{"id":10975,"date":"2025-09-06T13:49:01","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T13:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/?p=10975"},"modified":"2025-09-06T13:50:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T13:50:02","slug":"10975","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/?p=10975","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael was supposed to be working overtime, but his paychecks never seemed to reflect the extra hours. \u201cWe just need to budget better,\u201d he\u2019d say, his eyes avoiding mine as he stared at the television.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Today, though, was about celebrating our daughter. As I watched Julie tear into a present from her friends, her face alight with pure joy, I felt a familiar pang of guilt. I wished I could have given her the big, fancy party she saw on TV, the one with a bouncy castle and a pony. \u201cNext year,\u201d I\u2019d promised her, an empty vow that tasted like ash in my mouth. \u201cNext year will be special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael was supposed to be working overtime, but his paychecks never seemed to reflect the extra hours. \u201cWe just need to budget better,\u201d he\u2019d say, his eyes avoiding mine as he stared at the television. Today, though, was about celebrating our daughter. As I watched Julie tear into a present from her friends, her face…<\/p>\n

Read More “”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":308,"today_views":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10975"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11001,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10975\/revisions\/11001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}