When’s The Babysitters Club Opening in My Town?

Ready to feel old? Today in 1986 Ann M. Martin’s The Baby-Sitters Club was first published. If you’re like me, your bookshelf contained several of these iconic novels, which tell the tales of Kristy, Mary Anne, Dawn, Stacey, Claudia, Jessi, and Mallory, seven friends running a club of highly qualified babysitters, just chomping at the bit to watch the children of Stoneybrook, and for a reasonable fee!

Each of the club members had a specific personality. I identified as a Claudia because I liked doing art projects, but was Kristy during softball season, except that she was good at softball. Although, looking back I was really more of a Mary Anne. Jessi was really the most level-headed of the group, but Mallory was super responsible (the oldest of eight kids.) Dawn was the health-food nut and Stacey was the sophisticated city girl with diabetes.

Now that I’m a mom of two little ones and have a husband I still enjoy dating, I wish Kristy and her pals existed in my town. How amazing would it be to call one number (Claudia’s private line if you’re a fellow BSC enthusiast) and reach all these babysitters? We are fortunate to have a couple of fantastic young women in town that we occasionally hire to watch the girls so we can go to dinner or a play, so I’m not complaining, but I think most moms and former BSC readers would be dialing that number frequently if we lived in Stoneybrook, Connecticut circa 1986.