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Post by spazgirl on Aug 4, 2006 19:36:32 GMT -5
Another extreme case was when Claudia had to pay back her parent's half of a plane ticket. Now plane tickets are expensive. Maybe you had to sort of work it off. ie. Chores. Or when Dawn had to pay her dad back for her spur-of-the-moment ticket to CT. I know THAT had to be expensive. I always figured he let it go, because theres no way she made enough money babysitting to pay for a plane ticket.
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
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Post by macca on Aug 4, 2006 20:00:05 GMT -5
Yeah, ITA.
The rich are cold, distant workaholic snobs who make up for lack of attention/love towards their kids with material possessions. The poor are portrayed as stereotypical "trailer trash" types where one parent has usually abandoned the family, the remaining parent is a drug/alcohol addicted no-hoper, the kids are troublemaking sleazy types except for the one "exception to the rule" who manages to rise above it all, despite bearing the burden of his/her loser family.
The BSC, in all it's PCness broke away from the stereotypical rich families portrayed in kids books - there were the classic snobs, like the Delaneys, but Watson was always a kind, devoted, loving father despite being a Real! Live! Millionaire! and the Papadakises were fairly down to earth with normal kids and parents.
They didn't have any poor/low income families, so it's not really possible to analyse that side of the equation.
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ktag
Junior Sitter
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Post by ktag on Aug 4, 2006 22:40:22 GMT -5
Or when Dawn had to pay her dad back for her spur-of-the-moment ticket to CT. I know THAT had to be expensive. I always figured he let it go, because theres no way she made enough money babysitting to pay for a plane ticket. I don't know...I think they make a pretty good chunk of change. Not because of how much they charge but how much they work. Let's say they average 10 hours a week at a low $2.50 per hour. Multiply that by about 50 weeks a year (with some vacations, some working vacations and extra hours during the summer) and that comes to $1250. And that's most likely underestimating it. Not bad for 11 and 13 year olds. The Pikes must spend twice that, what with needing two sitters, much of it going to Mallory to secretly buy sparkly sweatshirts. Total club income would be close to 10 grand. Then, they did at least 10 years in one actual year, making it 100 grand. They totally cheated the IRS. On a related subject, their treasury would take in $364 a year with 7 members. Charlie would make $150 a year.
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lilafowler
Sitting For The Johanssens
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Post by lilafowler on Aug 4, 2006 23:03:16 GMT -5
Hahaha. They could buy a car. And in five years, Mallory and Jessi could drive it!
I was rereading Kristy's Great Idea (I'm on an early book kick) and Mr. Spier forbids Mary Anne to spend three dollars on pizza, because she should be saving money for "clothes and college". What kind of tightwad thinks his twelve-year-old (if she had even turned twelve; the book begins the first week of the school year) daughter should be saving baby-sitting money for her college tuition?!
Kristy also snarks on Watson's money -- she says he must have a lot of it, "the way he throws it around, buying Chinese food right and left, and taking [Elizabeth] out on dates almost every night".
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Post by fairy3lf2 on Aug 5, 2006 0:14:06 GMT -5
I agree that Watson was probably old money. It would have been interesting to find out more about the BSC member's family histories. I loved the Sweet Valley Sagas, even if there were a lot of inconsistancies.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2006 1:04:02 GMT -5
Oh, that Watson! Buying Chinese food left and right is the true mark of a real live millionaire!
I always thought the girls were way too concerned about money. Mallory always used paying for half of something as a bargaining chip and even the others were always talking about using their babysitting money to pay for clothes, as if their parents never bought them anything.
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Post by sugarmonkey on Aug 5, 2006 13:24:49 GMT -5
Watson inherited his mansion so he had to be old money.
Incidently, I omitted the middle class in my previous post because it was so obvious that middle class was always portrayed as ideal.
