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Post by Sideshowjazz1 on Jun 3, 2014 0:06:51 GMT -5
If Mrs Cheplin wanted someone to do housework as well as look after the kids, she should have gotten a housekeeper. One thing that I remember sticking out to me was Mrs Cheplin yelling at Stacey for not finishing all of the chores before letting Stacey tell her that they had an emergency with Dana's blood sugar being low. And maybe she was right - she needed someone older for her kids, but older would mean out of school. Stacey spent every moment to herself trying to recover from the job.
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Post by booboobrewer on Jun 3, 2014 11:06:55 GMT -5
Yeah, if only she had taken a step back and realized she was yelling at a middle schooler. She was actually lucky Stacey stuck with her. A lot of kids her age would have just not come back (but they didn't have Kristy to answer to ) Good luck finding cheap help like that again!
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scrounge
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Post by scrounge on Jun 3, 2014 16:09:34 GMT -5
I really like this one. I like the bowling double date that Robert and Stacey go on with Mary Anne and Logan at the beginning and even though there are a lot of baby-sitting chapters, the story flows well and isn't just about Adam and Dana. Mrs. Cheplin was a piece of work though, wanting a housekeeper/nanny amount of work done on a middle school kid's salary.
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Post by booboobrewer on Jun 3, 2014 19:24:29 GMT -5
The bowling date is super cute.
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Post by Sideshowjazz1 on Feb 25, 2015 21:21:48 GMT -5
Mrs. Cheplin was a piece of work though, wanting a housekeeper/nanny amount of work done on a middle school kid's salary. To be fair, it was made clear that she was paying Stacey much higher than the average babysitting amount.
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andrew
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Post by andrew on May 23, 2016 0:33:41 GMT -5
This is definitely at least one of my favorite books and one of the most fun. I really liked how Stacey did get greedy and admitted it, how she started to understand her father (although she backed off at the end), how Dana and Adam were less than adorable but not too bad (especially Adam not wanting to help clean up but not really minding it) and how the other kids were a mix of annoying and sweet in their trying to get revenge. The mother was good as an awful but manipulative villainous figure.
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Post by rabbitbongo on Feb 21, 2020 5:39:43 GMT -5
I enjoyed this one too! I hope Stacey did eventually get Robert to NY.
With regard to the diabetes stuff in this book, Stacey is very attentive when it comes to Dana but doesn’t really take care of herself. I’m no medical expert but I thought type 1 diabetes required regular food intake yet Stacey sleeps for 12 hours one weekend so she would have missed breakfast. Is this dangerous for a type 1 diabetic?
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
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Post by oldhickory on Feb 21, 2020 11:29:35 GMT -5
I'm not diabetic so correct me if I'm wrong, but it does seem super dangerous to skip a meal. This book is after Stacey's Emergency and by now she knows better than to mess around with her meal schedule. Does the book specifically mention that she missed a meal? I suppose she could have slept from 8-8 or 9-9 and still had both dinner and breakfast. But on top of all this, someone who sleeps for that long is obviously running on fumes and that makes me worried that she isn't getting enough nutrition/rest/electrolytes. That's enough to make someone sick anyway, but when combined with diabetes it seems pretty scary.
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cnj
Sitting For The Papadakis's
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Post by cnj on Mar 12, 2020 5:05:09 GMT -5
I'm not diabetic so correct me if I'm wrong, but it does seem super dangerous to skip a meal. This book is after Stacey's Emergency and by now she knows better than to mess around with her meal schedule. Does the book specifically mention that she missed a meal? I suppose she could have slept from 8-8 or 9-9 and still had both dinner and breakfast. But on top of all this, someone who sleeps for that long is obviously running on fumes and that makes me worried that she isn't getting enough nutrition/rest/electrolytes. That's enough to make someone sick anyway, but when combined with diabetes it seems pretty scary. Most of my family has diabetes and still are able to sleep in. I think Stacey always kept a small snack beside her bed or sleeping bag, so she didn't have to get up and have a full meal. In most cases, as the later books indicated, diabetes is fairly easy to treat. Eating an occasional meal a little late will not cause somebody with diabetes to keel over dead.
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Post by sparklymouse on Mar 12, 2020 18:52:51 GMT -5
People with diabetes can die in their sleep from their blood sugar dropping too low. It's a really inconsistent, frustrating illness.
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Post by CharlotteTJohanssen on Mar 12, 2020 19:41:57 GMT -5
Mrs. Cheplin annoyed the crap out of me. Why not not just hire a full time nanny?
