Do Children Make Us Happier?<\/title>\n <style>\n :root{\n --bg:#f7f3ed;\n --paper:#fffdf9;\n --ink:#2b2926;\n --muted:#6d665f;\n --line:#ddd3c7;\n --accent:#8d5f48;\n --accent-soft:#efe3d9;\n --quote:#f3ebe4;\n --shadow:0 18px 45px rgba(60,44,30,.08);\n }\n\n *{box-sizing:border-box}\n\n html{\n scroll-behavior:smooth;\n }\n\n body{\n margin:0;\n background:\n radial-gradient(circle at top left, rgba(180,150,120,.08), transparent 34%),\n var(--bg);\n color:var(--ink);\n font-family: Georgia, \"Times New Roman\", serif;\n line-height:1.72;\n font-size:18px;\n }\n\n .page{\n width:min(880px, calc(100% - 32px));\n margin:48px auto;\n background:var(--paper);\n border:1px solid rgba(145,120,96,.14);\n box-shadow:var(--shadow);\n border-radius:24px;\n overflow:hidden;\n }\n\n .hero{\n padding:64px 64px 44px;\n border-bottom:1px solid var(--line);\n background:\n linear-gradient(180deg, rgba(239,227,217,.65), rgba(255,253,249,0));\n }\n\n .eyebrow{\n margin:0 0 16px;\n font:600 12px\/1.3 Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\n letter-spacing:.16em;\n text-transform:uppercase;\n color:var(--accent);\n }\n\n h1{\n margin:0;\n max-width:760px;\n font-size:clamp(42px, 7vw, 72px);\n line-height:.98;\n letter-spacing:-.035em;\n font-weight:700;\n }\n\n .dek{\n margin:24px 0 0;\n max-width:700px;\n color:var(--muted);\n font-size:20px;\n line-height:1.55;\n }\n\n article{\n padding:52px 64px 72px;\n }\n\n p{\n margin:0 0 1.25em;\n }\n\n p.short{\n margin-bottom:.55em;\n }\n\n .beat{\n margin:1.8em 0;\n }\n\n .beat p{\n margin:.28em 0;\n }\n\n h2{\n margin:2.7em 0 .8em;\n padding-top:.35em;\n font-size:30px;\n line-height:1.15;\n letter-spacing:-.02em;\n color:#352f2a;\n }\n\n h2::before{\n content:\"\";\n display:block;\n width:54px;\n height:3px;\n border-radius:3px;\n background:var(--accent);\n margin-bottom:16px;\n }\n\n .question{\n margin:2em 0;\n padding:22px 26px;\n border-left:4px solid var(--accent);\n background:var(--accent-soft);\n border-radius:0 14px 14px 0;\n font-size:21px;\n }\n\n .quote{\n margin:2.2em 0;\n padding:28px 30px;\n background:var(--quote);\n border-radius:18px;\n font-size:22px;\n line-height:1.55;\n }\n\n .quote strong{\n color:var(--accent);\n }\n\n .final{\n margin-top:3em;\n padding:34px 34px 28px;\n border:1px solid var(--line);\n border-radius:20px;\n background:#fbf7f1;\n }\n\n .final p{\n margin-bottom:.8em;\n }\n\n .final .anchor{\n font-size:25px;\n line-height:1.4;\n font-weight:700;\n margin-bottom:1em;\n }\n\n .closing{\n font-size:22px;\n line-height:1.55;\n margin-top:1.4em;\n }\n\n footer{\n padding:22px 64px 34px;\n color:var(--muted);\n font:14px\/1.5 Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\n border-top:1px solid var(--line);\n }\n\n @media (max-width:700px){\n body{font-size:17px}\n .page{\n width:min(100% - 18px, 880px);\n margin:16px auto;\n border-radius:16px;\n }\n .hero{\n padding:42px 24px 30px;\n }\n article{\n padding:34px 24px 48px;\n }\n footer{\n padding:18px 24px 28px;\n }\n h2{\n font-size:26px;\n }\n .question,.quote,.final{\n padding:22px;\n }\n }\n\n @media print{\n body{background:white}\n .page{\n width:100%;\n margin:0;\n border:0;\n box-shadow:none;\n }\n .hero, article, footer{\n padding-left:0;\n padding-right:0;\n }\n }\n <\/style>\n<\/head>\n<body>\n <main class=\"page\">\n <header class=\"hero\">\n A Family Reflection<\/p>\n <h1>Do Children Make Us Happier?<\/h1>\n A personal reflection on love, exhaustion, companionship, family life and the people who become our world.<\/p>\n <\/header>\n\n <article>\n Today I really reached the depth of my human patience. Enough to make me ask myself some of the deepest human questions.<\/p>\n\n You can’t reach these levels of questioning, or be willing to answer them truthfully, without being pressed over and over again. Repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n The funny thing is, the day started out happy.<\/p>\n\n I was flowing. Accumulating my thoughts and pushing out my ideas. The house was full of food. The kids were adequately out of the house enjoying themselves, and I was watching a TV drama that was fairly entertaining.<\/p>\n\n Everything was fine.