Restaurant high chairs leave little to be desired

I know it has been a week of no posts, but after a week of travelling, I am back.

And during my week of travels, I discovered a reoccuring theme while on the road: restaurant high chairs leave little to be desired. We ate in restaurants for most of our journey, which resulted in either us or the waitress dragging a high chair to our table. Most of the high chairs were encountered were dirty, sticky and grimy. The daily ritual involved me subduing the germaphobe in me, gritting my teeth and strapping darling daughter in the high chair. However, before I would drop a morsel of food on darling daughter's tray, I'd quickly wipe the tray down with a baby wipe. While the wipe likely just rearranged the germs on the tray, I like to think I killed some in the process.

There is a reason restaurant high chairs are dirty, stick and grimy. It is because babies and toddlers eat with their sticky and grimy little hands and they drop food everywhere. One night I gave darling daughter Gerber Graduate puffs at the hotel restaurant as part of her supper and the next morning I found some puffs in the high chair seat. As a conscientious mom, I tried to clean darling daughter's messes the best I could. I couldn't help to feel embarrassed looking at the end of result of darling daughter's meals -- a mess of food on the floor. But as dear husband points out, that's what tips are for.

Back to the high chairs. I think restaurants would do their littlest patrons a great service if they would wash down their high chairs on a regular basis. Obviously, it is easy enough to overlook the high chair when you have a dishcloth in hand, but I know all parents would appreciate it if a little more effort was put into keeping restaurant high chairs clean.