History Literature / TheBabySittersClub

** One example that stands out is the relationship between Claudia and her genius sister Janine. There are many books where the two of them bond over junk food, have a heart-to-heart talk, and realize that they're not that different. By the next book, their relationship is [[ResetButton back to where it was]], with Janine being too smart and Claudia being too flighty.
** A feature in many ''Little Sister'' books, where Karen learns not to be a brat only to promptly forget it by the time the next book comes around. She also repeatedly decides she wants something from someone but doesn't tell them that she wants it, even though every time she's honest about what she wants, things turn out better for her (e.g. not explaining to anyone that all she wants for her birthday is for her families to be together, instead trying to make trouble to force her parents to talk). It may be partially {{Justified|Trope}} by her age, though.
** There were also multiple books where the sitters pushed [[ShrinkingViolet Charlotte Johanssen]] into some sort of public performance, only for it to blow up in their faces and for them to have to apologize to Charlotte and her parents. Not only did they not learn any general lessons about respecting boundaries, but even the specific lesson, "Don't force Charlotte to do stuff she doesn't want to do," never seemed to sink in.

** Rather amusingly, the first exception mentioned in the series are Ricky and Rose Salem... who are ''infants'', and because of this, despite the fact that they're not identical in the traditional sense, many people still have difficulty telling them apart.
* AmbiguouslyGay:
** Abby definitely has shades of this. Like Kristy, she is a major tomboy who usually dresses in simple, athletic-type clothes. But perhaps most notable is the fact that, ''unlike'' Kristy, she never has a boyfriend of any sort -- and in ''Abby's Un-Valentine'' she makes it quite clear that she is not particularly interested in having one. Fanfic writers have taken note and often ship her with Kristy.

** Richard Spier becomes one to Dawn and Jeff when he marries their mother. He's a little uptight but very kind and respectful to both his stepchildren.

* EarPiercingPlot: In ''Mallory and the Trouble with Twins'', Mallory negotiates with her parents for permission to finally get her ears pierced. They agree on the conditions she pays for the piercing, takes care of them properly, gets only one hole in each ear, and [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers doesn't stick to small simple earrings]] (as she'd offered to do) because, as her mom says, part of the fun of pierced ears is wearing wacky earrings sometimes. (Behind the scenes, Jessi similarly makes a similar negotiation with her own parents, as she and Mallory get their ears pierced at the same time.) Other members also get their ears pierced: Dawn (who spontaneously gets two in each ear) and Claudia who gets an extra one in one ear, giving her two in one and one in the other.

** In "Stacey in the Missing Ring", Stacey mentions that her father went through a phase of buying her a lot of expensive gifts right after her parents' divorce as a way to try to make it up to her. He stopped once he realized Stacey didn't need or want him to do that.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Minor reoccurring character Erica Lumberg is hired to babysit for the Nichols family in "Claudia and the Terrible Truth" after Claudia gets fired. On Erica's third sitting job, she finds out that Joey and Nate have been physically abused by their father (one has bruises, the other a black eye) and immediately calls Claudia asking for help. Claudia gets her mother and they get Mrs. Nichols, entering the house to safely get Erica and the boys out of there. If it hadn't been for Erica contacting Claudia, there's no telling what Mr. Nichols would've done.

* DisneylandDad: Dawn's father, Jack Schafer, has strong shades of this early on in the divorce where he tends to spoil his kids rotten when he sees them. It tapers off when they begin to stay with him full time and he gets married and has another child. In one book, Dawn's narrative literally invokes the trope, calling him "Disneyland Daddy."

** Mrs. Arnold not realising that her identical twin daughters are acting out because they're sick of being treated like they're one person, to the point people refer to them as [="CarolynandMarilyn"=] with only one word.

* BigApplesauce: Stacey is constantly reminding the readers how awesome New York is. The other book narrators make a big deal out of Stacey being from the city as well.

** Mildly with the graphic novels. The technology level initially implies they take place in the 1990s or ''maybe'' the early 2000s. For example, the ''Mary Anne Saves The Day'' book was released in 1987; however, the graphic novel has a reference to DVD players and the 1998 ''Film/{{The Parent Trap|1998}}'' film. However later volumes make more modern references.
** The [[Series/TheBabySittersClub2020 2020 Netflix Series]] is a more blatant example, moving the setting to the early 2000s.

