My obsession with The Baby-Sitters Club books may have influenced my career path

I recently thought about the business I run now (dog walking with Walk My Dog Toronto) and realized that it has more than a couple of things in common with one of my favourite childhood book series, The Baby-Sitters Club.

It was the 90s, a time before the internet, and I was growing up in rural Ontario with a school library that let us take unlimited books home.

The Baby-Sitters Club books could be read in a day or two and there were over a hundred to keep me busy.

In the books, a group of adolescent friends run a childcare collective. They have set hours, meet at central headquarters, wait for the (landline) phone to ring and send each other out on babysitting jobs as they come in.

Pretty sure they have pizza parties sometimes too, like our team when the dogs let us get together.

Each book in the series showcases this business action – call comes in, job gets assigned, babysitter sprints out. When challenges come up, they call each other for support.

The plot revolves around friend dynamics plus an emergency babysitting situation/mystery. The team works together to solve it, and they all learn something for next time.

Turns out a lot of what they deal with are typical business challenges.

Mistakes, client complaints, misunderstandings, communication trial and error…

From the Goodreads synopsis of the first novel: “nobody counted on crank calls, uncontrollable two-year-olds, wild pets, and parents who don’t always tell the truth. And then there’s Stacey, who’s acting more and more mysterious. Having a baby-sitters club isn’t easy, but Kristy and her friends aren’t giving up until they get it right!”

Times may have changed (in our business we text each other as we work and much of the booking is done online), but we definitely have some solid common ground with the old school Baby-Sitters Club.

Walk My Dog Toronto offers dog walking services and in-home pet care services in downtown Toronto. With easy online booking, we walk your dog while you are busy or at work. We give your dog love, socialization, and exercise, and we keep in touch with you every step of the way with our walk tracker.