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Springy story review: "Babyproofing" by Julia Slavin

Why it springs to mind: If you are babyproofing your house preparing for a new baby, or feeling for friends who are.

Title: "Babyproofing"
Where read: Julia Slavin's collection The Woman Who Cut Off Her Leg at the Maidstone Club (1999)
Length: 18 pages
Summary: A father is literally shut out of his home and family, making way for a new baby, motherhood "that exclusive club," and Mitzy Baker CEO of Baby Safe Inc.
Memorable: How it takes the anxiety of caring for a newborn, the fears and responsibility, to an extreme.
Quote:
"This is in fact how cave people lived: two people mating for life taking care of, and protecting, one baby. That's why our species has survived so well."
Personal attachment: Not having children, I appreciate how the story takes you into the life-changing experience of raising a child and I see some of my friends' experience and anxieties about parenting reflected here.
Pairs well with: the next story in this collection "Dentaphilia" is equally memorable and creepy —  woman begins to grow teeth all over her body and have an affair with her dentist. The first line: "I once loved a woman who grew teeth all over her body." The story earned Slavin a Pushcart Prize and was published in The Pushcart Prize 1998 XXII: Best of the Small Presses.
About the author: Julia Slavin is the author of the novel Carnivore Diet (2006).

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