** In the ''Little Sister'' spin-off series, Karen often gets herself in trouble by engaging in some form of this.

** When the [=BSC=] goes crazy testing Mallory about whether she's a good enough sitter and decide to reject her from joining, she and her new friend Jessi start up "Kids Incorporated."

** It's a minor running gag that the sitters have incompatible pizza needs, especially once the club has the classic seven-member lineup -- Stacey can't eat processed cheese; Dawn won't eat meat; Abby is allergic to both tomatoes and cheese; Kristy likes anchovies, etc. ''Mary Anne and the Playground Fight'' has this get uncivilized to the point where they all just order separate meals, while ''Abby and the Mystery Baby'' has Abby order a plain pizza and she just prepares the other toppings at home, letting her friends do their individual slices as they please.

** A particularly heartwrenching example in ''Abby's Book'': Nine-year-old Abby throws up after being told about her father's death.

* SuperstitionEpisode: There's a book where Mary Anne thinks she's gotten a bad luck charm. [[spoiler:It turns out some cruel girls just told her it was bad, and were using it as an excuse to play pranks on her.]]

** At the end of ''Claudia and the Sad Good-Bye'', Claudia confronts Mrs. Addison about the way that she and her husband constantly dump their kids at sitters and activities in lieu of actually spending time with them. However, unlike other books where the parents change their ways in response to the sitters calling their attention to problems (see examples under AdultsAreUseless), later books suggest that the Addisons are still persisting with this behavior -- because while calling parents out works if the parents genuinely want to do the right thing by their children (as is the case in other examples), it's not going to be as effective if the parents just don't care enough.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: In ''Poor Mallory!'', the Delaney siblings start to wonder if their supposed friends are just using them because they have a pool. With Mallory's help, they devise a scheme where they tell their friends that their parents have forbidden them from going in the pool while they're being babysat but that the friends who were planning to come over can still come over and do other things. To their pleasant surprise, almost all of their friends accept; however, one girl does tell Amanda flat-out that she doesn't want to come over if the pool isn't available. After a little while, Amanda and Max claim their parents relented on the rule and they can use the pool again, but the girl who made it clear she was only coming over for the pool is no longer invited.

** In ''Shannon's Story'', Shannon's mother is often overbearing, wanting to be involved or have a say in ''everything'' while seeming to have difficulty grasping the idea that her children are old enough to do some things on their own. From the specific actions, it seems like she's trying to build closeness and a bond with her daughters by getting involved in their lives, but is oblivious to the fact that she's annoying them by never giving them space to do anything on their own without her breathing down their necks.

** In ''Shannon's Story'', Shannon's mother is often overbearing, wanting to be involved or have a say in ''everything'' while seeming to have difficulty grasping the idea that her children are old enough to do some things on their own. From the specific actions, it seems like she's trying to build closeness and a bond with her daughters, but is oblivious to the fact that she's annoying them by never giving them space to develop on their own.

* SlumberParty: Many of them are held across the series and its spinoffs, often combined with a pizza party and an "emergency meeting" of the club. Slumber parties are the plot focus of ''Karen's Sleepover'' (7-year old Karen hosting her first ever sleepover) and ''Dawn and the Big Sleepover'' (the plot of a sleepover being held in the local elementary school overnight.)

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first cover of ''Kristy's Great Idea'' has her wearing a blue jumper over a striped pink blouse with a headband and kneesocks, and she's described as -- like Mary Anne -- wearing a blouse, skirt, and saddle shoes when they first meet Stacey. The 1995 reprint -- now that Kristy has been firmly established as a {{Tomboy}} who [[HatesWearingDresses doesn't like skirts and dresses much]] -- changes this to her wearing jeans and sneakers, with the cover showing Kristy in her now iconic turtleneck and sweatshirt, jeans, and visor.

There were at least three {{Spinoff}} series: ''Baby-Sitter's Little Sister'' (all narrated by Kristy's seven-year-old stepsister, Karen Brewer); ''Literature/CaliforniaDiaries'' (about Dawn and her friends in California after she moved back); and ''Friends Forever'' (in which the club had been reduced to its original four members after others left). As well as these and the main series, there were additional ''Mysteries'', a short autobiographical series for the eight grade members called the ''Portrait Collection'', and ''Super Specials'' books (where all the characters, as well as some others, narrate through one big event or trip together). The ''Little Sister'' series also had its own short spinoff, ''The Kids In Ms. Colman's Class.'' Many of the 300+ books were ghostwritten, although Martin wrote the original 22 books herself (and stopped writing altogether around book 58). A {{Prequel}}, ''The Summer Before'', was released as part of the 2011 re-rerelease and focuses on the original four club members during the summer before seventh grade and showing what their lives were like right before they started the club.

