Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Heartwarming / TheBabySittersClub

Go To

1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/babysitters3.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:]]
3* When Kristy's stepfather (of whom she was once very resentful) has a heart attack, she tells the 911 operator that "Something is wrong with my father!" It just shows how much Kristy has come to accept Watson as more than just a stepfather, but also a beloved member of her family. It goes the other way, too--throughout the series, Watson rarely refers to Kristy as "my stepdaughter." Even when he's writing to a relative of his, he refers to her as "my daughter."
4* Byron finally deciding to befriend Nicky in a later book.
5* In ''Claudia and Mean Janine'', Claudia finally has a heart-to-heart talk with Janine and works through how she feels distant from their family. Not only does Claudia let Janine know how loved she is, but in turn, Janine admits Claudia has many redeeming qualities. This leads to Janine finally volunteering to go for a walk with Mimi, which Claudia happily joins.
6** One earlier incident in the book that sets off Claudia's heart-to-heart with Janine is when she notices new brother Jamie Newton so jealous he almost pours punch on his baby sister during her christening party. Keyword ''almost'', but he [[WhatYouAreInTheDark doesn't]]. Claudia wonders why Jamie changed his mind, and he says that although he doesn't like the attention his baby sister hogs, she's still his sister and he loves her. That makes Claudia realize that for all their arguing, she still loves Janine.
7** Throughout the story, Claudia was convinced that her [[PartingWordsRegret rude words]] were what caused Mimi's stroke. Mimi comforts Claudia that her words didn't cause the stroke whatsoever, and she forgives her granddaughter for what she said.
8* Betsy's characterization in "Claudia and the Bad Joke". Even though she's a prankster who can take her jokes too far, she shows [[EverybodyHasStandards genuine concern and remorse]] when the titular prank with a broken swing leads to Claudia breaking her leg. And later, when Kristy retaliates with a couple pranks of her own, Betsy voices how humiliating they were. To this, Kristy firmly lets her know that the pranks ''she'' pulled on the other babysitters throughout the story (which include [[DudeNotFunny shaving cream in someone's dessert and pretending to go missing]]) weren't any less mean-spirited. From this comes a learning experience about compassion, which prompts Betsy to think about Claudia and request giving her a proper apology in person.
9** During the apology, Claudia offers Betsy some candy, and [[SincerityMode assures her]] [[PetTheDog it's not a prank]]. Not only is Claudia still as kindly to children as she ever was before, but it feels like a token of forgiveness towards the girl for her prank. No doubt this sweet act further taught Betsy to be kindlier in the future.
10** Mimi's supportive attitude towards Claudia throughout the story. When Claudia's broken leg inspires her to quit the Babysitters Club so she doesn't hurt herself again, Mimi comforts her granddaughter. What's more, Mimi's experience with [[CallBack her stroke]] also gives her the empathy to assure Claudia that although she couldn't foresee Betsy's prank breaking her leg, she doesn't have to feel like she has no control.
11** Claudia showing kindness towards her roommate while she stays at the hospital.
12* When Claudia is accused of cheating on a math test, her parents say that they would "like to believe" her when she says that she's innocent. Her older sister Janine, however, says, "I ''do'' believe you," and is so vehement in her defense of Claudia that she makes their parents ashamed of the fact that they had ever doubted her. Doubly heartwarming is the fact that the reason she knows Claudia didn't cheat is because she went out of her way to help Claudia study for the test and, at the beginning of the book, was seen praising her little sister warmly at her successes on the practice test.
13* Janine again: When Claudia wins a contest to host a radio program for a few weeks, her parents ask her questions like "Will this interfere with your schoolwork?" (legit) and "Will you be paid?" (''not legit'') Janine? Runs to the kitchen for champagne glasses and sparkling cider.
14--> "A toast to Claudia, the first media celebrity in the family!"
15* There is a very touching moment at the end of ''Boy-Crazy Stacey'', when the girls have returned from their various two-week vacations. Stacey and Mary Anne have been away in Sea City with the Pike family, and Stacey is dying to call Claudia and tell her about getting her first kiss. But she forces herself to hold off and call Mary Anne, who went on her first date during the time away, because she thinks Mary Anne may need her more.
16* In the first book, Kristy bonding with Karen and Andrew, who she had initially wanted nothing to do with before getting to know them.
17* In ''Jessi's Secret Language'', Jessi is babysitting for Matt Braddock, who is deaf. She introduces Matt to the neighborhood kids, and they start playing baseball. During an argument about a play, Jessi notices that the kids are arguing verbally, and is about to remind them to sign as well so that Matt can follow along, but before she can, the kids themselves ''back up and start the argument over again'', this time with sign language. Later on, Jessi observes that they've stopped talking entirely, and are just signing instead along with Matt.
