Helena and her friend totally took the option of having a kids table and eating dinner outside. The adults were similarly keen…. weird that.

So they set up their own table which included their babies and the associated paraphernalia of bowls, cutlery etc. Those babies were well looked after.

It did not look like our civilised affair. They did sit at the table, then they ran around loudly before sitting down to eat again. I don’t know if they talked about poo or similar sophisticated topics but they were certainly talking and it wasn’t boring!

At some point they decided, or maybe they just knew they were finished and they were off arranging some of the contents of the garage on the driveway and inventing a new sport.

I don’t remember what us adults discussed but we certainly didn’t have as much fun. There are times when I want Helena to use her manners and engage in dinner conversation, or even just listen to adults being erudite but I remember being at the kids table and that it totally gave me the same feeling I get when I go to a really good dinner party. I look at the yoof of today and they do things differently yet also the same. I hope that Helena can go out for dinner with people of my generation and older and that she will like it more than doing it just for the free food but I do enjoy having dinner with people at the same stage in life and it can really extend ones thinking just as the kids table extends Helena for the world she will inhabit.