I think it also depends on what you serve and the ages of the kids. I tend to serve a lot of messy things like pasta, rice, cous cous, etc and although I know sandwiches are a whole lot less messy, I feel it is worth the mess. Then there is the age factor...my kids are almost all under two so they are very messy eaters...everything ends up on the floor and in the booster seats. Plus, it is hard to do any cleaning while the eat because somebody always needs something and I need to monitor them more closely to make sure they are not throwing food, stealing food, dumping water, etc etc.