If you created the BSC . . .

[Amalia]

what traits would you give each sitter? Would you keep everything about the club the same? If not, what would be the changes?

[sparklymouse]

The first thing that came to mind was I'd make more of their hobbies/interests overlap. Besides Mal/Jessi/horse books and Claudia/Stacey fashion (even then it was two very different styles) these girls had so little in common.

I don't know what else. Maybe include more club meetings in the books, or at least one per book, since that was often the only time all of the members were together in the regular books.

[zoar3]

I would enjoy reading more about them talking about the charges and what was going on with them--I felt like we just read in chapter 2 about how all the sitters except Mal and Kristy hated writing in the notebook and that was it. I would have also loved much more family time and as I've said before a portrait type book for at least some of the regular charges. My biggest wish is that Mimi and Louie had remained completely healthy throughout the series. And especially now that I have become an LS fan, I would truly have enjoyed at least one more year of the girls in 7th grade so we could have had that extra history between them and before Stacey, Dawn, and Jessi came to Stoneybrook. I guess I would have tried to make the books more Stoneybrook/every day centered and less super special/mystery-like, just added info on our favorite town and the families who lived there.

[mallorypike]

While I love how the BSC was written, but if I created the BSC, there would be several changes...

1) Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey would remain in the 7th grade way longer until, like, after Mary Anne and Too Many Boys.
2) Mallory would remain a sitting charge way longer until maybe between #45-#66. Around the Maid Mary Anne period, they could be *considering* Mallory to be in the club. Then, a book or two later, she would be introduced to the club.
3) Jessi would be introduced way long after Mallory would have joined the club. Maybe around when Abby introduced.
4) Dawn would still be introduced in Mary Anne Saves the Day but they don't become best friends. Their parents won't be reintroduced, either. Dawn wouldn't be part of the Babysitters Club until after Stacey moves back to New York.
5) Stacey wouldn't move back to New York until after Mallory joins the club. Then Dawn would take over Stacey.
6) Stacey would move back around the Stacey and the Bad Girls period. But her parents wouldn't be divorced. They'd move back because there would be a new clinic *just* for people with diabetes. Stacey's parents would approve and decide to move back.
7) Abby would *never* be introduced. Ever. I never liked Abby at all. She's just basically Jewish Kristy which probably explains why she and Kristy fight all the time...
8) The super specials and mysteries would remain the same. Well, at least the main plots. Jessi/Quint would be eliminated in NY, NY! and a few other boyfriends in the super specials. The Babysitters always land a hot new boyfriend if they step two miles out of Stoneybrook!
9) Jeff would never move back to California. I always thought he was a sweet, adorable little guy. Especially in the Ghost at Dawn's House. The only times he acted like a brat was that he was struggling in school (#12, #15 for examples) and that he struggled fitting in the family (#64, for example). But other times (that I know of), he was absolutely wonderful.
10) Mimi and Louie would never be killed off. Mimi was my favorite adult character ever then she died. Louie was an awesome dog--there's no really better dog than Louie (other than my childhood dogs, that is ;D). Oh, why, oh, why, did he have to die?

[celaeno]

This is something that's crossed my mind a lot. These are some of the things that bothered me about how the sitters were written, and how I would change it:

-It bothered me that pretty much all the sitters' families are upper middle class, and the parents all have white-collar, fairly high ranking jobs. All their houses seem quite large, and the parents seem pretty high on the corporate ladder - a lot of the parents have mentioned having their own assistant or secretary, right? That alone sets them apart from your average household - I would say their families all seem like they're in the top 15 - 20% of the population or so. I definitely would have liked to have seen some of the sitters come from average households with average incomes, parents with blue collar jobs, or at least jobs that seemed more common and realistic.

-I disliked that Ann made most of the sitters fall into the "I live and breath sports" camp (Kristy, Abby, Logan) or the "lol I don't even know which end of a baseball bat to hold" camp (most of the others). C'mon, they're middle schoolers...it's more realistic to fall into the middle. I would have liked to have seen someone like Dawn or Stacey be on the volleyball or soccer team - an extracurricular activity she likes, without it being her One True Passion.

