Weird things you thought or did because of the BSC

[starrynight]

Since many of us first read these books when we were younger and impressionable, I thought it would be fun to reminisce about the crazy ideas we got from the books and characters. Here's my list:

- I tried copy Claudia's outfits from the earlier books, when they were actually cool for tha ttme period and not just weird.

- I hid candy around my room. The trouble? I'd take individual pieces out of their wrappers (like Lifesavers) and hide the pieces by themselves. I never found them all..... ;D

- I was convinced that I'd have boyfriends and go to dances exactly like the club members did...too bad I was a nerd when I was 13.

- I didn't think it was totally unrealistic for Mallory to dye her hair and get all the makeup when they were in CA.

- I thought I'd look as old as they did on the covers when I got to be their ages. I'm in my mid 20's, and I'm STILL waiting to look that old!

I'm sure I could think of more, but those are the main ones.

[Deleted]

I hid candy in my room too. Actually, I still keep candy in my room. I just don't hide it now. Of course, I don't have any where near as much as Claudia does, and it only lasts for about 2 or 3 days before I eat it. And I just keep it there because if I put it anywhere else someone would eat it, not because I'm not allowed it.

And also, I read in one book about how Dawn leans foward and brushes her hair underneath rather than on top. So I tried it once. It made my hair even booffier than usual, and it took ages because I had to keep stopping because I got dizzy.

There must be more...I thought that at 13 American girls were having boyfriends and behaved like the BSC did (all mature and had proper dates) and that the only reason it didn't happen to me was because I'm a New Zealander and that New Zealanders just grew up slower. I also thought that American babysitters all paid total attention to their charges and ran all those activities the BSC did, and that New Zealand was just behind in that too. (Our babysitters read, watched TV and did their homework while babysitting us). I think I put a lot of strange things in the BSC down to the cultural differnces. Like ages, I was just like "Jessi and Mal are so much more mature than the 11 year olds I know...must be because they're American."

[booboobrewer]

--I went through a phase where I thought having diabetes wouldn't be so bad.

--I would incorporate some of Claudia's arty designs in my school/artwork or on my school stuff, like making blocks around my letters like the The Babysitters Club block logo.

--I'm pretty sure looking at those handwritten entries all the time influenced my handwriting for life. It looks too much like MA's in cursive and Dawn's in print to be a coincidence.

--I gave some of my Barbie dolls BSC names...I recall some being Claudia, Karen, and Logan.

--Total word about thinking I'd look as old as them at 13! Geez, imagine a first time BSC reader looking at the covers and reading the summaries on the back and then finding out these girls were really just 13 and 11. Talk about weird.

Ahh, so much more but these were the first I thought of...

[macca]

CLAUDIA OUTFITS! I thought she was so cool and her clothes were just DIBBLE! I cringe when I think of my woeful efforts to copy them, or at least use her general ideas. My family never let me live it down ;D

When we'd go on family holidays/vacations, I'd always expect to go off alone and have adventures like the BSC. Too bad my parents never let us kids out of their sight ... I thought it was so lame at the time, but I guess most normal parents don't let preteen kids wander around unfamiliar territory without adult supervision.

I was convinced that I'd have boyfriends and go to dances exactly like the club members did...too bad I was a nerd when I was 13.

With ya there. I thought 13 was the age to be, that once I hit 13 I'd be practically a mini adult like the BSC with all the rights and responsibilities that came with it. Sweet Valley gave me false expectations as well - I thought high school would be non-stop parties, dates every night and boyfriends galore.

I was wrong.

[sotypical42483]

I am with you guys on the candy in the bedroom thing. Trouble is, I never really had ENOUGH to be hiding all over the place. Like, if I bought 3 candy bars, I was gonna eat one immediately and then randomly stick the others in my dresser? I never knew where to put them, but I always thought it would be so cool to be looking for like, a notebook and randomly find some gummy bears I didn't know were there.

Never wanted to copy Claudia's outfits, I never thought they were very cool, actually. I had fantasies of starting my own BSC, as I'm sure most of us did

[macca]

^ oh yeah, definitely fantasies of starting my own BSC! Definitely. Unfortunately I was about nine yrs old at the time and actually realistic enough to know it wasn't a possibility But I did attempt to start about a million clubs which never lasted much past one or two meetings.

[Amalia]

^ I actually did start a BSC club. I made the hamster the president but it died, and my VP never actually wanted to join and quit. Sadly, I was a junior officer. And we never got any clients. So it went kaputz from the very beginning.
I never tried any of Claudia's outfits because I never really understood how they went. But I did try to imitate Shannon's print-style penmanship. It lasted about a year (3rd grade).

[macca]

^ ha, mcpon your BSC sounds hilarious. So you were only allowed to sit during the day unless you were at your own house, huh? ;D

I loved Stacey's handwriting and tried to copy it. The hearts didn't last long, much too time consuming.

[inge]

I thought I'd have cool friends I'd hang out with all the time. I had nice friends at 13, but I hardly ever saw them outside of school or the anual birthday parties. We went to the mall together... maybe twice a year, to go shopping for a birthday present, we had maybe one sleepover, but that was usually a birthday-pyama party... so I was dissapointed at my social life.

[sotypical42483]

mcpon, if you started the club, why'd you have to be a junior officer? lol.

[Amalia]

^ I was the junior officer because that was the only position left after I had given them out, lol.

inge said:

I thought I'd have cool friends I'd hang out with all the time. I had nice friends at 13, but I hardly ever saw them outside of school or the anual birthday parties. We went to the mall together... maybe twice a year, to go shopping for a birthday present, we had maybe one sleepover, but that was usually a birthday-pyama party... so I was dissapointed at my social life.

^ Don't feel bad. That is kind of like my social life right now. I only have 4 friends, and the only time we spend time together is when we go out to lunch every Sunday, not because we want to but because it is a social ritual we have been participating in for a long time. Yeah, I think the BSC spent too much time together. It is like being best friends with your boss and co-workers.

[Deleted]

I thought of another stupid thing I thought because of the BSC (while readin Poor Mallory! last night). This book is where I learnt about mortgages, and unfortunately I first read this book right before my Dad quit his job and went back to University to train to be a minister. Not knowing anything about our finances, or New Zealand's student loan/allowance schemes, I was convinced we were going to become destitute, and the bank would take away our house. In reality, my father had actually done some maths before he quit his job and with an allowance from the government and our savings we were fine, and were always going to be. And after I had worried over the mortgage thing for weeks I finally asked Mum about it and found out we'd paid our mortgage off years ago.

[starrynight]

I thought of another one: I actually said "aauugh!" on a regular basis when I was scared/frustrated/excited. I also said "oh my lord."

[lisa]

-- When I was at primary school and had to do story-writing my stories somehow always mystriously featured a baby-sitters club creative of me, hey

-- I think I still secretly want to go and see what being at a summer camp is like...If they bay-sitters had that much fun there...

[Deleted]

I did a most of the things y'all did:

I tried to mimic BSCers handwritting and only suceeded in getting Stacey's down. Unfortunately, that was in the fifth grade when we had about 5 girls writting like that and the teacher got frustrated and banned it!

I unknowingly picked up saying "Oh, my lord!" and used to get in so much trouble for it, it still pops up now and again.

I hid candy around my room...I'm in the process of moving out of my parents for the first time and I'm still finding a piece or two...Want a peppermint? (I guess I had a bad memory!)

The only other thing I did was tried to make my own record book (I only ever had 3 families/clients I sat for) and Kid Kit (which actually, was a hit.)