Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey

[aln1982]

Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey are really becoming interesting enough to me that I think they deserve their own thread. I can see a lot of fun in Mr. Ramsey and love his interaction with Aunt C. I really like in Jessi Pet Sitter how Mrs. Ramsey and Jessi talk about Jessi’s problems with the club and how supportive both parents always are. I especially liked them in Jessi and the Superbrat and found “Daddy” quite funny.
The Ramseys have done some things that bug me (leaving the girls alone in Island Adventure comes to mind) but for the most part, I think they are good parents who care about their kids and try to interact with them – as much as any Stoneybrook parents which isn’t quite enough for me but that’s another story
Any thoughts on the Ramseys? The more books I read and the more I reread the books, the more I like the whole family (though it is a “love to hate” thing with Aunt Cecilia

[sotypical42483]

I like them, too. They seem actually involved with their children (SS #4 being an exception, of course), in Jessi's Gold Medal, Mr. Ramsey comes home from work and is playing with the kids and I think their interaction is really sweet when they are discussing the pool and stuff. They seem like a close family, it's a shame that we really aren't privy to very much when it comes to them.

[inge]

I agree. They seem normal, nice parents who care about their kids. I wish Jessi would trust them more.

[mckay]

Mr. Ramsey always seemed really nice to me, and seemed to get along really well with his kids. I don't remember much about Mrs. Ramsey, though. (I never thought Aunt Cecilia was THAT bad, either...)

[Deleted]

I always really liked them. I think Mr Ramsey was really sweet with just how he'd wait for her after ballet practice all the time (I mean, like he had a choice really but he never complained or anything). And how he'd ask her about the ballets and stuff and stopped off for a cake when she got one of the leads. They both just seem like a lot of fun. I love the end of SS#8 when everyone gets home from Shadow Lake and Emily Michelle, who's just woken up, just runs over to Mr Ramsey without thinking for a hug, then sees him and cries. Has nothing to do with him really bu they did write in that he was amused by it.

[hitzpink]

Lauren, that scene with Emily Michelle was sooo cute!! I remember my niece doing something similar to an ex-boyfriend of mine when she was 2 or 3.

I really like Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey. I like their whole family, besides Aunt Cecilia. They seem really down-to-earth and loving and I think Jessi is really lucky to have such a sweet family. They seem like they have a lot of fun together and they are so supportive of Jessi's constant ballet practices and recitals (I imagine that with the classes, shoes, and other things ballet is kind of an expensive thing to be into, plus having to drive her around all the time).

[booboobrewer]

Love the Ramseys as a family, but individually I probably like Mr. Ramsey best (after Jessi of course). He seemed very warm and joke-y and laid-back and cool. Mrs. Ramsey didn't seem to be featured as much as him, but she seemed sweet and was quite supportive of Jessi. Squirt, I think is adorable. Becca could be hard to take at times, but she was for the most part okay. I don't mind Aunt C that much but there are some books where she complains sooo much and it starts to get irritating.

[aln1982]

^ Agree with all of the above. Mr. Ramsey is also my favorite and I love the kids. I had forgotten the part about Emily in Shadow Lake but I look forward to reading it when I reread that one soon. It reminds me of a time when this girl that I've known since she was a baby fell off her pony at the horse show was crying so hard that she hugged this guy who she thought was my dad - but it was some other guy (she knew him, too, but not nearly as well as she knows my family). Imagine her surprise! She was about 10 at the time but I've had lots of toddlers grab on to me only to look up in shock when they realize I'm not "mommy".
Glad to see so much like for the Ramseys The whole family is really getting to be one of my favorites.

[sotypical42483]

That is a good point about the ballet lessons, hitzpink. I agree with you on that, never really thought about it before but they really must put a lot of time/money into her lessons/equipment. That reminds me, I've been in the middle of Jessi's Big Break for like, 2 months now and can't get through it. Boooring!

