gigantic snapping turtle that we found.
4) Pack food that everyone will eat. This seems logical, but our oldest child has a terrible gag reflex for certain food textures. (This isn’t just a ploy to be a picky eater. She will actually throw up if we try to feed her anything mushy.) If we didn’t bring along the food for the picnic, as well as Liz’s special food, than we’d be in for a rough afternoon.
5) You should make sure that there are working, accessible bathrooms at the picnic site.
Have fun at the picnic!
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