Travel Placemat

I’m kind of a tidy freak. Not like, “Clorox for everyone!” but still pretty into the orderly. Astrid is too. She asks for a napkin to clean up spills. It’s awesome.

When she started eating table food, I thought a travel placemat would be great/necessary to address the joint issues of not-so-clean public tables / not-so-tidy toddler eating (even though she’s pretty organized, she’s still a toddler). I bought a wipeable rubber placemat with an attached trough (!) that kind of suctions onto a table surface. 

Let’s cut to the chase: it didn’t work out at all.

It was too big for carrying along with the other 100 things in my baby bag (it rolls up but is still big) + it didn’t stay on the table very well + Astrid didn’t like it.

I saw a mom with disposable Thomas the Tank Engine ones glued to the cafeteria tables at the Academy of Science the other day and her boys seemed fine. But it still looked like a lot of trouble.

Am I missing something? Isn’t this why restaurants have placemats in the first place?? Is this a useless product tapping into germaphobic parents’ paranoia? Or do you have one and love it and it totally works and it’s just me? Let me know, would you? In the meantime, I’m giving this a “not needed” rating.