[lyricalangel]

I always liked them. They did seem sweet and supportive. They seemed to take an active interest in their kids' lives. I liked Jessi's description of how Mr. Ramsey talks with his hands.

[liss31d]

I wonder what made Aunt Cecelia the way she is? I mean why she's so bitter and strict, yet her brother is easy-going and positive... I remember her saying that she had wanted to become an actress and had regretted not striving to reach her goal or something... it would have been nice to have seen a book where she got back into acting or something, maybe join a theatre group to evoke some happiness into her.

[aln1982]

I always got the impression that Aunt C became bitter because she settled and didn't reach for her dreams. I would be interested to learn more about what she was like as a child and teenager. How much older is she than her brother? Also, anyone know how her husband died? Was it an accident, illness, or not mentioned?

[alula]

I'm pretty sure it was never mentioned. I remember thinking, though, that I thought that made Jessi seem even brattier in "Jessi's Baby-sitter" because I had the impression that she was moving in with them because she'd been widowed recently, in which case Jessi's behavior just seems horrible to me. But now that I think about it, it could have been earlier. And I'd also thought she was pretty young to be widowed, as Mr. Ramsay's aunt, although she does seem to get older later in the series when she has a son in his mid-20s! So unless she was a teenage mom (hmm) or Mr. Ramsay married pretty late, she's probably a fair bit older than him, since Jessi's cousin is about 15 years older than her. (I'm ten years older than my oldest cousin on my mom's side, but that's because my uncle didn't get married until he was in his 40s, but I don't get that vibe from the Ramsays). That's kind of interesting if you believe in birth order and personality going together--oldest children are supposed to be more serious, more rigid, hypersensitive to criticism and managers etc, while youngest children are considered to be more often be happy-go-lucky, creative and entertainers.

I forget if it was in #36 or some other book, but I think at one point, Aunt Cecilia says something about how she feels she needs to be really strict with the kids because they're going to face people who look down on them because of their race, so they have to meet an even higher standard, or something like that, to prove those people wrong. Obviously that opinion could set off a floodgate of debate that might be kind of beyond this board, but I do think it's an interesting moment, and one of the more complex discussions of race in the series, as compared to the knee-jerk "there's no other way to say it--Jessi's BLACK!" in Chapter 2.

Aunt Cecilia doesn't bother me as much as a lot of people. I think she's in a difficult situation--it is hard to move into a nuclear family (and fit your life into a single room from a house, basically) and settle in, and it isn't like she's a leech--housekeeping and fulltime childcare for a toddler is expensive! I feel like she does obviously love her family a lot though, even if shr isn't very good at expressing it.

[aln1982]

I really like Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey and their interaction with the kids. I wish they were featured a bit more in the series and enjoy books like Happy Holidays, Jessi where we really get to see them as characters, Mr. Ramsey especially. I was glad he stood up to Aunt C in that one. Even if she is in a difficult position, which I agree she is, she is still bossy and overbearing and he's right in saying that she is not the mother.

[Penny Lane]

I think some of the problems with Aunt Cecilia can also be due to a lack of communication on the Ramsey Parents behalf. (Do we have a thread for Aunt C.?) I mean, she probably wouldn't be so overbearing if she had been told exactly what the girls schedules were like, what their rules are, what they normally eat after school. And I think that Jessi and Becca would have been better served if there was at least a little bit of warning to the arrival of a live-in baby-sitter. Also, she should not have expected that it would be okay to put her stuff all over someone else's house.

Otherwise, I really like The Ramsey parentals. They seem down to earth, but have their kids best interest in mind. Growing up, I never thought anything about what a pain it must have been to drive Jessi to Stamford three times a week -- it seems like Jess would get home, and her mom would pack up Squirt and becca and they would all drop Jessi off at ballet then come home. Mr Ramsey picked her up after work. It was nice that they were so supportive. I hope that Becca gets the option of whatever kind of lesson she might want.