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Post by m0drnmoonlight on Apr 20, 2009 15:39:02 GMT -5
Yes, I hated this, too. Re: the carryover into the next book, Dawn calls during a BSC meeting and Kristy grabs the phone and starts screaming about how Dawn has to come home right away because they're so swamped with baby-sitting jobs. HATE. I'd have been relieved to get away from the BSC, if Kristy was going to be such a psycho about everything. LOL yes and she refuses to let Dawn talk to Mary Anne until she promises to come back to help the BSC out. What a nut. She's so incredibly paranoid about her own clients...when Jessi's taking care of the Dodsons plants in another book and says they're starting to droop, Kristy panics and thinks Mrs. Dodson will knock on the door of every person in Stoneybrook and tell them the BSC killed her plants and they're horrible sitters. Because plant killer = child killer. Sit down and shut up, Kristy. What's incredibly mean is how she decides to just blame poor Mallory for the whole thing; she says Mallory's probably sick and she hopes they dont get sick because then they'll have to close up for good. Between that and how nasty she is to Dawn here, I'm surprised the other girls didn't just band together and quit because she was such a b*tch. But I forgot how the club is TERRIFIED of pissing her off.
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Post by Kylie90210 on Apr 26, 2009 21:29:54 GMT -5
Dawn's indecisiveness really annoyed me, from a Sharon perspective. I really feel sorry for Sharon. What if she had never re-married Richard? Then when Dawn left she would have been all alone. I wonder if Sharon feels like a terrible mother? She's not, but she would probably feel that way.
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Post by greer on Apr 26, 2009 21:57:03 GMT -5
I don't think that she would have left if Sharon hadn't remarried, because she felt like her mom needed her so much in #23. But with a husband and stepdaughter, she felt like Sharon had people to support her.
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Post by m0drnmoonlight on Apr 27, 2009 13:01:03 GMT -5
Dawn's indecisiveness really annoyed me, from a Sharon perspective. I really feel sorry for Sharon. What if she had never re-married Richard? Then when Dawn left she would have been all alone. I wonder if Sharon feels like a terrible mother? She's not, but she would probably feel that way. When Jeff leaves in #15, Dawn says Sharon must feel like she failed at parenting. Ouch.
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Post by featherearrings on Apr 27, 2009 14:00:03 GMT -5
When Jeff leaves in #15, Dawn says Sharon must feel like she failed at parenting. Ouch. I'll bet she did feel that way. I sometimes worry about what I will do if my daughter decides to live with her father someday instead of with me. I know I would be devastated and feel like a huge failure.
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alula
Sitter-In-Training
Posts: 406
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Post by alula on Jun 4, 2009 0:17:20 GMT -5
I just read this one, and wow, I thought Dawn was really nasty and aggressive! I don't mean about wanting to move (I don't begrudge her that at all), but just in the comments she makes in the narration. It's a bunch of things on their own that maybe wouldn't be so bad, but definitely create a snotty tone. Chapter One is full of superior comments about everything: how "East Coast dudes" are "WRO-ONG about California, how even though Mary Anne isn't a health food freak but she "loves her anyway," how Carol "actually" acted her age once, and so forth. I wanted to smack her.
I think the one that bugged me the most was about Richard (who is never anything but kind to her, as far as I remember). So she]s recapping the Horrible Days when MA had to wear pigtails and she says "Mary Anne hated that, but she forgives him. She says he was just worried about being a perfect father and mother. Whatever." OMG, Mary Anne has a mature and sympathetic attitude towards her father instead of holding a grudge for the rest of her life. ("Whatever" actually takes a new paragraph, which just makes it sound more rude to me.)
Also, Dawn, I totally think Richard is funny. Funnier than your dad in SS14! But, you know, whatever.
