u/RegrettingFM

I read the first book about a week ago and I was considering how Claudia had her own phone and private phone number.

It mentioned that Janine was always on her computer. In the 80's that would have been insanely expensive. I don't know if her school helped offset the cost, or if there was a grant, but getting a computer would have been a huge deal.

So my head cannon is that Claudia's parents got her a phone as a token to demonstrate that they were not showing favorites. Janine got a computer and Claudia got a phone.

She also got a lot more freedom than it seems like the other girls originally did, with the exception of the new girl Stacey. I think that again this was to balance out Janine going to college classes.

The Kishis were strict with studies but they always seemed to be trying so hard to not treat Claudia badly because she wasn't gifted in the same ways as Janine.

You are excited because you don't have a lot of opportunity to socialize because of having kids. You pick up pastries, a few different drinks ranging from tea to wine, and giddily wait to have the kids play while you sit on the porch and gossip. You are in desperate need for some adult conversation with someone you are not related to.

A twelve year old girl shows up with your child's playdate and announces that they are all ready to have the kids play!

You awkwardly watch on as she organizes the children into playing and produces a "Kid Kit."

You wonder if you're supposed to pay her since she's playing with your kid.

After she leaves; what do you do?

I read these books as most of them coming out. I was in fourth grade and the first maybe 10 were out and then the librarian at my school started getting them as they came out. At the time I loved them and tried to start my own babysitter's club.

However, I was paging back through one of them a while ago and read a chapter that I vaguely remembered.

In it, Kristy is sitting for Karen and Andrew, but David Michael comes to her with a problem! Their dog has a severe cut on its paw and Kristy has to coordinate a vet visit while keeping her eyes on the kids.

She lets Karen and Andrew wash an old car of Watson's while she does all this. She makes sure the kids are safe and the dog is taken care of.

At the end she finds out that Karen and Andrew used some hard and abrasive cleansers on the car and has ruined the paint.

Watson was a very good sport about it, and ended up having the car painted the color he always wanted - but they explained to Kristy that she should have been better because the kids shouldn't have had the opportunity to destroy the paint. She reflects on how she'll never make that mistake again.

I mean, if the house was on fire and Kristy managed to get all the kids out and saved the dog as well as the cherished heirloom doll the child loved I feel like she would be told that she forgot to make the kids eat their vegetables and she needs to do better.

There were many things like this. At the time of reading it I thought that you just really needed to step up as a babysitter. As an adult of I feel horrified at how much pressure was being put on 12 years old to basically provide care that you would need a certificate in early childhood education to really provide.

Love the books - just wish there were a few more situations where the adults would proudly tell the girls that the stupid paint job was completely irrelevant and they were impressed with the girls for stepping up in impossible circumstances.

For the last two years two friends and I have been volunteering for an event near us that raises money for a local club. We are not members, but a friend of ours is and the organization didn't have enough members to manage everything so we volunteered. It is actually for a pretty good local cause-although not local for us it's for a town about an hour away.

Members are required to do so many hours of volunteer work for the organization annually, at this event of one of their other events.

Our job one year was taking tickets and handing out the goody bags to the public. That was actually kind of fun.

The next year was babysitting a tent where alcohol is served to make sure no one leaves the area with alcoholic drinks.

We took the early shift starting at 7:30 am- understanding we would be relieved at noon and could then enjoy the event.

We didn't get bathroom breaks (we asked, but were told we had to get someone to take our place and no one ever showed up). We were standing in the 'doorways' of a huge tented pavilion in 85-degree heat and never given water and we were discouraged from getting it ourselves since it would mean leaving the entrance unattended.

We were also one per entrance so we didn't even get to talk to each other and could only text during the long periods when we were just standing there.

At some point I was told off for checking a message on my phone. I was 44 years old, and told the person that they couldn't tell me when I could look at my phone. I was told I was going to be "reported." This person held out their hand and told me to give them the phone and I could get it back when I was done for the day. I just said 'no, thank you.' and put it in my pocket.

I didn't respond further because my mother was long deceased so who were they going to "report" my naughtiness to? I haven't been told off that way since I was a 12 year old getting in trouble for not paying attention during class, I'm not a child and that person was not my teacher or boss. I'm not handing off my expensive phone to a stranger to 'hold onto' until I was 'done.'

When noon rolled around we were told we couldn't leave yet because our replacements weren't there yet. One of us got relieved around 12:15 so we took turns relieving each other to use the bathroom and get water. At 12:30 I finally got tired of waiting and went to tell one of the organizers that we were leaving in 5 minutes and they needed to replace us now.

At first they told us no, we needed to wait until more volunteers showed up and they might need us there 'for a while.' I said absolutely not. We had stood next to the entrances for over 5 hours in climbing heat with no water and no chances to use the bathroom. We were not allowed to sit because it didn't 'look right.' I'm only in my 40's but I'm not willing to stand with no relief for hours on end.

