I need an iPad case for the kitchen table, any suggestions?

We have an iPad 2 that now belongs to “the kitchen”. I’m sure many readers have a similar arrangement. In practice, the device is configured with my wife’s email and calendar — so she is, I suppose, the primary user. However I reckon 90% of the actual usage is dedicated to entertaining 2-year-old Archie when all else has failed.

We’re doing our best to be proper parents. I’d like to avoid the now familiar scene of a family out for dinner at a nice restaurant with both children sitting wearing headphones, glued to either an iPhone or iPad. In recent weeks though, the teething has been bad. Not bad enough to warrant bucketloads of Calpol (although I do like the idea of some kind of Calpol-style drip for these occasions). It’s bad enough to deliver high levels of general irritation though. You and I would probably pop a few low-strength Neurofen across the day to get past the discomfort. You can’t do that if you’re 2. Firstly, it’s difficult to communicate the discomfort and you have to deal with an overly concerned set of parents (“Are we giving him too much Calpol? Can you give a child too much?” [insert Daily Mail old wives tales etc. etc.]).

So the iPad has been in regular use. It’s fantastic for taking his mind of low-level teething pain. (Almost nothing works with high level teething pain where you can virtually see the teeth cutting through the gums).

You need the distraction, you see, because you need the child to eat. If the child doesn’t eat then you get more complications, not least them waking up in the middle of the night hungry (or waking up early). Which leads to a spiral of negative joy. More tired = less patience, lower discomfort threshold and so on.

We’ve already had to replace the screen on this iPad after it was unceremoniously dropped on the tile floor of the kitchen. It’s been through the wars, this one. Now the screen is broken again. Not badly. Just a light crack. And some of the casing has flaked off near the camera. Oh, and it’s regularly been smeared and smothered in everything from Cornflakes to Spaghetti Bolognase. It’s still working though.

I was giving some thought to replacing it, given it’s got a few cracks on the screen. But the cracks are internal, you can’t feel them and you don’t really notice them that much. Especially when all you really care about is watching the same Postman Pat episode for the 27th time that morning.

Which brings me to the objective of this post. I think we need a decent case for the iPad. I reckon it’ll keep on going for a long time provided it doesn’t get dropped too many times.

Here are my criteria:

1. It needs an integrated stand
2. It needs to offer a decent level of dropped-from-the-kitchen-table protection
3. I don’t care what it looks like

Do you have any suggestions for a case to use? Or am I best to mess around on Amazon for 5 minutes and buy something?