Tuesday, February 10, 2009

“Who could take care of a baby better than us”…..BSC # 52: Mary Anne and 2 Many Babies

Memory Reaction

This is the book that my friend used to make fun of. Dawn and Mary Anne want their parents to have a new baby, and they keep saying how Sharon would only need to do a third of the work as a normal mother, since Mary Anne and Dawn are around.

This is also a book where they have that stupid egg baby project. I never had to do this in school, mainly because when I was a freshman in high school, the seniors who had to carry around bags of flour, dumped the flour all over the halls once they finished the project. But even before that, I never understood why characters in books would really bother carrying an egg to the movies with them.

Revisited Reaction

This one starts out with Mary Anne and Dawn talking about how much they want their parents to have a baby. They think it is totally unreasonable that their parents wouldn’t want to uproot their lives, and they can’t imagine what the big deal is. Mary Anne also gets a couple jobs sitting for a pair of twin six-month-olds. Her first one goes well, and she is in baby heaven.

Then all the girls have to start taking a class called “modern living,” which I can’t believe they would do in an 8th grade class. But, they do, and Mary Anne and Logan have to pretend to be married and that an egg is a baby. It starts off fine, then Mary Anne and Logan realize that apartments and food and doctors are really expensive and can’t be paid for with baby-sitting money. Shocking news. They also fight a lot, because Logan totally doesn’t trust Mary Anne to take care of the egg. I think this is sign 1,006 that Mary Anne should dump him. And THEN Mary Anne sits for the twins again, and they cry the whole time. So, she and Dawn decide that they don’t want a new sibling after all. Um, happy ending?

High/Lowlights

  • All the talk Mary Anne and Dawn have about wanting a baby is ridiculous. Wouldn’t a 13-year-old know that they couldn’t really do everything for a baby that a mother does?
  • Mary Anne and Dawn also think it is ridiculous that their parents won’t consider adopting…after all, Kristy’s mom and Watson did, so it must be easy to do.
  • Okay, they also talk about how it would be hard to find a relative that could move in to help out like Kristy’s grandmother. Yeah, imagine not having a relative willing to be a non-paid nanny.
  • Awe, I feel bad when people embarrass themselves. Mary Anne’s teacher asks who thinks they are responsible enough to raise a kid. And she raises her hand, thinking the teacher is doing a head count.
  • Mary Anne and Logan are shocked that a two-bedroom apartment goes for $2,000 a month. I know the books are old, but that is an awesome price.
  • The mother of the twins is tired, and Mary Anne doesn’t understand why having twins would do that. After all, she once was a mother’s helper for the Pikes and it wasn’t bad.
  • Mary Anne spends all this effort dressing up the babies in fancy matching outfits and talking about how she would do that with her own babies all the time. I think that would last for about a week.
  • Okay, this seems normal. Stacey thinks carrying an egg around is annoying and can’t understand why Mary Anne is so into it.
  • Mallory actually sounds like the reasonable one, when she tells the others that being pregnant actually makes people tired.
  • This part is kind of scary…Dawn makes a big point of saying she won’t ever change her name if she gets married. Now, this is always something I have thought myself, I seriously hope it is not just because of Dawn.
  • Dawn and Mallory let the Pikes waste almost a dozen eggs by pretending they have egg babies too.
  • So, Mary Anne and Dawn decide they don’t want a new baby after all. Then, Sharon and Richard say they want to talk, and the girls get all worried that it is too late. But they were just telling them they could get a new pet.
  • Mary Anne decides that she doesn’t want to wait until she is “really” old, like 40, to have a baby. But 25 sounds like a perfect age. Yeah…I had lots of friends in high school that talked about wanting to have kids before they were 25 so they wouldn’t be too old. Very few of them actually did.

24 comments:

SJSiff said...

