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For two and a half years, I hated the sight of my toddler’s playmat in the family room. The bright red, yellow, blue, and green alphabet mat was an eyesore and would never “go” with the home I so lovingly decorated.

But I couldn’t just toss it out.

I needed a safe space for my daughter to play, eat and be messy. Basically, be a kid. So I gave up. I assumed I was doing the right thing by ignoring the obnoxious colors and ensuring she had a padded area for play.

This didn’t last long.

My friend and I were catching up when she said she just replaced all of her playmats because they weren’t non-toxic. This was news to me. She said most playmats are full of chemicals like BPA, flame retardant and formaldehyde. I mean, why would the surface my child plays on need formaldehyde?!

Here I was worried about how it looked, not even realizing the “safe space” I created for my daughter to lay, play and eat on was toxic!

That’s when I knew it was time for a change.

And if I was investing in new playmats, they might as well be beautiful too. So I started scouring the mommy-blogs of Instagram looking for something new. That’s when I found accounts of mothers from all over Europe featuring photos of elegant and safe playmats.

Seems random, I know! But in hindsight, it kind of makes sense. Don’t all the newest trends come from Europe anyway?

Meet Toddlekind. A German company founded by a British mother.

Toddlekind gets the need for function AND style because it’s founder faced the same dilemma! They understand that while you want your child to have a safe space to play, you also want your home to feel like yours.

But I get it, you’re a busy parent. So let me quickly break the two things you actually care about: function and style.