![]() (For instance, the child sitcom star that ballerina Jessi babysits in the books is a TikTok celebrity in the show.) The Baby-Sitters Club does a fantastic job of portraying the ups and downs of being a preteen girl, adapting the books’ plot points to reflect this day and age. ![]() Martin’s best-selling books follows a group of middle-school students who start their own business built around babysitting. But I can’t help but be totally invested in the series’ parent characters. I’m no longer the target audience for shows like The Baby-Sitters Club - I’m in my 20s, and don’t have kids who would watch the show. It’s a fine balance, giving the adults complexity without completely making their issues into the children’s problem, but the show manages to pull it off. But while the series’ parents go through their own struggles, which worry their children, they never burden their kids with specificities or put the emotional labor onto them. It’s a refreshing acknowledgement that while parents may fret over their kids, children are concerned about their parents, too. But even when child-centric media depicts adults as good and supportive, they’re typically framed to help young audiences learn valuable life lessons.īut in season 2 of Netflix’s series The Baby-Sitters Club, not only are the parents present and involved in their children’s lives, they also have their own compelling stories and struggles. Kid-friendly shows usually put the emphasis on the younger characters, allowing them freedom to do things that regular kids can’t, which not only focuses on the intended audience, but offers them escapism and empowerment. Or sometimes they’re bumbling and incompetent, like iCarly ’s Spencer, the older brother and guardian who accidentally and repeatedly lights things on fire. In others - like the school-set narratives of Zoey 101 or Ned’s Declassified, where the only present adults are teachers - they’re only used as obstructions. In some cases they’re totally absent from the story. All-ages media tends to dodge around depicting meaningful parental figures.
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