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
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Post by jen on Aug 5, 2006 19:41:23 GMT -5
They all had to pay for half their holiday tickets in Aloha BSC and European Vacation, but I thought that was fairly reasonable... They all managed to ear $200/$250 each in a few weeks through a bit of hard work, and some fundraising.
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
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Post by macca on Aug 5, 2006 19:54:08 GMT -5
[quoteI was rereading Kristy's Great Idea (I'm on an early book kick) and Mr. Spier forbids Mary Anne to spend three dollars on pizza, because she should be saving money for "clothes and college". What kind of tightwad thinks his twelve-year-old (if she had even turned twelve; the book begins the first week of the school year) daughter should be saving baby-sitting money for her college tuition?![/quote]
Funny that such a ludicruously strict (to the point of utter stupidity) parent could morph into a typical Stoneybrook Indifferent just by marrying his old high school sweetheart. Don't spend three dollars on pizza, MA, but feel free to be practically MARRIED at age 13!
Yeah, I remember one book - Kristy's Worst Idea, I think - when Claudia had to return some clothes and shoes because she couldn't afford to pay for her art supplies. Why wouldn't her parents help with that? Presumably they bought Janine her computer.
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jen
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Post by jen on Aug 6, 2006 8:07:04 GMT -5
I think it was probably because she already had enough clothes, and those were things that she bought on sale. IIRC, wasn't it Stacey who had to return clothes? I seem to remember Stacey buying things on one of her parent's charge cards, and then not being able to pay it back.
I quite liked The Secret Life of Mary Anne Spier, and the money issues in that. Although I did think it was a bit strict of Richard to charge Mary Anne interest, but better her learn the lesson now before she goes and gets her own credit card and is up to her eyeballs in debt.
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Post by supernatural babe on Aug 6, 2006 14:34:58 GMT -5
^^Claudia moaned that she was going to have to send the clothes back because she spent to much, Mr Kishi was pretty pissed at her purchases she made from Steve .E but he didn't make her send them back. I don't remember any mention of art supplies. But then it's been a while SO...
It could be possible that he was unhappy with what she brought as it wasn't to his taste. I'm assuming that he knew claudia knew that there was a sale on at Steve.E or she may have brought more than mentioned.
it could simply be that the parents brought the neccessaries and kids paid half to the luxuries. I wonder who brought Janine's clothes.
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macca
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Post by macca on Aug 6, 2006 18:17:51 GMT -5
Okay, I may have the wrong book. There was DEFINITELY a book where Claudia bought new pairs of shoes and then had to return them because she couldn't afford art supplies. I remember Stacey having to return the clothes in Kristy's Worst Idea, so I naturally just assumed Claudia did the same thing.
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
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Post by jen on Aug 7, 2006 5:29:01 GMT -5
Oh! Stacey and the Missing Ring. I think. Claud spends her last pennies on new shoes, right before Stacey is accused and the BSC goes for awhile without much business. I don't think she returned the shoes, but that's what that post reminded me of...
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Post by sotypical42483 on Aug 7, 2006 14:04:02 GMT -5
geesh this got to 3 pages before I even saw it! Hope I don't echo too much of what everyone else said, but I'm gonna toss my opinion out anyway I always thought of Shannon's family as really rich. She didn't talk about it a lot, but I thought it was fairly apparent that they had lotsss of money, especially in Kristy and the Snobs. The weird situation I thought was the Papadakises. The kids were super sweet and their parents very laid back and cool, it was barely mentioned that they had money. You basically only knew they were rich cause they lived in Kristy's neighborhood. I thought that was nice, though. Normal kids and parents who happen to have a lot of money. The Delaney's annoyed the crap out of me. Were the Hill's the ones who moved into the Delaney's old house? They were nice, normal kids as well. I agree that pretty much everyone in Stoneybrook is well-off.
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Post by sugarmonkey on Aug 7, 2006 15:42:16 GMT -5
The Kuhns moved into the Delaney's old house although they weren't as ostentatious (I read that in a book once, isn't neat?)
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