* ContrivedCoincidence: It just ''so'' happens that Dawn's school on the other side of the country in California is ''also'' making the eighth graders do an autobiography project the same time Stoneybrook Middle is doing theirs so they all end up with portrait books. (But not Mallory and Jessi who are two grades behind or even Logan -- who has to do the same eighth grade project, mind, but didn't get a portrait book.)

A highly successful and popular series of [[MiddleGradeLiterature middle grade]] books aimed at pre-teen girls, about a group of kids who [[ExactlyWhatItSaysonTheTin run a club that offers their services as babysitters]]. The series was written by [[Creator/AnnMMartin Ann M. Martin]] and published between 1986 and 2000.

A highly successful and popular series of [[MiddleGradeLiterature middle grade]] books aimed at pre-teen girls, about a group of kids who [[ExactlyWhatItSaysonTheTin run a club that offers their services as babysitters]]. The series was written by Ann M. Martin and published between 1986 and 2000.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first cover of ''Kristy's Great Idea'' has her wearing a blue jumper over a striped pink blouse with a headband and kneesocks, and she's described as -- like Mary Anne -- wearing a blouse, skirt, and saddle shoes when they first meet Stacey. The 1995 reprint -- now that Kristy has been firmly established as a {[Tomboy}} who [[HatesWearingDresses doesn't like skirts and dresses much]] -- changes this to her wearing jeans and sneakers, with the cover showing Kristy in her now iconic turtleneck and sweatshirt, jeans, and visor.

* NotAllowedToGrowUp: The first ten books have the original five progress through and complete seventh grade and start eighth, but once that's happened, the passage of time stops and the girls spend literally dozens of birthdays, holidays, and summers in eighth grade.[[note]]At one point Claudia was demoted to seventh grade, but it was still during what would have been her eighth grade year.[[/note]] They finally finished middle school in the last book of the ''Friends Forever'' spinoff (which is the GrandFinale to the entire series). [[https://web.archive.org/web/20150205024209/www.kindlepost.com/2014/05/ann-m-martin-on-creating-the-california-diaries.html In an interview with Ann M. Martin in 2014]], she explained that when she started writing the BSC books, she had initially written the series as a short four-book run, but as it took off and became popular she ended up having to freeze their ages after they started eighth grade as the series showed no signs of slowing down--thus meanin the charachers, while they could have multiple adventures and situations, were not allowed to grow very much emotionally. This also fueled the the motivation for creating ''California Diaries.''

* NotAllowedToGrowUp:
** The first ten books have the original five progress through and complete seventh grade and start eighth, but once that's happened, the passage of time stops and the girls spend literally dozens of birthdays, holidays, and summers in eighth grade.[[note]]At one point Claudia was demoted to seventh grade, but it was still during what would have been her eighth grade year.[[/note]] They finally finished middle school in the last book of the ''Friends Forever'' spinoff (which is the GrandFinale to the entire series). [[https://web.archive.org/web/20150205024209/www.kindlepost.com/2014/05/ann-m-martin-on-creating-the-california-diaries.html In an interview with Ann M. Martin in 2014]], she explained that when she started writing the BSC books, she had initially written the series as a short four-book run, but as it took off and became popular she ended up having to freeze their ages after they started eighth grade as the series showed no signs of slowing down--thus meanin the charachers, while they could have multiple adventures and situations, were not allowed to grow very much emotionally. This also fueled the the motivation for creating ''California Diaries.''

The series has inspired a [[Film/TheBabysittersClub 1995 feature film]], [[Series/TheBabySittersClub1990 two]] [[Series/TheBabySittersClub2020 different]] TV series, a short line of dolls, 2 board games, 4 educational CD-ROM games, a soundtrack, a series of [[ComicBook/TheBabySittersClub graphic novels]] (that have been illustrated by various artists such as Creator/RainaTelgemeier, Gale Galligan, Gabriella Epstein and Chan Chau), and more.

** Ducky, in the ''California Diaries''. His best friends are all platonic teenage girls, and his last scene in the series has him buying a ton of books from a bunch of gay authors.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The ''California Diaries'' series. However, the use of this trope surprisingly didn't come off as cheesy or overdone. It allowed for more character development and exploration of realistic adolescent themes, like depression, drifting away from childhood friends, the death of a parent, and (arguably) closeted homosexuality.