<\/p>\n\n Then my rice got burned through no fault of my own.<\/p>\n\n My quiet peace got interrupted by my rambunctious kids.<\/p>\n\n And I just had to press through it all.<\/p>\n\n Somewhere in the pressing through, I started asking myself some uncomfortable questions.<\/p>\n\n When my husband and the kids were out of the house and I was home alone watching my series, writing my articles and inventing things, I was so happy.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n I had quiet.<\/p>\n I could follow my thoughts.<\/p>\n I could sit down and actually finish something.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n Then they came home, and I was still happy to see them.<\/p>\n\n Until they started doing what they usually do.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Making noise.<\/p>\n Dirtying the cleaned house.<\/p>\n Interrupting me.<\/p>\n Needing something.<\/p>\n Hurting themselves at the most inconvenient possible time.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n After years of experience, I now know this is just typical family stuff.<\/p>\n\n Children come home and immediately begin living in the house.<\/p>\n\n They move things. Drop things. Eat things. Ask things. Spill things. Hurt themselves. Call you. Tell you something. Forget something. Need help with something else.<\/p>\n\n And somewhere in the middle of all that, I started wondering:<\/p>\n\n I was genuinely happy when I was here alone.<\/p>\n\n I was happy when they came back too.<\/p>\n\n So why did my happiness start disappearing once family life actually resumed?<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"question\">\n Without companionship, can a human truly be happy?<\/p>\n Immediately I knew my answer was no.<\/p>\n But without children, can a couple be happy?<\/p>\n That one made me fluctuate.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n I think yes.<\/p>\n\n A husband and wife can love each other deeply. They can build a life together, travel, laugh, work, rest, make plans, grow old together and have real companionship.<\/p>\n\n So then I ask myself, do children make the couple happier?<\/p>\n\n That answer does not come so easily.<\/p>\n\n Because children do not just come along and add happiness on top of an already happy marriage. Parenting does not feel that neat when you are inside it.<\/p>\n\n To have children is for a husband and wife to decide that they are going to enter another side of companionship together.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n You combine your DNA.<\/p>\n You usher in your own tiny human.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n And honestly, that part is sweet.<\/p>\n\n Growing your first baby. Waiting for the baby. Holding this little person and realizing this is yours and your husband’s child.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Looking for his features.<\/p>\n Looking for yours.<\/p>\n Watching this strange little person slowly become somebody.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n There is something almost unbelievable about it.<\/p>\n\n Then more children come.<\/p>\n\n And more interruptions come.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Less sleep.<\/p>\n Less time alone together.<\/p>\n More washing, feeding, cleaning, carrying, planning, answering, teaching, worrying.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n The rewards can get blurred underneath the work.<\/p>\n\n There are times when I am hungry, tired, trying to concentrate on something, and somebody needs me again.<\/p>\n\n Then another one needs me.<\/p>\n\n Then somebody is asking for food.<\/p>\n\n Then somebody is crying.<\/p>\n\n Then somebody wants to tell me something very important at the exact moment I cannot hear another thing.<\/p>\n\n Their interruptions hit differently when I am already tired.<\/p>\n\n And this is something I have noticed very clearly.<\/p>\n\n On a fairly organized day, they are a delight.<\/p>\n\n When everybody has eaten, when there is some order, when I am not trying to do ten things at once, when I have slept enough to feel like a human being, I experience the exact same children differently.