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Post by Kylie90210 on Nov 11, 2008 23:21:13 GMT -5
Please discuss this book here.
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Post by sweetvalleygirl99 on Nov 12, 2008 17:13:33 GMT -5
A sad one for me. Never liked the books that dealt with the divorce or the two families. Liked that they made the custody agreement in this book.
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anna
New To Stoneybrook
Posts: 103
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Post by anna on Nov 23, 2008 20:36:33 GMT -5
^ I never understood why she favors the big house so much, The "Big house family" always seems a little mean and insensitive to Karen.
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Post by sweetvalleygirl99 on Nov 24, 2008 16:18:12 GMT -5
^ I never understood why she favors the big house so much, The "Big house family" always seems a little mean and insensitive to Karen. I always thought that too. They seemed to get more impatient and angry with her than Lisa and Seth. I think it had to do with the amount of people living in the Big House, like they had to divide up the attention to each kid (Karen, D.M, Andrew, Emily, Sam, Charlie and Kristy) and so if Karen did something wrong, they would just get angry with her rather than hear why she did what she did. This is why I usually prefer to read the Little House books; Karen, Andrew, Lisa and Seth are a much more close-knit family than the Thomas-Brewer's ever were.
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anna
New To Stoneybrook
Posts: 103
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Post by anna on Nov 24, 2008 17:06:42 GMT -5
^ Yes Exactly! That is probobly why I don't like the Thomas-Brewers Much in the LS Books, They don't seem to have enough time for all of their kids. That is why i never Understood why they adopted Emily if they didn't even have enough time for the other kids.
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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 Dec 2, 2008 14:08:00 GMT -5
I actually liked this book. It was sad, but I actually liked that they got equal time with each family. The other custody arrangement they had, with the every other weekend always seemed a little unfair to me when I was younger.
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Post by sparklymouse on Dec 2, 2008 15:40:53 GMT -5
I always thought a month at each house was a really long time to be away from the parent that they weren't living with. It rarely mentioned Karen and Andrew even talking on the phone with the one they weren't with at the time. The old arrangement was typical, I thought. Unfortunately the dad usually gets the short end of the stick in custody arrangements.
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Post by sweetvalleygirl99 on Dec 2, 2008 17:01:05 GMT -5
I always thought a month at each house was a really long time to be away from the parent that they weren't living with. It rarely mentioned Karen and Andrew even talking on the phone with the one they weren't with at the time. The old arrangement was typical, I thought. Unfortunately the dad usually gets the short end of the stick in custody arrangements. You're so right about the dad getting the short end of the stick in arrangements like this. While I liked their new arrangement, the old one was very typical for kids with divorced parents, even now. And now that you brought it up, we never did see Karen or Andrew talking to Lisa and Seth while they were at Watson's and vice versa. Or even go visit them, like for example if Karen went over to Nancy's to play during a big-house month she could've stopped by to see her mom and Seth since they lived next-door and if Karen played at Hannie's house during a little-house month she could've gone to see the big-house family. I would've liked to see Karen and Andrew interact at least a little with the family they weren't with for that month. The things you learn about while reading these books as an adult ;D. I never would've thought about that when I was little.
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on Dec 2, 2008 19:06:24 GMT -5
This is one of my favourites. I loves that line about how Karen feels like no one's listening to her and she says something like, "I had no voice and no power at all." It's very articulate and very sad.
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Post by sparklymouse on Dec 3, 2008 18:23:07 GMT -5
But I think equal time with both parents was what was best for the kids. Karen was falling into a depression, and while that's not a good situation for anyone, it's extremely sad for a 7 year old to go through it. It would have been nice if Watson had pursued seeing his kids more without Karen bringing it up, but he probably assumed they were happy with their living situation.
Lisa came off a bit selfish at first with her "I don't want to give more time to your dad because I'd miss you too much" statement. Karen's a smart girl so it wasn't too hard for her to figure out that if her mommy would miss her tons by only seeing her 50% of the time, then her daddy must already miss her tons since he only saw her 25% (or less?) of the time.
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Post by greer on Dec 3, 2008 20:22:35 GMT -5
I've always disliked the attitude toward custody arrangement in the BSC books. They just seemed to be really strict about it, like the parents seemed to try to force kids to understand about committing to a certain time or parents not wanting to be in the same room (*cough*mcgills*cough*) than recognizing that divorce is extremely traumatic for children and adolescents. Girl is seven! it's freaking hard for her!
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Post by annieb on Dec 10, 2008 21:29:41 GMT -5
Not one of my favorites. I can understand where Karen and Andrew were coming from. I am glad the Watson and Lisa started listening to what was bothering them.
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Post by firecausesburns on Sept 27, 2009 5:05:12 GMT -5
I really like this one. Normally I'm not exactly a fan of Karen, but it was hard to not feel sorry for her, she was clearly really hurting. I would have thought that two weeks here, two weeks there, would be a better option - a month seems like ages when you're seven and four. Also, the little spring rhyme Karen sang at the beginning always confused me, because she clarifies 'you have to say "been" like "bean"' and I always say it like that.
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Post by Kylie90210 on Oct 15, 2009 21:24:24 GMT -5
I have to say, as a divorced kid reading this as an adult, it still surprised me. A month does seem like a long time, I'm not sure as a parent I'd agree to that. I'd think two weeks is better, especially considering how close Watson and Lisa live to one another.
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supprazz
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,106
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Post by supprazz on Jan 31, 2010 5:10:07 GMT -5
I never got a chance to read this book though I would love to. I do remember heraing the final result though and thinking that alternating every week would have been better, cause a month is WAY too long, especially for a child.
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