* NotAllowedToGrowUp: The first few books have the original five progress through and complete seventh grade and start eighth, but once that's happened, the passage of time stops and the girls spend literally dozens of birthdays, holidays, and summers in eighth grade.[[note]]At one point Claudia was demoted to seventh grade, but it was still during what would have been her eighth grade year.[[/note]] They finally finished middle school in the last book of the ''Friends Forever'' spinoff (which is really the GrandFinale to the entire series).

** In ''California Diaries'', Dawn's father and stepmother have a new baby, who is 14 years younger than Dawn and 11 years younger than Jeff.

* Stacey [=McGill=]: stylish kid from New York, resident math whiz, but most importantly...''diabetic''. Moves back to New York breifly before returning to stay. Treasurer.
* Dawn Schafer: stereotypical "California girl," becomes Mary Anne's stepsister. Eventually gets her own spinoff series after she moves back to California permanently. Alternate officer, then treasurer, then alternate again, then leaves.
* Mallory Pike: Wannabe writer who comes from a huge family. Formerly a client, she joined after Stacey left to New York. Junior member; can only take jobs before 9 because of her age.
* Jessi Ramsey: the [[TokenMinority token black kid]] who experiences racism because of it in town. Aspiring ballerina, and Mallory's best friend. Joined after Stacey left to New York. Junior member; like Mallory, can only take jobs before 9.
* Abby Stevenson: Final and latest SixthRanger. Jewish, twin, asthmatic, athlete, prone to cracking jokes that are [[SoUnfunnyItsFunny So Unfunny, They're Funny]]. Joined after Dawn moved back to California as the new alternate officer.

** Mrs. Prezzioso not noticing her older daughter Jenny's obsessive finicky behaviour and acting out (at least at first), as she's too distracted by becoming a pageant mom for her younger daughter Andrea in ''Mary Anne and Miss Priss.'' She and her husband don't do all that great a job of preparing Jenny for big sisterhood either. One of the most glaring examples is that they leave for the hospital while she's still asleep - ''without waking her up and telling her first''. Yeah, the kid [[SarcasmMode definitely isn't going to feel abandoned]] after that.
** Averted with the girls' parents; they are [[ParentsAsPeople imperfect]], but are generally pretty good parents, and the sitters will not hesitate to take advice from them.
** Sometimes played straight in the ''Mysteries'' series if the girls going to an authority figure would break the plot.

** One example that stands out is the relationship between Claudia and her genius sister Janine. There are many books where the two of them bond over junk food, have a heart-to-heart talk, and realize that they're not that different. By the next book, their relationship is [[ResetButton back to where it was]], with Janine being too smart and Claudia being too flightly.

** Karen herself gets this from Andrew (rarely) and Emily (somewhat more frequently). Notably, many of the cases involving Emily end up deconstructing this a bit; if Emily is acting in a way that's annoying and unusual, it's usually because something is upsetting her and, being a toddler who is still getting used to a new language (presumably she didn't hear much - if ANY - English when she was in Vietnam), she can't communicate well enough to explain what it is.
** Dawn's brother Jeff, particularly in early books - mainly because of the emotional trauma he was going through due to the divorce and missing his father, which caused him to act out. He usually got along decently with Dawn herself, however; it was toward other characters that he was more often annoying. Only when Jeff wants to move back to California is Dawn very annoyed and angry at him, but Jeff moves anyway at the end of the book.

** Downplayed for the Barrett-[=DeWitt=] family. There's a little bit of tension initially, but most of the major conflict comes with the problems that arise from trying to cram nine people (including two toddlers) into a much-too-small house. When they draw up plans to expand the house, the five older kids object to the layout because, while it's set up to give each child their own small bedroom (they've decided that while their current rooms are too small), they like the underlying idea of having a room together and would rather have two larger bedrooms to share--one for the boys, one for the girls.
* BlessedWithSuck:

** In ''Poor Mallory!", Amanda and Max Delaney admit that while being rich definitely has far more positives than negatives, it does come with one big downside in that they never know which of their friends are true friends and which ones just hang around in order to get access to their cool stuff, particularly their pool. Mallory suggests that they test it by telling their friends that their parents said the pool is off-limits indefinetely and then inviting them over to do other things and seeing who takes them up on it. To their pleasant surprise, it turns out a lot more of them accept than they expected; however, one girl does tell Amanda flat-out that she doesn't want to come over if they can't use the pool, so Amanda knows that girl isn't a real friend and won't invite her over anymore.