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n They are funny.<\/p>\n Their questions are interesting.<\/p>\n Their personalities are fascinating.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n They play. They climb on us. They talk too much. They say ridiculous things. They invent things. They fight. They make up. They laugh.<\/p>\n\n And I enjoy them.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"quote\">\n So sometimes I am not tired of parenting.<\/strong><\/p>\n I am just tired.<\/p>\n Those are not the same thing.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n Because by the time the day is done and everybody is settled down and sleeping, I am so happy to see each of them.<\/p>\n\n These fat, juicy, prosperous little people who are mine and my husband’s.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n People I think about.<\/p>\n People who are in my heart.<\/p>\n People I plan my day around.<\/p>\n People who remind me what I love.<\/p>\n People who give my days purpose.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n And they love me too.<\/p>\n\n My fat little juicies love me so much.<\/p>\n\n They all want to sleep beside me.<\/p>\n\n They rub my titties to fall asleep.<\/p>\n\n They kiss my cheeks.<\/p>\n\n They want to tell me about their day.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n \u201cPlease, Mommy.\u201d<\/p>\n Mommy this.<\/p>\n Mommy that.<\/p>\n Mommy come.<\/p>\n Mommy look.<\/p>\n Mommy listen.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n They want me.<\/p>\n\n Even after I get angry with them.<\/p>\n\n Sometimes I correct one of them and then afterward I sit there questioning myself.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Did I overreact?<\/p>\n Was that correction really for their greater good?<\/p>\n Was I correcting them because they needed correcting, or was I already tired, hungry or irritated and they got a stronger version of me than they needed?<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n I cross-check myself.<\/p>\n\n They may cry.<\/p>\n\n And then somehow that same child comes and curls up beside me afterward.<\/p>\n\n Or I kiss their cheeks.<\/p>\n\n Or somebody gets a slice of mango.<\/p>\n\n And we carry on.<\/p>\n\n There is a lot of love moving around inside a family.<\/p>\n\n Sometimes so much of it is buried underneath work that you do not notice it.<\/p>\n\n I am not only loving these children.<\/p>\n\n They are loving me too.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Their little arms.<\/p>\n Their kisses.<\/p>\n Their stories.<\/p>\n Their need to be close.<\/p>\n Their absolute assumption that Mommy belongs right here in the middle of their world.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n And I do.<\/p>\n\n I know something else very strongly too.<\/p>\n\n I would not give them back.<\/p>\n\n Not one.<\/p>\n\n I may want more sleep.<\/p>\n\n I may want more uninterrupted time with my husband.<\/p>\n\n I may want somebody to stop calling me for ten minutes.<\/p>\n\n I may want to wake up one morning and not immediately have to think about what everybody is going to eat.<\/p>\n\n But I do not want a life where these people do not exist.<\/p>\n\n That is where the word happiness starts to feel too small.<\/p>\n\n <h2>We Have a Lot of Years to Live<\/h2>\n\n There is another part of this that is not very deep at all.<\/p>\n\n We have years to live.<\/p>\n\n A lot of years.<\/p>\n\n We need company.<\/p>\n\n We need people to love and people who love us.<\/p>\n\n We need somebody to talk to.<\/p>\n\n Somebody to fuss over.<\/p>\n\n Somebody to cook something nicer for.<\/p>\n\n Somebody to surprise.<\/p>\n\n Somebody to worry about.<\/p>\n\n Somebody to sit beside.<\/p>\n\n Somebody whose future matters enough to us that we start thinking harder about how life should be arranged.<\/p>\n\n A spouse gives us much of that.<\/p>\n\n But even a husband and wife who love each other deeply are not going to be available to each other at every moment.<\/p>\n\n I may be excited to tell my husband something at the exact moment he is tired or distracted.