In my area (Northern CA), only prospective parents and adoptable foster kids and sws are allowed at the picnics. We are encouraged to interact with ALL the kids, not just the ones we are interested in. We are told the rules before the children arrive. We are not allowed to bring our own children.
I just went to one last month, and met a nice older girl, who spent time with me, although I introduced her to other families, and offered to leave her for a while so that she could meet other families, and she didn't want me to. We are going to a match meeting about her in 2 weeks
. But I did feel bad that she came with a carload of three other kids, whom I did interact with, but she and I happened to click. Now I see that the sib set that came with her, the sw is still looking for a family for them (and they were really nice kids, I just don't have enough room!). So I don't know how they are told on the other end...they are old enough to realize what is going on, but hopefully they understand that not everyone will find their forever family at the picnic. The picnic organizers have lots of fun events and crafts to do, so hopefully they had some fun, too.