** In the first book in the series, Kristy is flat-out opposed to her mother's developing relationship with Watson. She insults the man, refuses to eat dinner when he treats them, and is generally unpleasant. It seems to be less a matter of her disliking Watson personally and more of a desire to keep her fractured family from experiencing any additional changes. Jealousy also plays a large role - she admits that it's hard for her to see Watson being such a loving, present father to Karen and Andrew (her own DisappearedDad rarely even writes or calls, forgetting birthdays and holidays "all the time"). Happily, she warms up to him in time (finally meeting Karen and Andrew helps), and before the end of the book, she's decided she's okay with the idea of him marrying her mother. In a later book, she admits that she loves him a lot.
* BroadStrokes: The books make a few vague references to the [[Film/TheBabySittersClub 1995 film]]. ''[=BSC=] in the [=USA=]'' has Kristy mention her father's "sneak visit" where she had to lie to all her friends, and she also writes about it for her autobiography project in ''Kristy's Book.'' The only thing that ''really'' gets talked about, though, is the Kristy and her father plotline -- the greenhouse, the day camp, Cokie Mason, Cousin Luka, and ''especially'' Dawn going on a date with Alan Gray are left in canon limbo.
* BusmansHoliday:

** Kristy, being the only older club member who does not yet require a bra, [[ACupAngst often agonizes over her flat chest]]. The fact that she's only five feet tall - making her shorter than even Mallory and Jessi - doesn't exactly help matters any. In one book she bemoans, "Won't I EVER grow up?"

** While not to Rosie's genius level, Myriah and Gabbie Perkins are incrediby smart and talented for their age. Despite being only five, Myriah is TheAce (especially in ''Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn''), being very good at singing, dancing, acting, and gymnastic, and is very bright in general. Gabbie is only ''two and a half'' years old but she speaks in complex full sentences like her sister, is able to memorize songs like her sister, and calls people by their full names.

* ContrivedCoincidence: It just ''so'' happens that Dawn's school on the other side of the country in California is ''also'' making the eighth graders do an autobiography project the same time Stoneybrook Middle is doing theirs so they all end up with portrait books. (But not Mallory and Jessi who are two grades behind or even Logan--who has to do the same eighth grade project, mind, but didn't get a portrait book.)

%% * DeathGlare: Kristy's "Look"

** One subplot involves Marilyn and Carolyn Arnold sneaking a look at a horror movie and getting freaked out of their minds by it--to the point where they sleep in the same room with all the lights on, tape up electrical sockets, and set up traps for "ghosts"--until they watch a documentary on how the movie was made. They become riveted by the special effects and demonstrations and declare it the coolest thing they've ever seen. Not only does it lift their fears, it makes them into horror movie fans, and they decide they want to direct their own horror movies when they grow up. Hmmm... that sounds a lot like the biography of a pair of Canadian twin sisters who are not only horror movie directors themselves, but host their own horror-themed game show, Hellevator!

*** Kristy Thomas - Christine Thomas
*** Mary Anne Spier - Anne-Marie Lapierre
*** Claudia Kishi - name unchanged
*** Stacey [=McGill=] - Sophie Ménard, who is now from Toronto.
*** Dawn Schafer - Diane Dubreuil, who grew up in California but moved to Hull before moving to Nouville when her parents divorced.
*** Mallory Pike - Marjorie Picard
*** Jessi Ramsey - Jessie Raymond

*** Kristy Thomas - Gertie Bouwman
*** Mary Anne Spier - Inge Praet
*** Claudia Kishi - Joke Kishi
*** Stacey [=McGill=] - Petra van Rijn, who is now from Amsterdam.
*** Dawn Schafer - Betty Mulder, who is now from Brussels.
*** Mallory Pike - Tine Pieters
*** Jessi Ramsey - Jessie Marsman
*** Logan Bruno - Tim Grootjans
*** Shannon Kilbourne - Eline Hoefnagels

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first cover of ''Kristy's Great Idea'' has her wearing a blue jumper over a striped pink blouse with a headband and kneesocks, and she's described as--like Mary Anne--wearing a blouse, skirt, and saddle shoes when they first meet Stacey. The 1995 reprint--now that Kristy has been firmly established as a {[Tomboy}} who [[HatesWearingDresses doesn't like skirts and dresses much]]--changes this to her wearing jeans and sneakers, with the cover showing Kristy in her now iconic turtleneck and sweatshirt, jeans, and visor.
* EarPiercingPlot: In ''Mallory and the Trouble with Twins'', Mallory negotiates with her parents for permission to finally get her ears pierced. They agree on the conditions she pays for the piercing, takes care of them properly, gets only one hole in each ear, and [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers doesn't stick to small simple earrings]] (as she'd offered to do) because, as her mom says, part of the fun of pierced ears is wearing wacky earrings sometimes. (Behind the scenes, Jessi similarly makes a similar negotiation with her own parents, as she and Mallory get their ears pierced at the same time.) Other members also get their ears pierced: Dawn (who spontaneously gets two in each ear) and Claudia who gets an exra one in one ear, giving her two in one and one in the other.

