up and down at meal times

[KellyandBean]

My 2.5 year old recently figured out she can get in and out of her chair at meal time. She is in a regular chair with a booster on it. It doesn't have straps. I've tried explaining to her that we need to sit down to eat and when we feel like we are all done eating we can go wash up and play again but the next thing i know she is crawling out of her seat again. I ask her if she is all done eating and she says NOOOOO and runs back to her seat. This morning she was wondering around with a bagel and peanut butter and poppy seeds caked all over her fingers touching things. I think part of the problem is me haha. I eat fast and then want to clean up or take care of something and since i am up wandering around she wants to get up too but the thing is that she isn't done eating yet and i am. She eats SO slow. Like an hour and a half at breakfast slow. I don't want to sit there the whole time. So ideas? How do other people deal with this? I don't care so much about her not sitting it is those sticky fingers that get me.

[newmamalizzy]

I would keep at the "Oh, you're getting up?  You must be all done!  Let's go wash hands!" line.  I, too, am very opposed to the yucky hands wandering around my house, and my daughter is pretty good at this point at staying in her seat until she's done.  You could also make a big deal when you leave the table, showing her how you are all done, so now you're getting up.  My DD really likes to listen to music while she's eating.  It keeps her engaged, so she doesn't have as many random thoughts causing her to pop up and down.  The Music Together CD's, nursery rhyme-type songs, and Grover are the current hits. 

[marsupial-mom]

We have this problem at home but not at restaurants or larger family meals. I think the difference is us. We get up and down throughout dinner a lot at home. So I think it just rubs off on our son. Right now I kind of figure that it's not a big deal since he's only 2. But I'm going to work harder at making sure we have everything at the dinner table all at once so there's less need to get up to fetch this or that.

[katelove]

Can she eat somewhere else at breakfast time? My toddler likes to take her time too but she eats in her learning tower at the kitchen bench so I can spend the time unpacking the dishwasher, tidying up etc.

[~Adorkable~]

that having her eat in the kitchen with you doing things is a good idea.

i do think our modeling goes a long way with making this more or less of a problem, and as frustrating as that is it is probably good for us to learn to sit still and multitask less during mealtimes.

that does not help much is your little girl takes 90 min to eat!  i like the kitchen idea for that.  

i am struggling with this in my 22 month old twins now.

part of it is a wanting to hop up and down, the other part i think is rejection of the highchair.  we have great highchairs that are a type that they can use in one form or another for a very long time and I'm really hoping that this is just a phase.

sometime they just want to run around and get food on the "drive by" other times it is just wanting to sit in a adult chair or on our lap.  i haven't found the answer yet