18** Waiting for their parents to pick them up from ballet practice, Jessi meets Katie Beth's deaf sister Adele. She helps her jealous classmate learn some simple signs to communicate with (as Adele doesn't get to see her family much and they never learned ASL), leaving on much more friendly terms.
19** When Matt shows Jessi his school desk in the graphic novel, he signs "I love you." to her. Jessi happily signs it back.
20* Richard Spier and Jeff Schafer trying to get along after Richard marries Dawn and Jeff's mom. Richard is terrified of dealing with him because he's only raised a very girly daughter, while Jeff is wary of him because, hey, he's met Mary Anne. Jeff, who is sporty and extremely irreverent and jokey, mostly sticks to calling Richard "sir," which they both know is awkward and not right. They finally start bonding shortly before Jeff leaves to go back to California, when Richard leads Jeff and his friends in singing ''every song about California known to man.''
21** During a later visit, Jeff greets his Connecticut family with a particularly bad joke, not even giving Richard a chance to finish his logical deduction of the answer. Richard acknowledges he wouldn't have got it, and proceeds to tell Jeff about a knock-knock joke he heard at the office, leading to the two of them wandering off in their own little world.
22* At the end of the first book, Stacey confesses: all those trips to New York City, and all the secrets, were due to the fact she has diabetes. She then tells of being ostracized at her old school and how her parents decided to move to Stoneybrook (because it was less stressful). The club members just accept her and Kristy tells her the news isn't a big deal, her own cousin has diabetes and she understands what Stacey has to contend with; they'll make sure to keep something on hand for her to eat.
23* In ''Mary Anne and the Secret in the Attic'', Kristy asks her mom (who was Mary Anne's parents' neighbor at the time) about Mary Anne being sent to live with her grandparents for a time after her mother's death. Elizabeth Brewer recalls that Richard Spier did it because he was overwhelmed by grief, and was overjoyed when he got Mary Anne back. She ran into him pushing her in her stroller, proud as a peacock, asking her, "Look at my baby girl. Isn't she beautiful?"
24** Kristy's mom even notes that the late Mrs. Spier welcomed them to the neighborhood with a homemade cake. After Kristy recounts the details to Mary Anne, Mary Anne promises that she'll look for the recipe to make one as a token of gratitude.
25* In ''The Truth About Stacey'', all of the reconciliations we see are adorable, as is how dedicated the girls are to the kids they sit for.
26* In one of the memory books, Claudia talks about how when she was in elementary school, they were assigned an art project in which they were supposed to draw a picture of themselves the way they see themselves. The teacher gave absolutely no guidelines beyond that, so Claudia - being very artistic and a free spirit - drew a butterfly. The teacher and several of her classmates ridiculed her piece, to the point where she went home in tears. Mimi, upon hearing the story, immediately walked her back to the school, found the teacher, and gave her the gentlest but firmest telling-off anyone could ever get. "Claudia sees herself as a free spirit, like a butterfly. So that is what she drew." The teacher later apologized, but by that point Claudia didn't even care; the thing that mattered was that Mimi ''understood her''.
27* Another memory book has Mary Anne recalling how, when the class was assigned to make Mother's Day cards, she made one for her father. Kristy made a point of getting in Alan Gray's face when he made fun of Mary Anne for it. In his defense, Alan didn't know that Mary Anne's mother was dead, but that didn't take away from Kristy defending her best friend.
28** Alan also makes a point of apologizing immediately after Kristy tells him off.
29** In that same story, Mary Anne recalls a Mother's Day tea and how she was so scared of being mocked again (and being chewed out by the SternTeacher) that instead of inviting her father, she invites Mimi to the tea. Turns out that Richard knew about the tea all along and arranged to have time off to be at the tea along with Mimi so Mary Anne winds up getting ''two'' guests at her tea! Later, her teacher (known for being rather stern and prone to yelling) talks to Mary Anne kindly and not only doesn't yell at her like she fears but lets her have both guests.
30** Overall, the memory book shows just how much Richard and Mary Anne mean to each other with the stories (and even some pictures) of Richard loving his daughter unconditionally, from the incident with the tea to pulling her out of ballet when she was clearly anxious (to the point of ''throwing up'') and unhappy (she was trying to like the class for her friends as well as wanting his approval) to helping her reconnect with her maternal grandmother again. Richard might not have been the perfect parent, but it's clear that Mary Anne is his world and he would do anything for her to be happy.
