I wish, wish I had gotten leather seats. Even though I only let the children eat non-messy food in the car, my back seats are stained and dirty while the front seats are clean. I clean the car monthly and have it detailed once per year and still can't get the back seats clean. One of my children throw up on the car. Thank goodness, it mostly hit the floor mat so I that was easy to throw away and replace. Our other child managed to open her sippy cup and spilled milk all over the back seat. She never opened the sippy cup except for once, of course, when we were car. DH's car which we bought several years after having children has leather seats, and it's so easy to clean. If you can afford it, definately get leather.

We have always had cloth seats and our kids are now 8.5 and 6. We have never, ever had a problem. Leather can be nice, but we've never been willing to pay for it, and our seats are as clean as they can be (almost look new even though car is almost 9 years old). Car seats and boosters protect the seats a lot I guess, but I also don't feed kids in the car anything other than dry cracker-types of food.

I personally don't like leather seats. They're hot, slippery, etc.

Its personal preference. And we haven't had issues keeping the cloth seats in fairly good shape (and yes, we do allow eating in the car on long trips).

My van is 11 years old, and the cloth seats are still clean, even after having our two sons (now teens) and their friends riding all over the place with me through the years. We only allowed eating in the car on long trips, and that was only dry snacks and water bottles, so we never had a problem with spills.

My DH's car has leather seats, and we both hate them. They are hot in the summer and I hate the way I slide around on them. I'd take cloth seats anyday.

Our kids only eat/drink in the car on long trips. We had (dark) cloth seat the whole time they were small with nothing awful resulting. Now we have leather which is very hot and horrible when sunscreen rubs on it. I would easily go back to cloth.

aren't there mats they sell to protect seats from car seats? I think I saw them at Babies R US

Or just don't eat in the car.

It's not just about eating. A lot of kids go through a motion sickness phase. Puke smell is tough to clean out of anything, but so much worse in cloth.

Anonymous wrote:I would just cover the cloth with towels or some type of sheeting, where the kids will sit. Unless you can afford leather, which I do hear from others is easier to clean.

Under the car seats? Would that be safe in terms of the seats slipping around?

Anonymous wrote:Or just don't eat in the car.

Just wondering -- does anyone with kids have a no eating or drinking in the car rule? Seems difficult to pull off.

Or just don't eat in the car.

I would just cover the cloth with towels or some type of sheeting, where the kids will sit. Unless you can afford leather, which I do hear from others is easier to clean.

Not the answer I wanted but thanks!

I think so. Leather gets much hotter than cloth, so we keep a few towels in a bag in the trunk, to put down on the seats in order to protect backs of little thighs.

Yes. Leather is worth the extra money.

We have two kids. Are cloth seats a big mistake in terms of clean up?