fluffycakes
Junior Sitter
A silken-haired beauty with a laugh like pealing bells
Posts: 868
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Post by fluffycakes on Nov 4, 2007 16:34:16 GMT -5
Bringing up a somewhat oldish point... ^They always acted like letting the kids watch TV would be about on the same level as tying them to a chair and feeding them rat poison. I mean, yeah children shouldn't be parked in front of the the TV 24/7, but the BSC really went out of their way to make sure the kids never watched any TV at all. It was always like "No, you can't watch TV, you'll turn into a pile of dust as soon as you turn the set on! Why don't we go over to where Stacey is baby-sitting so we can brainstorm ideas for our 27th carnival this month!" That was pretty unrealistic to me. When I baby-sat, a lot of the time the parents put on a movie specifically to give us something to do until the kids had to go to bed. The BSC fan in me always asked the kids if they wanted to do something else, but if they said no, I went along with it. Hey, it's easy money! I re-read Claudia and the New Girl yesterday and just had to laugh. Claud drags the Rodowsky boys inside and makes them watch TV because she needed to "be alone." I had to laugh at that because I know there's no way that that would happen in a later book.
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Post by booboobrewer on Nov 4, 2007 18:02:23 GMT -5
In Stacey's Emergency, Stacey lets Charlotte and Becca watch some program about "a boy and his horse" on TV after they make fudge. I guess it's okay for the normally calm, quiet kids to watch TV but chaos will ensue if say, the Pike brood or other charges do it?
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Post by aln1982 on Nov 4, 2007 20:21:52 GMT -5
^ What kind of program would that be about a "boy and his horse"? For some reason, that just made me laugh. ;D I don't remember that one.
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Post by booboobrewer on Nov 4, 2007 21:36:56 GMT -5
I think it was a movie actually.
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Post by sweetvalleygirl99 on Nov 4, 2007 22:13:22 GMT -5
I know! That bugged me so much in Jessi and the Awful Secret when Kristy and her Mum told the kids that they could only watch The Wizard of Oz movie until Dorothy leaves Munchkinland, then Stacey will have to turn it off... that's only a half an hour into the movie! Then when Stacey switched it off, David Michael says " Now what do we do?" If they don't have anything else to do, why not let them watch the whole movie instead of stopping it a third of the way through??! I remember reading that and was like, WTF? If I were Stacey, I would've let the kids watch the whole movie and then tell Kristy and Elizabeth that they turned the movie off right after Dorothy left Munchkinland ;D. Anyway for most unrealistic plotlines, I agree with what everyone has posted. I also have a few of my own... All of the BSC and their charges loving I Love Lucy and knowing each episode by heart. Heck, AMM even made the fictional president of the US in Karen's President a Lucy fan . The fact that MA had a steady BF at thirteen. I'm 18 and have had no serious BF. The numerous vacations they took, most notably the trips to Hawaii and Europe that were class trips . I can understand them going to Europe (that's realistic IMO, because my English teacher is taking a group of my classmates there after graduation. I can't go because I have my graduation party and then my cousin is getting married the next week but a Europe trip is realistic), but Hawaii? That was stretching it. The "Pizza Queen" storyline is the LS book, Karen's Pizza Party. I've never even heard of a Pizza Queen after that book. The BSC basically dominating the play in SS #9. The fact that Mal and Jessi were 11 and baby-sitting for 10 year olds.
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lilafowler
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,163
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Post by lilafowler on Nov 4, 2007 22:29:04 GMT -5
I'm assuming "the boy and his horse" is actually another instance of one of the charges "cutely" mixing up words while simultaneously being another insertion of one of Ann's favorite things. It sounds like a reference to the fifth Narnia book, which is actually titled The Horse and His Boy.
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janey83
Sitter-In-Training
Posts: 374
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Post by janey83 on Nov 5, 2007 10:37:11 GMT -5
The whole thing with not letting kids watch tv, actually inspired me to become a more creative babysitter. Half the time though, when I came over, the parents had rented a movie for the kids and that was that. And you know, when I was a kid, we were always excited because it meant a movie and pizza. We ALWAYS had pizza when a babysitter came over.
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msstock87
Sitting For The Braddocks
Here Comes The Bride!
Created by Rie.
Posts: 3,618
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Post by msstock87 on Nov 5, 2007 10:42:42 GMT -5
It depended on what client I was babysitting for, one of my clients always had a movie for the kids to watch when I babysat them, the other clients I babysat for we were always doing something really creative.
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Post by liss31d on Nov 5, 2007 11:02:25 GMT -5
The thing is if I were babysitting (have never really had the chance to do so, except when I was younger and I'd help my older sister babysit to keep her company, but they were generally kids who were already in bed when we got there), I'd love to bring over my movies and watch it with them! Something fun like a kids' movie or a family one. I used to love it when my babysitters did that!
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starrynight
Sitting For The Kuhns
The Royal Diner of Pizza Express
Posts: 4,004
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Post by starrynight on Nov 5, 2007 11:08:19 GMT -5
TV definitely became more evil as the series went on. In "Phantom Phone Calls," when Stacey is sitting for Charlotte and the storm starts, they "put on the tv," "find the remote control unit," and Stacey looks for the "cable box" (gotta love the old-fashioned language!!!). Not only that, but she lets Charlotte, a not-too-terribly-brave SEVEN YEAR OLD watch a horror movie in the middle of a scary thunderstorm. Never would have happened later on!
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on Nov 5, 2007 16:14:20 GMT -5
^Don't forget, Stacey first suggested that they watch MTV! They just couldn't because Charlotte didn't have cable.
sweetvalleygirl99, I don't think that the trip-to-Hawaii thing was that unrealistic, because it wasn't really a class trip. SMS made a deal with a tour group to arrange a trip in the summer. Those things are pretty common, but they do generally tend to be for students who are in high school rather than middle school, and $500 for a round-trip ticket from Connecticut to Hawaii, hotel accomodations, and three meals a day sounds unrealistically low.
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Post by aln1982 on Nov 5, 2007 16:40:56 GMT -5
^ But a nice price. ;D I know a kid who is going to Europe, too, with the band so I guess that isn't so unusual but the cost is much higher. Of course, the money and BSC never seems to make much sense. That's one of the most unrealistic parts for me, but I just overlook it. ;D
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Nov 5, 2007 18:20:12 GMT -5
Unrealistic plot - ALL the Pike kids being shunned because Mr Pike was out of work for a couple of weeks. Yeah, right.
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janey83
Sitter-In-Training
Posts: 374
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Post by janey83 on Nov 5, 2007 22:14:58 GMT -5
Does Janine drive? Isn't she 16 already? She could have been featured more as yet another teenager who loves driving the babysitters around town.
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Post by booboobrewer on Nov 5, 2007 22:49:28 GMT -5
Yeah, there are hardly any mentions of Janine driving. I think the only times I might remember it being mentioned were when she was going to meet Jerry someplace, but I'm not really sure.
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