<\/p>\n\n He may want to talk when I am somewhere else mentally.<\/p>\n\n I may want affection when he wants quiet.<\/p>\n\n He may be full of energy when I have none left.<\/p>\n\n That is just human life.<\/p>\n\n Family spreads life out.<\/p>\n\n One child wants to sit with you.<\/p>\n\n Another wants to tell you something.<\/p>\n\n Your husband takes one of them while you get a little quiet.<\/p>\n\n You cook while somebody talks to you.<\/p>\n\n Someone else is laughing in another room.<\/p>\n\n Later everybody comes back together.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Attention moves around.<\/p>\n Affection moves around.<\/p>\n Energy moves around.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n The family absorbs each other and diffuses energy.<\/p>\n\n Nobody has to be everything to everybody every hour of the day.<\/p>\n\n There are people around.<\/p>\n\n Life has somewhere to move.<\/p>\n\n And really, we get bored.<\/p>\n\n We need companionship to pass the time.<\/p>\n\n That sounds almost too simple, but a human lifetime is mostly ordinary days.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Breakfast.<\/p>\n Baths.<\/p>\n Work.<\/p>\n Cooking.<\/p>\n Cleaning.<\/p>\n Talking.<\/p>\n Sitting around.<\/p>\n Going somewhere.<\/p>\n Coming back.<\/p>\n Fixing things.<\/p>\n Somebody being tired.<\/p>\n Somebody being excited.<\/p>\n Somebody needing something.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n Who we spend those ordinary days loving matters.<\/p>\n\n <h2>Family Gives Human Energy Somewhere to Go<\/h2>\n\n A person alone can care about food, shelter, education, land, water, safety, travel, beauty and the future.<\/p>\n\n But once you love particular people, those things become very concrete.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"quote\">\n I want this house better because my children live here.<\/p>\n I want to solve this because my husband is dealing with it too.<\/p>\n I want better food because these little people need feeding every day.<\/p>\n I want this room nicer because somebody I love will sleep in it.<\/p>\n I will fight this problem because it threatens somebody I love.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n Family gives human energy somewhere to go.<\/p>\n\n It gives me people to build for.<\/p>\n\n People to protect.<\/p>\n\n People to feed.<\/p>\n\n People whose comfort matters to me.<\/p>\n\n People whose future makes me think harder about what kind of life we are creating.<\/p>\n\n The future gets faces.<\/p>\n\n <h2>Children Expose You<\/h2>\n\n Children expose you too.<\/p>\n\n You can think you are patient until you hear \u201cMummy\u201d seventeen times while trying to finish one thing.<\/p>\n\n You can think you are generous until somebody wants the food you were saving for yourself.<\/p>\n\n You discover protectiveness you did not know you had.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Anger.<\/p>\n Fear.<\/p>\n Tenderness.<\/p>\n Pride.<\/p>\n Irritation.<\/p>\n Sacrifice.<\/p>\n Stubbornness.<\/p>\n Inventiveness.<\/p>\n Sometimes selfishness that you have to confront.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n Children keep pressing buttons you did not know were installed.<\/p>\n\n Marriage does some of that too.<\/p>\n\n Children multiply it.<\/p>\n\n They draw things out of you.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Good things.<\/p>\n Ugly things.<\/p>\n Things you did not even know were there.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n And they make you develop.<\/p>\n\n You organize better because disorder now affects several people.<\/p>\n\n You cook better because people you love are eating the food.<\/p>\n\n You think harder about the house because children are living in it.<\/p>\n\n You think harder about education because these particular children have to learn.<\/p>\n\n You think harder about safety because suddenly the world contains people you would fight to protect.<\/p>\n\n That changes you.<\/p>\n\n <h2>I Want More Children Too<\/h2>\n\n And here is another strange part.<\/p>\n\n I want more children.