What covers your dining room table?

[alkagift]

This may be idiotic but I'm wondering if you use a tablecloth on your table if your child eats at the table with you. We don't use one and never have, but instead have some very hard corkboard placemats which are durable. The problem is that since we've pulled the tray from his highchair and pulled him up to the table, DS is just covering his area on my nice Lexington cherry table with spilled milk, bits of food, etc. He's not overly messy, but he is two, so there are just smears, etc. It's becoming a hazard to the future of the finish!

I want to protect the table, but I'm concerned that if we had a cloth he would just yank on it. I'm tired of cleaning the mess on the wood every meal. What do you do?

Allison
Mommy to Matthew Clayton, who is TWO!

[murpheyblue]

We have two tables that DD eats at regularly: the kitchen and dining room. In the kitchen we have a wood table with no covering. It's not fine furniture so I don't worry about her spilling things. In the dining room, where we eat dinner, we have a cloth table covering. I put a placemat (plastic) at DD's spot and then take a kitchen towel and tuck it under the placemat letting it hang down to protect the edge of the tablecloth.

I have searched and searched for a plain or simply patterned oilcloth to cover the table because I think it would be so easy to wipe off but I just can't find it anywhere.

[Thatchermom]

Not the answer you are really looking for, but truthfully? What covers our table is yesterday's mail, a box that needs to go to the garage, a large basket of coloring stuff...junk. We eat at the island in the kitchen!

[LucyG]

We mostly eat at our kitchen table, which is durable and handed down to us from my parents. So, we just use placemats on that one (DD has a Dora one.). Our dining room table does have a tablecloth on it, though. It's an older table (maybe 70 years old), so has some character marks already. We just got it a few months ago, and in desperation (we were having relatives over for dinner that night), I ran to Kmart and bought a flannel-backed vinyl tablecloth. I put that on it as a pad, and then put a regular tablecloth (washable) over the pad. It looks pretty, I think, and you can't see the vinyl cover under the other one. I will probably get a nicer tablecloth eventually, but this set-up is working well for us right now. HTH!


http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_sapphire_24m.gif[/img][/url]
2 years and counting!

[Mikesa3]

Would this work? http://www.bestbabygear.com/tidipopl.html I've used it at restaurants and it worked well. I probably wouldn't leave it on all the time since I don't know if it would damage the wood.HTH
Nancy-Mom to 6 great kids
edited to add I bought mine at Target

[zuzu]

Most of the time we eat at the kitchen table, which is also wood. (Not as nice as our dining room table, but not something I want ruined, either) We use some square leather woven mats for ourselves, and a plastic/vinyl mat for Sarah - I think we got her mats at PBK. Most of what she eats stays on her plate or mat, and I just wipe the drips or spills after every meal. Our little neat freak ;) is also really good about wiping spills as they occur. (She'll even ask for a napkin or sponge to wipe things - not sure where she got this!) We've never gotten into tablecloths, though I can see how they might be easier at times.

Melissa, mom to Sarah (5/03)

[alkagift]

I don't think it would damage the wood, necessarily, but my problem is the food/mess that extends *beyond* the placemat. I do wish sometimes that he would leave his placemat alone and just stop fiddling, but in general the issue is that food gets on his hands, then he smears his hands on the area outside his placemat..

Allison
Mommy to Matthew Clayton, who is TWO!

[barbarhow]

because what covers my dining room table is a pile of #$%^ that needs to be reyurned/exchanged, too small clothing of Anna's, a half dead plant, my stash of food to be packed up for our trip away this weekend-the list is endless. oops!
Barbara-mom to Jack 3/27/03, a Red Sox fan
and Anna 5/12/05, my little Yankee fan!

[phirey]

TeeHeeeHee. Whe I first saw this thread's subject I thought, "uh, dust?" becasue we never use our formal dining room. Our breakfast table can seat six, so one end has all the mail, newspapers, keys, junk etc all over it. The end we eat is usually sort of cleared off.

[american_mama]

I had the same issue. I bought a $3 Walmart vinyl tablecloth backed with thin batting (which is useless). The theory is that it's easy to wipe, but somehow the tablecloth makes me notice the mess we all make while eating and I frankly wipe it down less now than I did the bare table. My 3 year old does not yank the tablecloth.

Kmart also had extremely cheap vinyl placemats (vinyl to be wipable), which are on our table now. But DD tends to spill beyond the placemat.

If you're like me, you'll quickly graduate to the next three questions. 1) Put a clear vinyl sheet under your child's chair to protect the carpet and 2) if you have fabric covered chairs, wrap that in clear vinyl. Both thick vinyl for the floor and thin for wrapping the chair cover were sold in the fabric dept. at my local Walmart. 3) If you don't have a cordless hand vaccuum, buy the 12 volt Black and Decker one for about $40 and it will quickly suck up crumbs and stuff that were just getting ground into the carpet under the table.

Vinyl has been our friend lately, hasn't it? Not sure that's good.

[luvbeinmama]

Well, what I have is an oilcloth tablecloth that is tied around the legs.

Let me explain, I have a 2nd hand table that the finish got yucky on and I stripped the top of it years & years ago. Well I never got around to finishing it, so it is still unfinished. My kids were staining, drawing on, and pretty much demolishing my table, so I needed to find some kind of solution to this problem. Last fall, I found, at a craft fair, a lady who makes oilcloth bibs, bags, aprons, play/chalk mats and I bought a bag & kid apron/smocks from her. Well I liked the bag so much I got one for my mom and at the time I was ordering, I got the brilliant idea that oilcloth would make a great (tougher than vinyl) tablecloth. So, I measured my table, verified with her that the bolts she gets is 48" wide, and asked if she'd be willing to make a tablecloth the width of the fabric and a certain length and just finish the edges for me. She made it for me and I added straps & buckles to the edges to go around each leg. Now the tablecloth is strapped to the table, it doesn't move, it is a breeze to clean, and I don't worry about stains (there are a few, I just don't worry about them, lol!). Bonus, it also protects the edges of the table which my daughter constantly gets sticky food on. Now if I can just keep my son from poking holes in it, things will be perfect! LOL! :P

[wendmatt]

Books! We just have one of those pine inexpensive tables which we eat at. DD is not too messy so I don't bother with a cloth. The books are there to keep her entertained while she eats!