Regarding the age to have a baby...my aunt and uncle had theirs before they turned 30. Then the kids are gone before you're 50, right? And they were...then, due to (non-life-threatening) medical issues and home remodeling, all the kids ended up moving back in, including a son-in-law and a grandchild. They're back down to one now, and he'll be moving out (again) in June. Aunt and uncle will be 58 then.

Anonymous said...

We did the egg baby thing at school, once. I dropped mine on the way home from class the very first day. I am going to be the worst mother ever!

This is definitely one of the books I only read maybe once or twice. I think I found it pretty boring when I was a kid - babies really aren't that interesting to read about, and Logan was an epic jerk in this one. Although that's nothing out of the ordinary, I suppose.

Anonymous said...

What obnoxious little twerps MA and Dawn are. Ugh. Just cos they baby-sit a couple of times a week, put on a few plays here and organise a couple of carnivals there, does not make them equal thirds with an actual parent!! Ugh. That is so obnoxious! And creepy.

And there's no way I'd leave six month old twins with a thirteen year old baby-sitter.

nikki said...

I somehow never read this one...Dawn and M.A. sound truly obnoxious though. How could they not understand that a mom deals with things that a babysitter doesn't? Like 1 am feedings, follwed by 2:30 am feedings, 4 am feedings and 6 am feedings, chafed nipples, sitz baths, post partum depression, being pooped on constantly, not being able to even leave the house for ten minutes without having to stop and change a diaper....

Wait. I guess I didn't quite realize the extent of it all until I had my own either. And that egg project, which I did in 8th grade, was a lame attempt at teaching the unteachable.

BSC Snarker, aka Kristen said...

Anonomys - Mary Anne actually talks about how hard it was to wait six months before the BSC was allowed to sit for the babies.

BananaBomb said...

I never did the egg/flour sack baby thing either.

Last year, my middle stepson took the Modern Living home ec class, and he got a ROBOT baby! It was the same size and weight of an infant, and it cried (loudly). He had a set of keys that plugged into the baby's back to stop the crying. Each key was different, one was for hungry, one was dirty diaper, etc. The best part of this project was that it was right before prom and he had to take that thing with him when he picked up his tux. The looks he got were hilarious! He lucked out and didn't have to take it to the dance.

Anonymous said...

The human development (or something like that) class at my middle school had a similar project. Reportedly, the kids used to take care of eggs, but the janitors complained so they switched to carrying around stuffed egg-shaped dolls that looked like Humpty Dumpty.

Great blog, by the way. 8-)

Happy said...

When I read this book as a kid I couldnt believe how stupid Mary Anne (and even some of the other bsc'ers) were! Like, the one time when Mary Anne and Logan go to the movies and she ends up losing the egg at the theater.. and then talks about how they cant do anything fun when there's a baby around... except, HELLO, I think that Stoneybrook has this thing? I think you're part of it? its called the BABYSITTERS club? Why not get a baby sitter (egg sitter) for your stupid egg when you go out? That's what the parents in Stoneybrook seem to do all the time!!! okay, sorry, rant over. I just thought they were really dumb in this book :)

Anonymous said...

I love on how the poll no one thinks Dawn will be a good mother. I think she'd be a lot like Kate Gosselin -- Don't let the kids get firty! Don't let them eat something that isn't organic! No fun for the kids!

zanne said...

Never read this one, but I agree that Mary Anne and Dawn seem obnoxious.

I never got to do the egg/flour baby in school. They do it all the time in books and on tv, and I had been looking forward to it! I guess I took the wrong class, because some students got to do it, although they had fish. They carried them around in a little box w/a handle. I thought it was pretty cool.

Anonymous said...

I never did the egg thing in school either.

So Mary Anne and Logan have broken up and gotten back together, and he still can't trust her --she says in MA vs. Logan that she realizes they don't always trust each other, and he can't always be counted on in a crisis. And here he is again, not able to stand her being alone with their child. Logan is so lame and not worth her time.

Anonymous said...