<\/p>\n\n Even knowing exactly what comes with them.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n I know pregnancy.<\/p>\n I know birth.<\/p>\n I know pain.<\/p>\n I know newborn nights.<\/p>\n I know waking up already responsible for somebody.<\/p>\n I know cooking for everybody every day of my life almost as soon as my eyes open.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n I know the work.<\/p>\n\n And I do not particularly want more of that.<\/p>\n\n If somebody offered me more children without pregnancy, birth, sleepless nights, constant cooking and another mountain of daily work, I would be very interested.<\/p>\n\n That tells me something.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"quote\">\n I am not resisting the people.<\/p>\n I am resisting the machinery around them.<\/p>\n I want the little humans.<\/p>\n I do not always want everything required to produce and maintain the little humans.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n Some of the weariness of family life gets blamed on children when a lot of it is actually coming from the repetitive work around them.<\/p>\n\n Food has to appear every day.<\/p>\n\n Clothes have to be washed.<\/p>\n\n People have to be bathed.<\/p>\n\n Somebody has to remember things.<\/p>\n\n Somebody has to plan ahead.<\/p>\n\n Somebody has to think about what happens tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n Sometimes the hardest part of family is not loving the family.<\/p>\n\n It is servicing the family.<\/p>\n\n That can wear you out.<\/p>\n\n But being worn out does not mean I wish the people away.<\/p>\n\n <h2>Another Side of Marriage<\/h2>\n\n Children also change companionship between husband and wife.<\/p>\n\n We are no longer only loving each other.<\/p>\n\n We are loving other people together.<\/p>\n\n We are raising them together.<\/p>\n\n We are learning them together.<\/p>\n\n We are worrying about them together.<\/p>\n\n We are solving problems for them together.<\/p>\n\n We are watching these little people grow while also watching each other become parents.<\/p>\n\n That gives us a kind of companionship we did not have before.<\/p>\n\n There are memories that belong only to us because nobody else was there.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n The pregnancy.<\/p>\n The birth.<\/p>\n The first night home.<\/p>\n The sickness.<\/p>\n The funny things.<\/p>\n The frightening things.<\/p>\n The impossible days.<\/p>\n The ordinary days.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n The child who looks exactly like one of us when angry.<\/p>\n\n The strange habit both of us noticed at the same time.<\/p>\n\n The moment one parent looks across the room at the other because the child has said something completely ridiculous.<\/p>\n\n We build a private history together.<\/p>\n\n But children can also bury the marriage under work.<\/p>\n\n That is another contradiction.<\/p>\n\n A husband and wife may be doing more together than ever before and still feel like they have less time together than ever before.<\/p>\n\n You can become very good at running a family while barely sitting down with each other.<\/p>\n\n You can spend the whole day serving the same people and still miss each other.<\/p>\n\n I understand that much better now.<\/p>\n\n The children become part of the companionship between husband and wife, but they can also swallow up nearly all the space where the original companionship used to happen.<\/p>\n\n Both things are true.<\/p>\n\n <h2>So Do Children Make Us Happier?<\/h2>\n\n I still do not think that is the right question.<\/p>\n\n Ask me when I am hungry, tired, trying to work and being interrupted for the sixth time and I may tell you children make life much harder.<\/p>\n\n Ask me on a peaceful day when everybody has eaten and the house has some order and the children are laughing, and I will tell you they are one of the sweetest parts of my life.<\/p>\n\n Ask me at night when they are sleeping and I can look at them without anybody asking me for anything, and I know immediately that I want them here.<\/p>\n\n Every one of them.