The Baby-Sitter’s Club #81: Kristy and Mr. Mom

Apparently Watson got super rich by working constantly and not taking care of himself. Lately he’s acting even worse and he seems like his color is changing and he’s just not doing that great. Kristy comes downstairs one day and he’s out trying to push his car out of the snow, while Charlie drives the car. Her mom tells Sam to help him and Kristy runs out too.

That works fine, but later that night, she sees him trying to shovel the sidewalk. She offers to finish up, if he’ll run inside and put on a pizza, so they can watch the game later. He agrees, but then starts shaking when he gets to the porch. When he collapses, she has to run inside and call 911.

Kristy’s mom and Nannie go with Watson to the hospital, leaving her home with David Michael and Emily Michelle. Kristy acknowledges that she can’t do everything herself when Shannon calls after seeing the ambulance. Shannon offers to call Sam and Charlie at school. I find it fairly shitty that their coach says he’ll tell them at half-time. Tell them now!

The other girls find out what happened and Dawn and Mary Anne come over with Shannon. They all take care of something around the house, like making lunches for school, cleaning up, taking care of the kids and putting them to bed. Nannie says that she’ll call when she knows something, but then randomly comes home later. Like it would kill her to call and tell them he’s okay, before leaving the hospital? Watson had a minor heart attack, but he should be okay.

After a few days at home, Watson sits everyone down and tells him that he’s going to do a lot less work and start spending all of his time at home, taking care of them. He does really well, but there’s a divide between him and Nannie. Like one night he stops and gets pizza and she makes a huge dinner. They end up giving the pizza to the kids and letting the adults have her dinner.

Watson pretty much takes over the house though. He does all the cleaning and all the cooking and no one stops to think about Nannie. She makes her own announcement, telling everyone that she found an apartment and she’s moving out. Of course they’re all upset, but once again, no one has even given her a second thought since Watson came home.

Karen and Andrew come for their month at the house and everything goes to hell in a hand basket. I’m not saying that it’s Karen’s fault, but…They say it’s because there’s suddenly two more people to feed and take care of, plus two more sets of laundry. Then Emily gets sick and Watson starts doing more work and everything gets screwed up.

Kristy goes to visit Nannie in her new apartment and breaks down. She tells her how the house looks like crap and Watson can’t take care of everything. Nannie comes back to the house and decides that she’s ready to move back. Watson can’t do everything on his own and she realizes that they do need her help.

I love the B-plot, which deals with Mrs. Marshall. Dawn shows up, thinking she’s sitting for two kids and discovers that her friend dropped off her three kids so they can go to exercise class together. Mallory goes over and the same thing happens. She asks Jessi to show up and help her, after one of the kids gets hurt. Mrs. Marshall thanks Jessi, but won’t pay her.

Claudia goes over to sit and takes Stacey with her. Mrs. Marshall is kind of a bitch and says that she hired one sitter and won’t pay for two, so the two walk out on the job. They realize that they’ve never explained to their clients that if there’s more than four kids, they require two sitters. Kristy explains the situation and Mrs. Marshall agrees to the terms, but decides it won’t be a problem because she quit her class.

*Claudia is apparently now into hats. Kristy says that she’s been buying up hats from thrift stores all winter long and decorating them herself, with sequins and buttons.

*Kristy tells the ambulance that her dad is sick. I found that really sweet and cute when I read it because it’s the first time I ever saw her refer to him as something other than her step-dad.

*David Michael is playing a rooster in a play. He keeps randomly turning up and making rooster noises and getting upset if people ignore him.

*I think Mrs. Marshall is insane. Would you really want one thirteen year old girl taking care of FIVE kids? Some of these kids are super little too. She should really have more sense.