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Post by Sideshowjazz1 on Jun 26, 2020 2:29:59 GMT -5
Mrs. Cheplin annoyed the crap out of me. Why not not just hire a full time nanny? I think she didn't have the money. She had enough to pay Stacey more than usual for babysitting, but not enough for a nanny. And she only needed Stacey after school, so she figured having a high-schooler (which is what she was hoping for when she called the BSC) was perfect, even though actually, a high-schooler would have even less time to work with all the extra study you have to do at that age. She really did need an adult who had time in the afternoon to go in and do the chores before the kids got home instead of having a kid who studied all day and then did as many chores as she could when there wasn't enough time for all of them, and still didn't have any time to look after the kids.
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livvy
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Post by livvy on May 17, 2022 11:43:55 GMT -5
What Mrs Cheplin needed was a housekeeper not baby sitter. A housekeeper would do everything Stacey did but maybe she bought hiring Stacey would be cheaper but she wanted someone older. A house keeper would have been perfect.
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Post by oldmeanie on Mar 27, 2023 14:04:34 GMT -5
This was another one I hadn't read. For some reason I was really invested and read it in basically one sitting this morning. Also, this review is basically just a rant.
Mrs. Cheplin is awful. She was 100% taking advantage of Stacey. She was so critical of her being young and expected so much in so little time. Honestly, her expectations were totally ridiculous (making doctor's appointments? Is that appropriate for a baby-sitter?) and not realistic for a middle or high schooler. She should've been looking for college students who had morning classes and could stay about 4 or 5 hours each day. I was exhausted just thinking about her d**n lists and I'm 33 (not a very healthy 33-year-old, but still). If she could only afford to pay for 2 and a half hours, she needed to prioritize. Did she want a babysitter OR a housekeeper? Expecting Stacey to take Dana to piano lessons on top of all this was crazy too.
I kind of liked Adam for some reason (I might be in the minority, but I found him amusing. He seemed like an actual 6-year-old, particularly an attention-deprived one. I guess compared to Dana and Mrs. Cheplin he was a better character), but Dana was a brat! Using diabetes to get out of things is not acceptable... honestly, though, being only 8, her behavior needed to be addressed and she should see a counselor because that is NOT healthy or normal behavior. Plus, at one point, her blood sugar actually IS low and Stacey almost doesn't believe her. So it's dangerous as well.
This tells me that Mrs. Cheplin is unattentive. Also lazy, why the hell is it Stacey's responsibility to make appointments and start dinner? I can understand folding laundry and doing dishes, LIGHT housework (and Stacey was getting compensated more than usual), but she was asking for too much. I get that it's hard to keep up with housework and raise kids, but at some point she needs to figure something out. And Adam can clean his own d**n room, why was that a task for Stacey? She needed to allot some of the chores to her kids. She's a nutcase for not only expecting all this but looking for problems just because Stacey is young (also, she should really require a car for this job). I'm sorry about all my ranting, but I just can't stand Mrs. Cheplin.
I also can't stand Kristy's reaction to this job when Stacey gets it. She says they're pretty much short another member now and is angry that Stacey will be late to meetings. Um... you created this club so people could find baby-sitters, and isn't baby-sitting an acceptable reason to be late to or miss a meeting? In a way I kind of get where she's coming from, but Stacey isn't the only sitter to take on a regular job (Jessi did for the Braddocks for awhile... I think 3 afternoons a week? Combined with her ballet classes, that's honestly not that much different from what Stacey is doing in this book).
I'm confused about something- is Stacey still on probation? I think I remember reading something about this book years back and I thought Stacey took on this work so she could prove to Kristy that she was good enough for the BSC. But instead, it's to earn money for Broadway tickets. I might be mixing it up with something else idk.
As for the subplot... idk if I'm in the minority on this, but I found it hilarious. All the hate letters toward Kristy just made me laugh. I know I sound mean, but I can't help it, and Kristy really gets on my nerves in this re-read. It's not just that though, the kids confronting Logan is pretty d**n funny. I have to say that Kerry isn't my favorite BSC sibling though- between hiding Tigger for weeks and canceling Logan's dinner reservation (ignoring the ridiculousness of a 13 year old boy doing and affording this), she honestly scares me a little lol she's got issues. Besides that, the subplot was actually pretty entertaining.
Overall, a pretty good one, if a bit irritating at times.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
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Post by oldhickory on Mar 28, 2023 10:22:12 GMT -5
I probably don't do 2.5 hours of chores at my own house on a given day and I have a dog. I don't understand how the house gets so dirty everyday.
This book feels like a rehash of Dawn and the Impossible Three with (if possible) a less likeable mom than Natalie Barrett. Outside of true emergencies, babysitter shouldn't be making doctor appointments! Either it's a regular check-up (so it should be already scheduled) or something is wrong (and you'd need to know medical history in order to make that judgement call).
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