<\/p>\n\n And strangely enough, I want more.<\/p>\n\n I just do not particularly want more pain, more sleeplessness, more cooking and more work.<\/p>\n\n So this is where I have landed for now.<\/p>\n\n Children do not simply make a person happier.<\/p>\n\n They fill life with people.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n People to love.<\/p>\n People to fuss over.<\/p>\n People to protect.<\/p>\n People to cook for.<\/p>\n People to build for.<\/p>\n People who irritate you.<\/p>\n People who expose you.<\/p>\n People who love you back.<\/p>\n People who give your energy somewhere to go.<\/p>\n People who become part of how you spend your years.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n Sometimes family is exhausting.<\/p>\n\n Sometimes it is noisy.<\/p>\n\n Sometimes I want everybody to leave me alone.<\/p>\n\n Sometimes I want another baby.<\/p>\n\n All of these things are true at once.<\/p>\n\n <section class=\"final\">\n But the one thing I am most definite about is this:<\/p>\n\n My husband and my children are my world.<\/p>\n\n And I am their world.<\/p>\n\n That cannot be bought.<\/p>\n\n It cannot be replicated somewhere else or in another human organization.<\/p>\n\n These are the people whose lives are tied to mine in the most intimate way.<\/p>\n\n My husband and I chose each other.<\/p>\n\n Our children came from us.<\/p>\n\n We wake up inside each other’s lives every day.<\/p>\n\n We know each other’s moods, habits, weaknesses, funny ways, needs and histories.<\/p>\n\n We worry about each other.<\/p>\n\n We build around each other.<\/p>\n\n We change our plans because of each other.<\/p>\n\n We carry each other through different seasons.<\/p>\n\n Some days all of that feels heavy.<\/p>\n\n Some days it feels like pure delight.<\/p>\n\n But whether the day is easy or difficult, they are still my people.<\/p>\n\n That is family.<\/strong> A life full of people I love, who love me, and who cannot simply be replaced.<\/p>\n <\/section>\n <\/article>\n\n <footer>\n Personal reflection.\n <\/footer>\n <\/main>\n<\/body>\n<\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do Children Make Us Happier? A Family Reflection Do Children Make Us Happier? A personal reflection on love, exhaustion, companionship, family life and the people who become our world. Today I really reached the depth of my human patience. Enough to make me ask myself some of the deepest human questions. You can’t reach these…<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/do-children-make-us-happier\/\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tbfbkm_featured_url":"","_tbfbkm_featured_mime":"","_tbfbkm_featured_type":"","_tbfbkm_featured_title":"","_tbfbkm_featured_poster_url":"","_tbfbkm_featured_mode":"","_tbfbkm_featured_music_video_url":"","_tbfbkm_featured_music_video_items":[],"_tbfbkm_featured_music_video_slide_duration":0,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","wds_primary_category":1,"footnotes":"","_tbfbkm_featured_dynamic_movie_id":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-random-tbu-1drop"],"tbfbkm_featured_media":null,"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118192"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118195,"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118192\/revisions\/118195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":118192,"date":"2026-09-19T23:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T23:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/?p=118192"},"modified":"2026-09-19T23:24:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T23:24:06","slug":"do-children-make-us-happier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/do-children-make-us-happier\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Children Make us Happier?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n \n \n \n Do Children Make Us Happier?