Just doing a menu board for a local cafe and this has caused some thought!

To put it in context the item ‘Kids Picnic’ is a box of 4 food items that the child can choose from.

Cheers!

Kids Picnic

Well, for a start, unless they’re feeding baby goats, it should be child/children, not kid/kids.

On the assumption that the item is aimed at an individual child, it would be Kid’s Picnic.

Kids picnic

How about “Picnic for Minors”?

It’s a picnic belonging to kids, so it’s a kids’ picnic. Cf. “children’s menu”.

The fact that they want to use the word ‘kids’ rather than ‘children’ probably implies that they don’t give a toss about correct apostropherical usage anyway.

Ankle biters bites

apostropherical

Was that as hard for you to spell as it was for me to just try and pronounce?

I’ll admit, it took a couple of goes 🙂

Rule 4 Applies

To show plural possession, make the noun plural first. Then immediately use the apostrophe.

Examples:
two boys’ hats two women’s hats
two actresses’ hats
two children’s hats
the Changs’ house
the Joneses’ golf clubs
the Strauses’ daughter
the Sanchezes’ artwork
the Hastingses’ appointment
the Leeses’ books

Shirley by default; the Kids’ picnic. As the picnic belongs to the kids

There’s a difference between not being grammatically uptight and not caring about using the correct punctuation.

Should it not be kids’ picnics ie picnics belonging to more than one kid. Alternatively children’s picnics because the plural of child doesn’t end with an s?

There’s a difference between not being grammatically uptight and not caring about using the correct punctuation.

Are you new here?

Sod it, they’re having Kids Picnic – that’s what they have approved!

I’m going for Kid’s picnic, singular possesive.

If you go for Kids’ picnic then you risk someone wanting picnics for all his kids for the price indicated on the menu.

There’s a logical argument for all three, thinking about it.

It’s a picnic for children, as opposed to a picnic for adults, so I believe kids’ is correct, as I said earlier.

The picnic itself is singular, so it would be a kid’s picnic.

If you can have an adult menu, you can have a kids menu.

On reflection, I’d say that it’s more important to be consistent throughout. Are there other similar menu quandaries?

I believe the convention in signwriting is not to use punctuation, so Kids Picnic. But they sound like the kind of people who might go for Kidz Picnic so try that…

I think the possessive apostrophe should be outlawed as an anachronism, the only real purpose it has in the modern world is to demonstrate that people are either really stupid or went to a very very poor school. It isn’t even funny any more. (and that was a contraction you pedants)

Each picnic is for one child, so it’s a “Kid’s Picnic”.

Sod it, they’re having Kids Picnic – that’s what they have approved!

No apostrophes is always better than an incorrect one.

Argh! – just been told the actual wording is Kids Picnics – on reflection I think I’ll try and get them to go with Kid’s Picnic

Is this a single item on a long menu?

Bacon butty
Toasted teacake
Kid’s picnic
Armadillo

—

Bacon butties
Toasted teacakes
Kids’ picnics
Armadillos

—

Be consistent.

Kids’ Picnics

BUT IT SHOULD BE CHILDREN’S! Grr 👿

This thread got it right, then it went off on a wrong track and confused itself with talk of singular or plurual picnics, which is irrelevant.

So to put it right again: Kids’ Picnics

You shouldn’t just drop the apostrophe because you don’t know how to use it.

BUT IT SHOULD BE CHILDREN’S! Grr

Disagree. Nothing wrong with ‘kids’ – denotes fun and informality and a break from having to be strictly correct and follow rules: just right for a picnic.

Disagree.

We shall have to agree to.

To put it in context the item ‘Kids Picnic’ is a box of 4 food items that the child can choose from.

haha, just read that. I’m not so sure now.

If it was kid’s picnics, wouldn’t that mean that the picnics were for just one kid – the manager’s son, perhaps – and not any kid who wanted one.

But kids’ picnics shows that the picnics are for any and all kids who might pass by.

So Kids’ Picnics is still correct, and so am I.

We shall have to agree to [disagree].

Bert? This bloke says he won’t argue!

There’s a car on our car park with a sticker on the back that says
Old Fords’s Never Die

Sorry, I can’t hear you from all the way up here on the moral high ground 🙂

There’s a car on our car park with a sticker on the back that says
Old Fords’s Never Die

Is the driver Gollum?

I used to work in Wolverhampton for my sins. I wanted to hurt people in the cafe of a morning, asking for two breakfasts’s and a cup o tay.

I’m not sure – technically – what it means 🙂

Does it mean that several people named Fords never die?

I’m with cougar on this.
…on second thoughts, have we determined if the content of the picnic (singular) is for one kid or for a multitude? [runs for cover]

[edit] too slow 🙁 [/edit]

Easy: Kids’ picnic.

WRT “fords’s” and “breakfasts’s” it’s possibly a little CDO of me but I itch when I see otherwise professional menus advertising “paninis”.

I’m going for Kid’s picnic, singular possesive.

I agree with this, although grammatical advice from someone who can’t spell possessive is a bit of a concern.

If it’s a single item item on a menu like “ham sandwich” then it should be “kid’s picnic”. A picnic for more than one child would be “kids’ picnic”.

I don’t see a problem with using a commonly used, informal word meaning “child”.

Is it right to worry about the possessive when the picnic is not owned by the child? The cafe are advertising the fact that a picnic is available for kids but legally still owned by the cafe as they are advertising in the hope that a purchase will occur and thus form a contract with an intended buyer.
I think the safest option is to probably opt for:

Available for purchase: a picnic aimed (but not entirely restricted to) a younger demographic.

I agree with this, although grammatical advice from someone who can’t spell possessive is a bit of a concern.

I can, I just didn’t 😀