-Ann obviously looooved her blended families, but I disliked that she always showed it from the point of view of a kid from the first family. In other words, we have characters like Kristy, Stacey, and Dawn - characters who see their parents get divorced, then get remarried, then have new kids. I would have rathered had a sitter have the POV of Gracie Schafer or Emily Michelle or Ed and Samantha's future child - someone whose parents are still together, but had been previously married, and so the character has half siblings that are 10 - 15 years older than her.

[greer]

Hmm. I might have just made them older, like sixteen or so, so that their plotlines would have made more sense. I don't know. I do kind of like the unrealisticness of it all. It is fantasy, in that way. Although I might have put a disclaimer: "Warning, middle school is awkward and terrible for everyone, baby-sitting is not as easy as they make it look, and your parents won't let you do anything mentioned in these pages."

Re: class--I don't know if I would call all of them being upper middle class unrealistic. I mean, lawyers and investment bankers do exist. I think that since Ann herself is from an upper middle class town (Princeton is SUPER bougie), it makes sense that, well, they have the rich area of town and the super rich area of town. In middle and elementary schools for a town like that, I think it makes sense that everyone would basically be more or less from the same socioeconomic group. I think it's highly possible that Ann has never really associated with working class/blue collar families. Early on, Kristy's family was the least wealthy, but they still had a four-bedroom house in the same neighborhood as the Kishis and the Spiers, and she was an advertising executive. So yeah, not even really a typical portrait of a struggling single mom.

[Amalia]

How about being a buyer for a department store? It didn't strike me as being that prestigious because Maureen had got it after 10 years of not working.

[greer]

Dec 13, 2013 12:50:55 GMT -5 Amalia said:

How about being a buyer for a department store? It didn't strike me as being that prestigious because Maureen had got it after 10 years of not working.

She also had alimony/child support from someone with an enormous apartment in Manhattan and some kind of Very Important Job.

[candykane]

Dec 13, 2013 12:21:31 GMT -5 greer said:

Although I might have put a disclaimer: "Warning, middle school is awkward and terrible for everyone, baby-sitting is not as easy as they make it look, and your parents won't let you do anything mentioned in these pages."

Love this, especially the last one. I'll admit, when I was 8 years old and first getting into the series, I did kind of expect that when I hit 13 my life would be pretty similar to theirs. Ha! I'm sure most of us thought this, though

[Amalia]

Does anybody wish that not all of them rode bikes? It would've been cool if one of them chose a skateboard or rollerblades as her mode of transportation. And when they rode their bikes, it never seemed to mention them wearing helmets like one of them taking it off when arriving at a client's house and putting it on a table or something.

[mallorypike]

Dec 13, 2013 16:19:45 GMT -5 Amalia said:

Does anybody wish that not all of them rode bikes? It would've been cool if one of them chose a skateboard or rollerblades as her mode of transportation. And when they rode their bikes, it never seemed to mention them wearing helmets like one of them taking it off when arriving at a client's house and putting it on a table or something.

So true. Every single babysitter rode bikes. I never really realized that they didn't seem to mention helmets. I do believe that in a few books one of the sitters would "snap on their helmet and hopped on her bike" or something. But that's it. It would be cool for one of them rode skateboards or roller skates.  I could imagine Logan riding a skateboard. Also, I could imagine Stacey riding Day-Glo roller skates if there's such a thing as that, too.

[booboobrewer]

Stacey on day glo skates sounds awesome and I would have loved her for it haha.

[ashley868]

I would have had them age. I'd start them at seventh grade like the series started, but have them go until the five older members graduate High School and Jessi and Mallory end in grade ten. It would be better then having them start eighth grade over and over again. Some might say they might not have time to baby-sit in High School, but that's when I did most of my baby-sitting. Most of grade 12 I baby-sat for my neighbours. I know the chances of them all still being friends by the end of grade 12 isn't that realistic but most of BSC wasn't realistic anyway.

[wenonah4th]

I agree about aging, and changing the membership over time a bit. SLOWLY!

[wenonah4th]

And zoar is right- definitley more realistic.