<\/title>\n <style>\n :root{\n --bg:#f7f3ed;\n --paper:#fffdf9;\n --ink:#2b2926;\n --muted:#6d665f;\n --line:#ddd3c7;\n --accent:#8d5f48;\n --accent-soft:#efe3d9;\n --quote:#f3ebe4;\n --shadow:0 18px 45px rgba(60,44,30,.08);\n }\n\n *{box-sizing:border-box}\n\n html{\n scroll-behavior:smooth;\n }\n\n body{\n margin:0;\n background:\n radial-gradient(circle at top left, rgba(180,150,120,.08), transparent 34%),\n var(--bg);\n color:var(--ink);\n font-family: Georgia, \"Times New Roman\", serif;\n line-height:1.72;\n font-size:18px;\n }\n\n .page{\n width:min(880px, calc(100% - 32px));\n margin:48px auto;\n background:var(--paper);\n border:1px solid rgba(145,120,96,.14);\n box-shadow:var(--shadow);\n border-radius:24px;\n overflow:hidden;\n }\n\n .hero{\n padding:64px 64px 44px;\n border-bottom:1px solid var(--line);\n background:\n linear-gradient(180deg, rgba(239,227,217,.65), rgba(255,253,249,0));\n }\n\n .eyebrow{\n margin:0 0 16px;\n font:600 12px\/1.3 Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\n letter-spacing:.16em;\n text-transform:uppercase;\n color:var(--accent);\n }\n\n h1{\n margin:0;\n max-width:760px;\n font-size:clamp(42px, 7vw, 72px);\n line-height:.98;\n letter-spacing:-.035em;\n font-weight:700;\n }\n\n .dek{\n margin:24px 0 0;\n max-width:700px;\n color:var(--muted);\n font-size:20px;\n line-height:1.55;\n }\n\n article{\n padding:52px 64px 72px;\n }\n\n p{\n margin:0 0 1.25em;\n }\n\n p.short{\n margin-bottom:.55em;\n }\n\n .beat{\n margin:1.8em 0;\n }\n\n .beat p{\n margin:.28em 0;\n }\n\n h2{\n margin:2.7em 0 .8em;\n padding-top:.35em;\n font-size:30px;\n line-height:1.15;\n letter-spacing:-.02em;\n color:#352f2a;\n }\n\n h2::before{\n content:\"\";\n display:block;\n width:54px;\n height:3px;\n border-radius:3px;\n background:var(--accent);\n margin-bottom:16px;\n }\n\n .question{\n margin:2em 0;\n padding:22px 26px;\n border-left:4px solid var(--accent);\n background:var(--accent-soft);\n border-radius:0 14px 14px 0;\n font-size:21px;\n }\n\n .quote{\n margin:2.2em 0;\n padding:28px 30px;\n background:var(--quote);\n border-radius:18px;\n font-size:22px;\n line-height:1.55;\n }\n\n .quote strong{\n color:var(--accent);\n }\n\n .final{\n margin-top:3em;\n padding:34px 34px 28px;\n border:1px solid var(--line);\n border-radius:20px;\n background:#fbf7f1;\n }\n\n .final p{\n margin-bottom:.8em;\n }\n\n .final .anchor{\n font-size:25px;\n line-height:1.4;\n font-weight:700;\n margin-bottom:1em;\n }\n\n .closing{\n font-size:22px;\n line-height:1.55;\n margin-top:1.4em;\n }\n\n footer{\n padding:22px 64px 34px;\n color:var(--muted);\n font:14px\/1.5 Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\n border-top:1px solid var(--line);\n }\n\n @media (max-width:700px){\n body{font-size:17px}\n .page{\n width:min(100% - 18px, 880px);\n margin:16px auto;\n border-radius:16px;\n }\n .hero{\n padding:42px 24px 30px;\n }\n article{\n padding:34px 24px 48px;\n }\n footer{\n padding:18px 24px 28px;\n }\n h2{\n font-size:26px;\n }\n .question,.quote,.final{\n padding:22px;\n }\n }\n\n @media print{\n body{background:white}\n .page{\n width:100%;\n margin:0;\n border:0;\n box-shadow:none;\n }\n .hero, article, footer{\n padding-left:0;\n padding-right:0;\n }\n }\n <\/style>\n<\/head>\n<body>\n <main class=\"page\">\n <header class=\"hero\">\n A Family Reflection<\/p>\n <h1>Do Children Make Us Happier?<\/h1>\n A personal reflection on love, exhaustion, companionship, family life and the people who become our world.<\/p>\n <\/header>\n\n <article>\n Today I really reached the depth of my human patience. Enough to make me ask myself some of the deepest human questions.<\/p>\n\n You can’t reach these levels of questioning, or be willing to answer them truthfully, without being pressed over and over again. Repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n The funny thing is, the day started out happy.<\/p>\n\n I was flowing. Accumulating my thoughts and pushing out my ideas. The house was full of food. The kids were adequately out of the house enjoying themselves, and I was watching a TV drama that was fairly entertaining.<\/p>\n\n Everything was fine.<\/p>\n\n Then my rice got burned through no fault of my own.<\/p>\n\n My quiet peace got interrupted by my rambunctious kids.<\/p>\n\n And I just had to press through it all.<\/p>\n\n Somewhere in the pressing through, I started asking myself some uncomfortable questions.