They found people but told us they were "disappointed" we couldn't stay until the end which would have been after 9 at night. I told them we were never signed up for that long, I was told that our leaving 'early' would be "noted."

So this year rolls around and I just now got an email giving me this year's assignment.

I wrote and explained that I didn't sign up and I had other plans for the weekend (I don't, but I'm never doing it again).

I got an email back telling me that it was non-negotiable, I had not yet volunteered at all this year and that this year I needed to be more of a team player. They brought up my 'infractions' from last year which included looking at my phone around the public and leaving early.

They also pointed out that I wasn't respectful to leadership of the organization when I was corrected about the phone because I said that I would keep my phone on me and would continue to check in with my friends when I wasn't busy. I was told that wasn't appropriate and wouldn't be tolerated this year.

It took me an hour to just let all that soak in.

I wrote back explaining with excruciating politeness that I was not a member and had never been a member. I also elaborated that I was not even a person who lived in their community to benefit from the event but that I traveled to come and help because I thought it was a good cause (apparently no one connected us to the friend who recruited us and I left her out of this).

Then I outlined what went wrong last year. That as a 44-year old I was not going to be told off for briefly checking a message from one of my friends asking if I needed water since I wasn't allowed to leave. That we signed up from 7:30 am to noon and were told that we were supposed to stay until 9 pm, and then heavily guilted when we firmly said no.

I further explained that as an unpaid volunteer I was treated very disrespectfully by leadership and was not planning to support the organization with my time going further, so please remove me from the list.

I got an email back not quite apologizing, and saying that everything had been "misunderstood" because members understood they might be asked to stay late and everyone assumed my friends and I were members.

I was also reminded that it was club policy to not have our phones with us during club events. The email went on the state that they already had my jobs assigned for August and it was important that I was there on time because otherwise I would be putting them in a hard spot.

I wrote back and said that the rule about phones would not apply to me since I was not a member, had never been told about club rules, and wouldn't follow that one when I was in the situation they put me in. Further, I didn't want the club to suffer from any misunderstanding because if I did volunteer I would leave at the time I had agreed to because I would not even stay an extra five minutes this time and didn't want to have an issues for the club due to that.

I added that the other two people I volunteered with were joining me in my plans that weekend and would not be able to help either.

I signed off that I hoped everything went well but that going forward if there were unpaid volunteers that were not required to spend a day working for free they should not treat them the way they treated us.

I haven't heard back yet.

I've never posted back to back like this but this is bugging me too (I haven't seen the last movie yet but do not mind spoilers):

Cora got an early inheritance in the form of a dowry when she got married.

We see her brother has his own money which was probably his inheritance when his father died.

It seems as though there is money in a trust for the lifetime of Martha Levinson. She has access to the money and can give Cora money for gifts, and she can travel, but she can't access the full amount. I've wondered if there is an agent or attorney who authorizes her use of money.

So when she dies does everything go to Harold?

Or is there a likelihood that the remainder of the money would be divided between the siblings? I think I heard that part of the movie was Harold's money issues, but does that mean the trust Martha was living on is gone?

I read the other day that although the Queen Mother was pretty broke when she died, she had previously set up the "Queen Mother Trust" which gave her grandchildren and great grandchildren money after she died, when they turned 21 and again when they turned 40. So even if Harold blows all his money there might be a second inheritance at some point.

Full disclosure: I've not seen the last movie yet.

I have a question and I'm wondering if anyone has the answer or would like to speculate.

What happens to Rosamond's fortune after she's gone? Is it "Painswick money" that defaults back to Marmaduke's family after she dies?

Like the way Cora's mother has access to a fortune for the rest of her life, but no ownership of the fortune itself which will go to Harold? She has discretion to increase Cora's dress allowance, and resources to entertain the Crawley's in Newport, but she can't sink a second fortune into Downton Abbey to save it. (I actually think it would be hilarious if that was BS and she made it up to get back at the Crawley family for the entailment of their money to the estate instead of Cora's own children).

Or is it actually Rosamond's money to be done with what she pleases? Could she leave the entire amount to a charity or to her nieces?

I'm particularly curious because in my mind Rosamond's husband was the male version of Cora - a glamorous fortune wanting to marry up.

But unlike Cora, Marmaduke didn't marry someone who didn't need to dump that fortune into a failing estate, and who never traded their fortune for magical beans so they still have full coffers.

So during and after WWII when the Abbey is being crushed under its own weight Rosamond's money might be safely in international banks or somewhere else brilliant.

I wonder if we get a movie with George and co during the WWII years and Rosamond's fortune becomes a plot point like Lavinia Swire's.