Kathrin Schrocke
Baby? Think it over!

Barnie‘s life in an alternative family runs into difficulty when she takes part in the “Baby? Think It Over!” project with the boy next door.

By Holger Moos

© Mixtvision Since Kathrin Schrocke started writing full-time, her interest has focused on outsiders’ stories and alternative lifestyles. Nominated for the German Youth Literature Prize in 2011, Freak City is set in the world of the deaf. In Immer kommt mir das Leben dazwischen (Life is always getting in the way, 2019), a young boy helps his grandmother move into a multi-generational home. Schrocke’s latest book Bunte Fische überall (Colourful Fish Everywhere) is about social attitudes to same-sex love.

Raised by two fathers, Daddy and Dad, Barnie’s life is anything but straightforward. Daddy is her biological father, Dad his American husband. For Barnie, that’s not an issue. She accepted early on that it’s all right to grow up without a mother. Her problems now are of an entirely different nature. For example, that she did not get the iPad she wanted for her thirteenth birthday, just a stupid notebook instead, because Daddy’s a technophobe. To top it all, he refuses sweets as well. And he’s a real helicopter parent, too. Luckily, Dad is more laid back.

PARENTING SKILLS TRAINING

A project is launched at Barnie’s school called “Baby? Think it Over” (which really does exist: www.babybedenkzeit.de). It’s a kind of training programme to learn parenting skills and gain hands-on practice. Pupils are paired up to take care of a robotic plastic baby around the clock for a few days, which has needs like a real infant.

Barnie and Sergey, the boy next door on whom Barnie has a crush, take on the task of “parenting” one of these babies, whom they call Herbie. The exercise is supposed to have an enlightening effect and help to prevent teen pregnancies. But ironically, engaging in the strenuous task of looking after Herbie brings Barnie and Sergey closer together.

Barnie finds growing up in an alternative family completely normal, but that’s not how everyone at school sees it. She learns through painful experience that outsiders do not have an unbiased view of her family. Even Sergey is influenced by his peer group in unforeseen ways. This is something Barnie had not expected, and she is totally flabbergasted.

LOVE IS ALWAYS A MIRACLE

In this diary-style novel, Schrocke tells Barnie‘s story in a humorous, varied and lively way. Poems and thoughts from Barnie‘s notebook give the topic a new spin, for example when she writes: “Naturally, it isn’t natural for men to fall in love with men or for women to fall in love with women. Naturally, love is always a miracle.”

On occasion, the author’s educational intentions surface, making the diary sound a bit grown-up and worldly-wise for a thirteen-year-old. But perhaps it will just take time for youth literature to find the right language for this theme – language that is completely matter-of-course and natural. Until that happens, read this book!


This text was first published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.