Book Hangover Thoughts: The Babysitters' Club

 I’d like to credit Ann M. Martin, as The Babysitters’ Club series features a few other classic examples of a divided family reduced even further, but this time, by fear rather than blame.  

Mary Anne’s relationship with her widowed father wasn’t all peaches and cream.  After the death of her mother, Mary Anne’s maternal grandparents sued for custody after having cared for their infant granddaughter for a year while her father dealt with his grief.  I guess even in a state of heartbreak, he realized that it’s unhealthy for children to have to cope with a parent’s emotional issues at a young age. They lost the case, but her father was determined to prove that he could raise his daughter on his own and not screw her up.

 He picked out all her clothes, meaning Mary Anne dressed “preppy, yet casual”, and in her early teens, she was required to wear her hair in braids to school. Don’t ask me why, though it’s been speculated that it’s the only way her mother ever taught her father to do their little girl’s hair. 

A collection of several books

Her bedroom was still baby pink and filled with fairytale decor until seventh grade, though this may have been because in his panic over possibly losing his little girl, her father kept things the only way he knew. Especially since his wife likely helped decorate their daughter’s room and he just didn’t want any more change in his life, despite the fact that Mary Anne might not have wanted to be the perfect little lady her father tried to mold her into. Wanting a change in life is a natural part of growing up. All kids want a change in their lifestyles at around twelve years of age, which is the age of most of the Babysitters’ Club members. 

I completely get his desire to keep the last piece of his wife safe, but raising Mary Anne, in her own words: “like a glass doll” isn’t the way to go about that. You know how when you shake up a carbonated beverage and then try to hold the lid on, the fizz just comes out stronger? That’s exactly what he’s doing. If you restrict a child’s independence, they’re eventually going to explode.

 I don’t mean literally explode, I mean they’ll lash out at what’s stopping them from gaining their freedom. In this case, the roadblock would be a father who’s too afraid to let go because he’s still traumatized by the loss of his wife. 

This kind of thing actually grinds my gears for a second reason. Overprotective parents can be condescending, which reminds me of how some people feel the need to point out the obvious or over explain every step of the easiest task. 

I literally hate being patronized! Like the time when my mom volunteered me to deliver flyers for the neighborhood block party as a favor for a neighbor. I mean, I’m happy to help, but I didn’t need my parents to point out where all the mailboxes and slots are. I could clearly see them! And that house without one? When I said I’d put it in the door, I meant sliding it under the door because I’d noticed they didn’t have an outer glass door. 

My parents aren’t overprotective per say, Mom just tends to worry too much about the weirdest things. I think it’s because she watches too much cable news. I text her statistics on things that freak her out to calm her down. I’m actually thankful my parents’ only requirement for how I wear my hair is that it’s at least brushed enough to look presentable, because I hate when people touch my head, which is not fun because maternal grandmother is a hairstylist and when I was little, Mom was always trying little beauty tricks Grandma told her, like French braids or buns, and I guess I got fed up.

 Anyway, another thought provoker was the autistic child in book 32, though I may be a little biased on the subject. 

Susan has low functioning Autism. She’s not much of a talker, but she’s a bonafide piano prodigy. She’s never mentioned before or ever again because her parents send her to a boarding school. I’m aware that it’s a school for special needs and the disabled, but I just don’t think it’s fair for an eight-year-old to have to spend so much of her life in a strange environment in a different city from her parents just because she’s disabled and the local elementary school’s special education class can’t accommodate her. As an Autistic myself, I can tell you that we benefit from having someone who’s always there to support us. For small kids, that’s usually a parent.

 The story gets some leniency because it was written in the nineties and

Fun Fact, public schools only started offering special education classes in 1991. That’s because up until the late sixties, there were almost no medications or alternative therapies for the disabled at all because scientists at the time actually thought that sending large groups of children with disabilities, physical and mental or serious medical conditions to isolated islands for the summer would help them because they thought the sea air could cure them. In fact, an island off the coast of Marblehead Massachusetts known as Children’s Island which is now used as a location for a summer camp was originally used to house Smallpox patients. 
Maybe that’s why I felt strangely understood by the environment when I attended camp there. It was like the island was aware of my condition. I guess I should consider myself lucky to have been born in an era that no longer thinks of electric-shock therapy as a suitable treatment for mental disorders. 

Oh, and for the record, that theory about vaccines and autism? That was actually proven to have been a completely falsified study and the doctor who wrote it lost his medical license. The real reason symptoms tend to show up after a child’s first inoculations is because that’s a normal age for Autism diagnosis. So refusing to vaccinate your child because of that has no effect on whether or not they develop it. And wanting to “protect” your children from Autism is actually a little insulting to the Autistic community. Did you know that Albert Einstein was one of us? 

I know exactly why this bothers me so much. It’s an inaccurate depiction of Autism.

 I get that she’s low-functioning and they explained the reasoning in the book, and it was the early 90s which is before Individualized Education Programs or IEPs were a thing in schools, but why does the Autistic kid get shipped off while the deaf-mute kid gets to stay? I mean no offense to the deaf community and I, of all people, know that not all disabled people are the same, (if we were, my grandma’s ears would be as sensitive to sound as mine are and a nice girl in my school with a Service Dog wouldn’t need her canine companion, but Grandma is 75% deaf and my campus-mate can’t see). 

I’m just saying, if the town has a school that can accommodate a kid who communicates differently because he can’t hear, why can’t they do the same for one who communicates differently because she perceives the world differently?

 It worries me that kids who read the book might’ve gotten the idea that anyone on the Spectrum would be the same, and as such they’d treat us all the same. I already barely tolerate being patronized, so I’d lose my mind if I had to endure having assistance with the simplest tasks and people referring to themselves in the third person to me. I didn’t even like that when I was a toddler. 

Also, Claudia's older sister raised a valid point in the first book. Should the apostrophe be before or after the S on "babysitters"? Is it a club to find a babysitter, a club of babysitters, or a club belonging to one or more babysitters? Post your answer in the comments.