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Post by m0drnmoonlight on Jun 4, 2009 11:24:59 GMT -5
I just read this one, and wow, I thought Dawn was really nasty and aggressive! I don't mean about wanting to move (I don't begrudge her that at all), but just in the comments she makes in the narration. It's a bunch of things on their own that maybe wouldn't be so bad, but definitely create a snotty tone. Chapter One is full of superior comments about everything: how "East Coast dudes" are "WRO-ONG about California, how even though Mary Anne isn't a health food freak but she "loves her anyway," how Carol "actually" acted her age once, and so forth. I wanted to smack her. I think the one that bugged me the most was about Richard (who is never anything but kind to her, as far as I remember). So she]s recapping the Horrible Days when MA had to wear pigtails and she says "Mary Anne hated that, but she forgives him. She says he was just worried about being a perfect father and mother. Whatever." OMG, Mary Anne has a mature and sympathetic attitude towards her father instead of holding a grudge for the rest of her life. ("Whatever" actually takes a new paragraph, which just makes it sound more rude to me.) Also, Dawn, I totally think Richard is funny. Funnier than your dad in SS14! But, you know, whatever. I didn't like that "Whatever" remark either. Richard was strict, but it was understandable that he was, because like Mary Anne said, he was trying to be a mother and father to her. Richard was very sweet in this book. She also says something like "Ok. Are you done pretending to throw up?" after she describes how she likes healthy, natural foods. For all her "Ewwwwwwwww sugar! You're eating dead animals!" comments, that's kind of hypocritical heh. All the stuff about Sharon being selfish by moving cross-country with Dawn and Jeff aside, I felt bad for her when Dawn blurts out "I wanna go home!" while sitting on the grass with Sharon and Richard and Mary Anne. The only person worse than Dawn in this book was Kristy, for pretty much accusing Dawn of abandoning the BSC and guilt-tripping her enough that she says she'll stay in CT for the sake of the BSC.
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Post by booboobrewer on Jun 4, 2009 12:29:57 GMT -5
Richard was always really nice to Dawn and Jeff, and what does Jack do to Mary Anne? Teases her endlessly about her father. "Whatever," Dawn!
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Post by m0drnmoonlight on Jun 4, 2009 12:46:22 GMT -5
^ Richard always made a very conscious effort to be nice to Dawn and especially Jeff. I just read Dawn and Too Many Sitters, and it sounded like Jeff really warmed up to him after awhile. I haven't read Dawn's Family Feud, but they're both jerks to Richard in that one, right?
I don't think Dawn ever grew to really like him. She's nasty to him at first, and it just sounds like she tolerates him after that. And yes, Jack was really mean to Mary Anne about him!
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Post by booboobrewer on Jun 16, 2009 17:36:39 GMT -5
I reread this one. I've probably said it before, but I'll say it again: the Pike kids are so gross. I hate reading about any chapter that involves them and food or cooking something. Vanessa at least had the good sense to hide in her room during the chaos and write a Dawn poem and cry. The cake they made sounded pretty bad. I would have happily shared some of Dawn's rhubarb pie.
Dawn and Stacey have an interesting relationship. Dawn says she's "so happy" she's in the club because she can talk to her about divorce and stuff. I really like their phone conversation in Welcome Back, Stacey, and probably a reason why I was so annoyed with Dawn when I first read about her behavior in Stacey vs. the BSC is because she USED to be cool to have a conversation with. Then she decided to crouch behind a restaurant jukebox for an evening. She says she is envious of Stacey sometimes for being a train ride away from her dad. I can definitely see how there might be something to the jealousy thing. Dawn's afraid of NYC, Stacey's a city slicker, Dawn constantly misses her brother and father, Stacey gets treated to weekends with her dad, Dawn goes stag to dances, Stacey always has dates, Dawn had to be treasurer and didn't like it, Stacey does the job with ease.
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Penny Lane
Sitting For The Arnolds
The Girl With Colitis Goes By
Posts: 2,888
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Post by Penny Lane on Jun 17, 2009 18:35:01 GMT -5
^that makes a lot of sense.