** Another mystery book is about fires being set at the local library, which has started a program to get kids reading. The program also attracts the attention of some book-banning protesters, who stand outside of the library and demand that the employees remove certain texts from the reading list. Naturally, the girls treat them as suspects in the book burning crime, and at one point ask them about it. The group's leader admits that while she has burned books in the past, she now realizes the dangers of that tactic and advocates peaceful protest instead--they want the books out of kids' hands, not destroyed.

%%* TheFilmOfTheBook

* IdenticalGrandson: One of the later books has Claudia thinking she might be adopted due to some flimsy circumstantial evidence (it's implied that what's really driving it is feeling like she doesn't fit in with her family). When she finally talks to her parents about it, they assure her that she's not - and as proof, they show her old photographs of her beloved grandmother Mimi, who looked exactly like Claudia when she was young.

** Jamie Newton has this toward his infant sister Lucy in early books (especially ''Claudia and Mean Janine'') but he gets over it. A lot of it is revealed to stem from knowing that his mother wants an older sitter on hand to take care of the baby, while he wants his beloved Kristy and Claudia, who have watched him practically his whole life. Once it's clear that the BSC is still going to be babysitting him, Jamie feels a lot better and is cool with being a big brother (though his jealousy ''does'' occasionally come back in later books, which is understandable - he's only four, after all).

** There's a brief moment where Andrew's older sister Karen is worried that her baby sister will become Watson's DaddysGirl instead of her, but she gets over it very quickly. This is gone into more in-depth in the "Little Sister" spin-off series - an ''entire book'' is dedicated to Karen's complicated feelings about Emily Michelle.

* InformedAttribute: Dawn is supposed to be the "individual" of the group, but she changes her appearance and behavior not once, but twice - just to get a guy.

** In ''Poor Mallory!'', after Mallory's dad loses his job, Mallory gets bullied at school because of it. (Possibly her siblings do as well, although there's no mention of it; Becca indicates that Vanessa at least is receiving more sympathy than taunts from her classmates.) This one comes across as somewhat odd, because the reader is left wondering why Mallory's classmates know - or ''care'' - about her father's employment status.

** Betsy Sobak doesn't ''intend'' to be cruel, but is obsessed with practical jokes to the point where she often fails to consider the feelings of her targets. Unfortunately, Claudia is inadvertently injured by one of her pranks - Betsy doesn't tell Claudia that the chain of a swing is broken, thinking it'd just break immediately under Claudia's weight when she sat on it. Instead, the swing initially holds, and Betsy gets distracted and forgets about the chain, which finally gives out mid-swing. [[GoneHorriblyRight Claudia breaks her leg so severely, she has to stay in the hospital with the leg in traction]]. The club responds by joining forces with some of their other charges to get Betsy to stop playing pranks. She eventually seems to take the lesson to heart, and her later appearances don't mention prank-playing.

** Averted with ''Jessi's Secret Language''; while it does feature a new family with two children, one hearing and one deaf, the kids become recurring characters afterward--Matt becomes a close friend of the Pike triplets and Haley is friends with Becca and Charlotte.

** A major plot point in in ''Dawn and the Impossible Three''. Buddy Barrett goes missing while Dawn is babysitting the Barretts and is missing for hours. It's not until later he calls from a gas station and says he's coming home--his father took him while he was outside alone. Not only is it ''horrifying'' for Dawn--who feels guilty for letting him go out and play by himself for just a few minutes while she bundled up his sisters and didn't know where Buddy was--but she's angry ''and'' upset when she learns that disorganized Mrs. Barrett simply forgot her husband was supposed to have the children. Mr. Barrett returns with Buddy and says that he took Buddy to teach his wife a lesson for forgetting the time he's supposed to have with the kids (and without knowing they were being baby-sat, so he legitimately terrified a ''thirteen year old girl'' with his actions). He does apologize once he realized that he scared Dawn with what he did and is given a warning by the police for doing it at all and retaliating against his wife; the two are told to get their custody arraignment worked out reliably.