31* In ''Keep Out, Claudia!,'' a racist mother calls the BSC and specifically asks for any other babysitter except Claudia, slams the door in Jessi's face when she shows up, and later calls again asking for a blonde, blue-eyed sitter. Dawn and Stacey, both blonde and blue-eyed, both refuse to babysit for the woman, and Kristy picks up the call while mentioning that she has an adopted Vietnamese sister. She hangs up and gleefully informs the club that they just lost a client. No matter how often the girls argue, they will ''not'' tolerate anyone being racist towards members of their club, or anyone else.
32* In ''Kristy and the Snobs'', after the Thomases' beloved dog Louie has to be put down, Shannon Kilbourne, who had had a mostly adversarial relationship with Kristy up to that point, expresses genuine sympathy, and then later offers the family a puppy -- not to replace Louie per se, but so that they'll have a dog to love and to love them. To make it even more heartwarming, they name the new puppy Shannon.
33** In the graphic novel of that story, while their owners are arguing, Astrid and Louie greet each other happily. Louie even looks very adorably disappointed when Kristy takes him away from his new friend.
34** Also in the graphic novel, Karen and Boo-Boo join David Michael and Louie to rest after Louie's accidental PottyFailure.
35* Any time Kristy and Dawn have a bonding moment. They didn't like each other at first, as Kristy was jealous of Dawn's close friendship with Mary Anne, who has always been Kristy's best friend. However:
36** In ''Dawn and the Impossible Three'', Dawn understands that Kristy was feeling left out and genuinely tries to befriend her, despite Kristy's obvious jealousy. She succeeds towards the end of the book, when she invites Kristy into her home and they start bonding, with Kristy finally accepting Dawn and even telling her that she's happy that Mary Anne has a new friend.
37** In ''Dawn's Wicked Stepsister'', Dawn and Mary Anne have trouble getting along after their parents get married. Dawn turns to Kristy for advice, because she's the only who can understand BlendedFamilyDrama problems, and Kristy turns out to be very supportive and gives her useful advice on how to deal with the family situation. Even Dawn was surprised that Kristy was so nice and understanding, instead of taking Mary Anne's side.
38* Sharon, Jeff & Dawn's mom and Mary Anne's stepmom, gets emotional when Mary Anne goes to visit Dawn in California. Mary Anne is touched, and it makes her emotional too -- that her stepmother is going to miss her as much she misses her own children.
39* Stacey's parents have a very contentious relationship after their divorce and wind up putting her in the middle several times. However, at the very end of ''Aloha Baby-Sitters!'' they ''both'' pick her up and the three of them then proceed to stay up ''nearly all night'' talking happily.
40* In ''Karen's Little Sister,'' after the reveal that Emily Michelle has to go to the hospital for an operation to put tubes in her ears, Karen (who earlier was angry with Emily for taking up so much attention) decides on her own volition to make a card for her little sister. She also gives her a coloring book and crayons and plays with her, making her smile and laugh as well as showing her pictures of the bird she was taking care of. Later, Emily gives her a picture of a bird from her coloring book to show that she remembered Karen talking to her about her bird.
41* In ''Kristy and the Mother's Day Surprise'', quite a few moments stand out here:
42** Kristy's idea to not only let the club's mothers have a day off but the mothers of their clients as well by taking the kids to a carnival for the day that they wouldn't have been able to go to otherwise because of that day. Many of the kids like Jamie Newton are ecstatic and the mothers are quite grateful to them. Elizabeth, Kristy's mother, in particular actually bursts into TearsOfJoy with the offer to take David Michael, Karen, and Andrew out for the day.
43** In order for the Mother's Day Surprise to actually be a ''break'' for the mothers, the sitters ask for the dads to be the ones who pick up and drop off the kids, make their lunches, watch the younger siblings who are too little, etc. But Mrs. Barrett is divorced, somewhat acrimoniously, so Mallory's dad volunteers to be the one who drops off Suzi and Buddy, and even babysits their two-year-old sister, Marnie. As Mallory puts it, her dad loves kids. "Why do you think there's so many of us?"
44** As the family prepares for the arrival of their newest family member, Andrew is feeling sad and left out because he'll no longer be the youngest. Kristy makes sure to hug him and let him know that she'll always love him no matter how many children are adopted.
45** While it might be considered ValuesDissonance today due to modern day adoption practices, the arrival of Emily Michelle has Kristy watching her new baby sister sleeping in her new bed and feeling as though she helped to make their family complete.

Top