I really think a lot of people don't realize how hard it must be on Dawn and Jeff to have their parents divorce, their mom drag them across the country to a completely different climate and culture, and then have both parents start dating and marrying other people. It's sad.
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Post by Kylie90210 on Jun 21, 2009 21:26:25 GMT -5
That Dawn and Stacey stuff is so interesting! I think you should create a new thread for it, wow.
And ITA about Richard and the Schafer kids. They were sooooo rude to him. I really disliked them for that.
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Post by candykane on Aug 14, 2009 7:58:45 GMT -5
I really think a lot of people don't realize how hard it must be on Dawn and Jeff to have their parents divorce, their mom drag them across the country to a completely different climate and culture, and then have both parents start dating and marrying other people. It's sad. Yeah, Sharon moved back because her parents were in Connecticut (and then they're barely seen or mentioned in the entire series, even though they supposedly live in Stoneybrook). One has to wonder how much thought Sharon gave to the fact that she was yanking her kids out of the only place they'd ever known, away from their dad, to a place that was totally different from California in every way. Also, not that much time elapsed between their move and their parents' subsequent remarriages. If we ignore the time warp like we're supposed to, it was...only about a year later that they both got remarried? That's a very short time period in which to adjust to all those changes.
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Post by zoar3 on Sept 30, 2009 21:47:04 GMT -5
What bothered me most--yes I know time has no meaning in the BSC World, but still!--was that this book took place probably in September sometime, possibly early October. If Dawn moved back to CA for 6 months, she'd be there through at least March. So the plan was for her to return to SMS for the last two or three months of the school year and graduate with the BSC Members? Naturally neither her mom nor dad mentioned High School or looking into SHS or whatever the Palo City choice would be. For the book itself, well, you guys already know my Dawn feelings. Picture Kristy on the cover of "Farewell, Dawn!" However, I did wish that Dawn had asked her mother why she (Sharon) had never considered simply moving somewhere else in CA as opposed to CT. This is a discussion in another thread or two, but, Sharon made no sense. Not like she ever saw her parents outside of MA and the Music Box Secret, BSC in the USA (isn't that where they go to sF)? and a mention in one other book. Jeff leaves in book #15 which was the first year of 8th grade and before Richard and Sharon married. Sharon was still dating Tripp. Even if she was happy in CT or simply being out of CA (further from Jack) you'd think she would have considered that perhaps her choice of moving cross country was a wrong one. But alas then Dawn would have never moved "so many" times back n forth. I forgot to mention a funny Pike Triplet comment came when the BSC charges were practicing for Run for the Money. Mal and Jessi are a team for the three legged race. They do well in it and so one of the boys (I think Byron) complains that they (M and J) cheated because they are sitters NOT kids! Apparently Mal's brothers really do think she is an "adult." BUT, In "Dawn and the We Love Kids Club," toward the end there's a scene where the triplets are being extra rotten to Nicky. Eventually they gear up for going to the park despite it being freezing outside and threatening to rain or snow. The boys start to head out when Mal casually asks Jessi the boys' had asked her for permission to go. J says no and asks M the same thing. M says no. At least one of the boys rolls his eyes in deference to his 11 year old sister sitter. A subtle yet, one and only slight show of realism at how ridiculous it is for an 11 year old to be in charge of a 10 year old!
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Post by rainbowgirl28 on Oct 1, 2009 9:43:04 GMT -5
What bothered me most--yes I know time has no meaning in the BSC World, but still!--was that this book took place probably in September sometime, possibly early October. If Dawn moved back to CA for 6 months, she'd be there through at least March. So the plan was for her to return to SMS for the last two or three months of the school year and graduate with the BSC Members? Naturally neither her mom nor dad mentioned High School or looking into SHS or whatever the Palo City choice would be. Dawn went to some private school in CA that went through 12th grade, and in California Diaries, they make the 8th graders move to the HS (probably to make the Ducky and more mature content themes make sense).
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