{"id":8380,"date":"2015-08-18T01:18:12","date_gmt":"2015-08-18T05:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dougbittinger.com\/thoughts\/?p=8380"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:39","slug":"the-saddest-realization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/the-saddest-realization\/","title":{"rendered":"The Saddest Realization"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/PineyMountainFoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/Child_Defiant.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8382\" src=\"https:\/\/PineyMountainFoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/Child_Defiant-300x201.jpg\" alt=\"Child_Defiant\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" \/><\/a>The saddest words any parent can hear is their child saying, \u201cI don&#8217;t need you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The saddest realization any parent can experience is that the child is right.<\/p>\n<p>Where were you when they wanted a lap to sit in and be read to?\u00a0 Where were you when he wanted you to attend his softball games, when she had a recital, when they had some personal crises and needed your guidance?\u00a0 At work?\u00a0 Or saying, &#8220;We&#8217;ll talk tomorrow, I&#8217;m too tired tonight.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And now that you have come to the point where you want to be adviser, mentor, confidant\u2026 they have no need of you. For so long they have fended for themselves they do not need, or want, your input.<\/p>\n<p>You are, after all, just the breadwinner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The saddest words any parent can hear is their child saying, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t need you.&rdquo; The saddest realization any parent can experience is that the child is right. Where were you when they wanted a lap to sit in and be read to?&nbsp; Where were you when he wanted you to attend his softball games, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/the-saddest-realization\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Saddest Realization&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[38,26],"class_list":["post-8380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-communication","tag-life-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8380"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20033,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8380\/revisions\/20033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}