** ''Baby Sitters' Island Adventure'' - Claudia and Dawn, along with a handful of their charges are trapped on an island with no means of getting home for a long weekend. As part of the book shows, the parents and friends who can't reach them are scared out of their minds. This is especially worrying for Jessi, who is left in charge for the whole weekend and becomes horrified when Becca, one of the stranded charges, doesn't come home. Her aunt Cecilia, whom she calls for help, blames her for letting Becca go, despite her parents giving permission. Dawn and Jeff's mom is also heard worrying that, even if the kids are fine, her ex-husband will use the incident as proof she's an unfit parent and sue for full custody.
* MissingMom:

* MyNaymeIs: It's Stacey, Jessi, and Mary Anne - not Stacy, Jessie, or Mary Ann/Marianne/Mariann/Maryann/Maryanne/Mary-Ann/Mary-Anne/etc.

* NonHumanSidekick: Several, although Mary Anne's cat Tigger is probably the most frequently showcased - partly because Mary Anne, unlike the other pet owners, is an only child.

** Two characters are named Sabrina Bouvier - a child beauty queen that BSC meets in ''Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn'', and later a classmate at SMS. A FanFic [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/913748/1/The-Mystery-of-Sabrina-Bouvier mocks this]], having Dawn come to baby sit the teenage Sabrina and implying that the BSC members and those around them are the only ones NotAllowedToGrowUp in Stoneybrook.
** {{Lampshaded}} in ''Here Come the Bridesmaids!'' where the narrative acknowledges that the [=BSC=] and the W♥KC each have a regular sitting charge named Ryan [=DeWitt=], and no, they're not related.
** Not one, not two, but FOUR of the babysitters - Claudia, Dawn, Mallory and Jessi - have fathers named John (though Dawn's dad goes by Jack and it's not until ''Here Come the Bridesmaids!'' that it's revealed that his given name is, in fact, John). And as if that weren't enough, Abby's late father's name was Jonathan and he went by Jon. (The Netflix series amends this a bit, with Mallory's father being renamed Forrest.) However, since most of the adults are addressed by their last names (Mr. Kishi, Mr. Pike, etc.), it's not particularly noticeable nor is it confusing.

** Abby and her twin sister Anna. Anna is musical, bookish, and introspective; Abby is athletic, noisy, and enjoys babysitting. About the only things they have in common are that they both have scoliosis (although Abby didn't need it corrected by a brace while Anna did) and poor eyesight. Interestingly, this never creates a conflict between them - when they first realized they had branching interests as little girls, their initial reaction was to panic and double-down on making sure they had identical ''everything.'' They did grow out of that, because while they liked being identical, they didn't like being treated as a single entity and didn't want to chain themselves down to being ''completely'' identical when they realized that having separate interests wouldn't create a break between them. It's worth noting that Anna also enjoys babysitting like Abby, but she sees violin as a higher priority, causing her to turn down the invitation to join the club.

** ''Starring the Baby-sitters Club'' was about the club members, family members, and babysitting charges appearing in ''Theatre/PeterPan'' being held by Stoneybrook Middle School and allowing students at the elelmentary and high school to take on roles (so it's more like community theatre).

** Melody Korman (one of the kids in Kristy's new neighborhood) is mistakenly named Maria in one book. Melody isn't the only Korman to be the victim of writer goofs either - her baby sister Skylar is mistakenly referred to as her and older brother Bill's baby "brother" in another book (though in this case the writers at least had somewhat of an excuse; Skylar is, after all, a unisex name).

** Mildly with the graphic novels. The technology level initially implies they take place in the 1990s or ''maybe'' the early 2000s. For example, the ''Mary Anne Saves The Day'' book was released in 1987; however, the graphic novel has a reference to DVD players and the 1998 ''Film/{{The Parent Trap|1998}}'' film. However later volumes make more modern referneces.
** The [[Series/TheBabySittersClub2020 2020 Netflix Series]] is a more blatant example, moving the setting to the early 2000s.
* ShoutOut:

** When Dawn tells Sunny--her best friend in California--all about this great new babysitting club she joined, Sunny loves the idea so much that she starts the We (Heart) Kids Club with a couple other friends of hers, Maggie and Jill. Kristy is alternately flattered and annoyed, both because she thinks Sunny and her friends are too casual and disorganized... and because they got a ''lot'' more positive publicity than the [=BSC=], even getting interviewed on television (and subsequently so overwhelmed with new business that they adopt several of Kristy's innovations, including regularly scheduled meetings).
* StockYuck:

** At the end of ''Claudia and the Sad Good-Bye'', Claudia confronts Mrs. Addision about the way that she and her husband constantly dump their kids at sitters and activities in lieu of actually spending time with them. However, unlike other books where the parents change their ways in response to the sitters calling their attention to problems (see examples under AdultsAreUseless), later books suggest that the Addisons are still persisting with this behavior -- because while calling parents out works if the parents genuinely want to do the right thing by their children (as is the case in other examples), it's not going to be as effective if the parents just don't care enough.

* TrainingFromHell: A comparatively mild case (but still significant, given the age of the trainiees who are 6-8 years old) occurs in the ''Little Sister'' book ''Karen's Swim Meet''. Karen joins a summer swim team at a local community center--but despite it being pitched to the kids as a low-pressure, fun situation, the coach turns out to be obsessed with winning. He frequently yells and barks at the kids over every little thing, belittles them for not working hard enough, and at one point forces Karen to do consecutive flip turns until she's dizzy. The last straw comes when--on a day when the weather is clearly unsuited for swimming in an outdoor pool--the parents catch him trying to force the kids to do so anyway even though they're visibly shivering and miserable. After a long talk with the community center leaders, both sides agree that there was a mismatch in expectations (the community center simply wanted to put on a fun summer activity for the kids and wasn't concerned with outcomes, while the coach was concerned with winning above all else and just assumed that any competitive team would share this mentality) and the coach resigns.

* ViewersAreGoldfish: The main members of hte club and their stand out traits and backgrounds get repeatedly introduced and described in every book. {{Lampshaded}} by the various snark communities as being the standard contents of chapter two. But also [[JustifiedTrope justified]] as this allows the books to be easily read out of order and allow people to know the members from whatever book the pick up--new readers don't have to go track down a copy of ''Kristy's Great Idea'' just to understand what's going on. Face it -- you haven't read them all.

** ''Claudia and the Sad Goodbye'' has a subplot in which the sitters begin taking care of the Addison kids, who are constantly forced to attend extracurricular classes and sports activities. Their parents are basically selfish flakes, and all they ever want is time for themselves, so they shuttle their son and daughter off to every extracurricular possible (their first introduction to the club is them asking Claudia to teach their daughter art, in order to give her another recurring commitment). This becomes particularly painful in ''Mary Anne and the Library Mystery'', when Sean Addison starts ''lighting books on fire'' in the trash cans of the crowded library because of how much he hates all of the activities his parents are forcing him to do. It's particularly scary because the library has just started a program encouraging kids to read, so there are dozens of small children in the building during all of the fires. The next time the Addisons call the club they ask for a regularly scheduled once-a-week sitter, and the club won't commit to it until they discuss it amongst themselves--mentioning that the Addisons, while incredibly ballsy to call them again, have been getting counseling. Sean has gotten to the point where he resents them because one of his classmates is bullying him for always needing to be babysat, and it's not until Stacey calls the classmate's father (with Sean listening on the extension) and pretends to offer [=BSC=]'s services, only for him to thank her and reassure her that his son loves being babysat by his niece, that Sean realizes his classmate is just bullying him for no reason and he starts to behave better once he gets to tell him off.

** In book #13, ''Goodbye, Stacey, Goodbye'', The girls are debating wheather they should let Mallory join the club, amd Stacey says Mallory is the oldest of 8 and could probably diaper a baby better than any of them. Mallory even says in the next book that she known how to change diapers and mix formulas. For the record, Mallory is 11 and her youngest sister, Claire, is 5. That means Mallory was only 6 when Claire was born! Who would trust a ''six year old'' to diaper a baby, or to actually mix a formula?! True, you could give the 6 year old the formula in the bottle and tell her to shake it, but what 6 year old would be called upon to actually ''make'' it themselves?!

%% * YouMeddlingKids: The basic plot of the ''Mysteries'' specials
* YourTomcatIsPregnant:

* ClingyJealousGirl: Dawn shows a dose of this in ''Mary Anne's Makeover,'' in which she admits that she's jealous of all the time Mary Anne's been spending with her father and that it makes her miss her own terribly. Dawn comes off as being resentful of Mary Anne for having her father around... apparently forgetting that ''this is Mary Anne's only living parent.''