I wish that I'd have had an egg or sack of flour! We had one of those robot babies that are like, the same weight as a real baby. It had sensors so that it could need to be changed, be fed, or just fussy. The first time I had the doll, I sorta failed. I dropped her head a couple times hahha! But then I had to take her the next night and I was extra careful and got 100% haha. I turned into SuperMom overnight ;)

Anonymous said...

Dude, $2000 in rent a month is absolutely insane. My roommates and I pay $600 + utilities for a three bedroom, split between the three of us. Good grief!

Dawn and MA trying to force Richard and Sharon to have a baby is so mean. Why would two newlyweds who already have three annoying kids between the two of them want another one in the mix?

Sadako said...

No, I don't understand why parents are so eager to leave their tiny babies with 13 year old girls. And the girls acted so offended (when they were 12!) when Mrs. Newton didn't want to leave newborn Lucy with the BSC members. Aren't most moms reluctant to leave their babies even when they're left with relatives/friends?

Dee said...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that Dawn and MA would change their tune pretty damn quickly after awhile when they were also being woken up every two hours by their newborn sibling's crying. Or having their plans forcibly fall through because they need to babysit and having their words and promises to take care of their little brother/sister thrown back in their faces.

Jeez, the two of them thought it was going to be OMGSOAWESOME to be stepsisters until they actually became so.

And $2000/month for a 2-bedroom is kind of expensive for that time. That's about the median price for a 2-bedroom here in the DC suburbs today. It'll be more or less depending where you are. It's a little much if you're in my town, but a decent deal if you're looking in Alexandria or Arlington.

Anonymous said...

I didn't mind the baby talk too much my sibling and I did that occassionally wondering what a baby brother or sister would be like and baby names but I'm kind of glad AMM went with Richard and Sharon not wanting a baby. Not everyone who marries or marries twice has kids each time.
I went through the egg thing although it was a sack of flour in high school which I did nothing with it wasn't a big deal and a couple girls actually all ready had babies of their own.

Anonymous said...

Mary Anne spends all this effort dressing up the babies in fancy matching outfits and talking about how she would do that with her own babies all the time.




is Mary Anne's new name Mrs. Prezzioso

Amanda said...

I just read this and I couldn't stop laughing about how in the book it kept talking about how their bodies were reading to have children and basically it was about not having sex....but MA wicked annoyed me in this book..Dawn too more and more I hate them both!!!

Anonymous said...

I don't know if it was Dawn that made you think about not changing your last name or if it was the movie/book My Girl. Vada talks about how hard it is to look up old girlfriends because they're married. =)

Nixxi6 said...

haha I always got a kick out of the end of the book where one of the guys at school is talking to MA & Logan about the next project in "Modern Living" being "Health" and how he's excited because they might talk about -SEX- haha I remember the first time I read that I was like "Ummm WHAT?!" I was so shocked that Ann M. would even ALLOW that word in the BSC books - Let alone let a guy look forward to talking/learning about it! haha

Jennifer said...

I just discovered this blog in July and I'm enjoying going back and reading through it!

I don't think I reread this book many times, but I remember my favourite part was the Mary Anne bookmark that came with.

edkchestnut said...

I did the egg baby thing in 9th grade. My egg got seriously cracked by like day 2. Also, I never did anything other than taking it to school, then made up a bunch of stuff for the report. I got an A. Also, I now have three kids of my own and that project did not prepare me, at all. Nothing really can.

Langsather Letters said...

32 pages single spaced report for 8th grade!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???!!!!!!

Marianna E said...

In one of the schools where I used to work, they did the egg baby project in 6th grade. I remember seeing a smashed egg baby on the stairs one morning.
And 2,000 for a 2-bedroom apartment in the 90s sounds way too expensive! I lived in a suburban area in Georgia when I was a kid/teen, and in 1999 we lived in a nice duplex with 3 bedrooms and a large kitchen. We paid $800 a month. Maybe if that apartment was in New York City, or someplace expensive, it would make sense.