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Austin Babies
Plastic table placemat thingies
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Re: Plastic table placemat thingies
We have that one in blue. I bought it at buy buy baby. I don't recall it being super pricey--I wouldn't have bought it if it was. I am really glad we have it. I use it anytime I am not at home...I used it on my vaca to New England, I use it out to dinner, I use it at my sisters.... I love it. We have it in blue.
oh yeah...mine hasn't stained yet...and we've had bbq, blueberries, strawberries, you name it, it's been on it. It wipes clean easily. I love that it rolls up and is easily carried in my diaper bag. The one downside is there are certain types of tables it doesn't stick to. My sisters old-a$$ wooden table didn't like it.
Imo, I wasn't into getting the ones that you use once...wasteful. I feel Logan will use this for a long time...and we if have another... (just sayin')
Photo by Melissa Glynn
they're recycled and "green", so I didn't feel bad buying them, not one teeny tiny bit.
and when you have to buy 2 of them, yeah, they're pricey.
Ours will mostly be used at home, so easy to throw in the sink. Emily mostly eats in a Chicco clip on high chair since Abby commandeered the SpaceSaver chair. There's a gap between it and the table which equals mess and we end up washing the chair a lot. The sides may be able to held down by the arms but I'll have to test to make sure it's still secure.
I can definitely see the disposables being not too shabby for going out sometimes. I don't mind her eating off some tables (we do BLW so it's Allll over the table) but others are just uncleanable - like at the Salt Lick.
We have a bunch of those Tiny Diners and hate them. They're just a PITA, IMO. Our boys won't use them nicely, though, so I'm sure that has something to do with my opinion of the product. They get all distracted by the placemat and start trying to reverse engineer it, which results in less dinner eaten and the uneaten dinner spread everywhere when the reverse engineering finally succeeds. Can't blame Tiny Diner for that, I guess.
I will say this, though: The Tiny Diners really are totally useless on anything but a perfectly smooth table. The suction cups, obviously, won't suction onto woodgrain, and if the thing isn't suctioned down it flaps everywhere. So Taytee, if you're planning on using it primarily at home, I'd skip it unless your table is glass or plastic.
At home, we've had the best luck with plain old bathtowels to protect the table. They're not pretty, but they cover a lot of real estate and they're easy to maintain. Just shake them out outdoors when mealtime's done and throw them in the hamper. And because they're big, they're hard for the boys to whip off of the table once we have some heavy things sitting on them.
We have that one pictured - in pink. Wanted the green one but they were sold out - as well as the blue ones b/c for some reason when I went to BRU to buy it only the blue ones were on sale. WTF BRU?
We used it enough to get our money's worth - but we soon transitioned to the disposable ones (our HEB carries Sesame Street themed ones). Granted, we NEVER go out to eat so we've been through 2 packs of the disposables in DD's 2 years.
My issue w/ the tiny diner is that it's a PITA to clean. If you bring it w/ you to a restaurant, you can only wipe it down so well while you're there. Then you have to take the sticky-icky thing home w/ you and pray that you remember to wash it that very night or you have a nice moldy mess on your hands. I also found the material a little hard to get clean - even w/ a scrubber and soap/hot water at home. And once DD figured out how to un-suction it - the fun really began.
So I now always have a disposable one (they fold up super small) in my purse just in case - and the tiny diner stays in my "emergency" car stash. As PP said - it's really nice to be able to package everything up w/ the disposable ones so that all your trash is in one nice bundle. Heck, I've even transported DD's leftover Mighty Fine grilled cheese w/ a disposable one!