<\/p>\n\n When my husband and the kids were out of the house and I was home alone watching my series, writing my articles and inventing things, I was so happy.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n I had quiet.<\/p>\n I could follow my thoughts.<\/p>\n I could sit down and actually finish something.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n Then they came home, and I was still happy to see them.<\/p>\n\n Until they started doing what they usually do.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Making noise.<\/p>\n Dirtying the cleaned house.<\/p>\n Interrupting me.<\/p>\n Needing something.<\/p>\n Hurting themselves at the most inconvenient possible time.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n After years of experience, I now know this is just typical family stuff.<\/p>\n\n Children come home and immediately begin living in the house.<\/p>\n\n They move things. Drop things. Eat things. Ask things. Spill things. Hurt themselves. Call you. Tell you something. Forget something. Need help with something else.<\/p>\n\n And somewhere in the middle of all that, I started wondering:<\/p>\n\n I was genuinely happy when I was here alone.<\/p>\n\n I was happy when they came back too.<\/p>\n\n So why did my happiness start disappearing once family life actually resumed?<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"question\">\n Without companionship, can a human truly be happy?<\/p>\n Immediately I knew my answer was no.<\/p>\n But without children, can a couple be happy?<\/p>\n That one made me fluctuate.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n I think yes.<\/p>\n\n A husband and wife can love each other deeply. They can build a life together, travel, laugh, work, rest, make plans, grow old together and have real companionship.<\/p>\n\n So then I ask myself, do children make the couple happier?<\/p>\n\n That answer does not come so easily.<\/p>\n\n Because children do not just come along and add happiness on top of an already happy marriage. Parenting does not feel that neat when you are inside it.<\/p>\n\n To have children is for a husband and wife to decide that they are going to enter another side of companionship together.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n You combine your DNA.<\/p>\n You usher in your own tiny human.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n And honestly, that part is sweet.<\/p>\n\n Growing your first baby. Waiting for the baby. Holding this little person and realizing this is yours and your husband’s child.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Looking for his features.<\/p>\n Looking for yours.<\/p>\n Watching this strange little person slowly become somebody.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n There is something almost unbelievable about it.<\/p>\n\n Then more children come.<\/p>\n\n And more interruptions come.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Less sleep.<\/p>\n Less time alone together.<\/p>\n More washing, feeding, cleaning, carrying, planning, answering, teaching, worrying.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n The rewards can get blurred underneath the work.<\/p>\n\n There are times when I am hungry, tired, trying to concentrate on something, and somebody needs me again.<\/p>\n\n Then another one needs me.<\/p>\n\n Then somebody is asking for food.<\/p>\n\n Then somebody is crying.<\/p>\n\n Then somebody wants to tell me something very important at the exact moment I cannot hear another thing.<\/p>\n\n Their interruptions hit differently when I am already tired.<\/p>\n\n And this is something I have noticed very clearly.<\/p>\n\n On a fairly organized day, they are a delight.<\/p>\n\n When everybody has eaten, when there is some order, when I am not trying to do ten things at once, when I have slept enough to feel like a human being, I experience the exact same children differently.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n They are funny.<\/p>\n Their questions are interesting.<\/p>\n Their personalities are fascinating.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n They play. They climb on us. They talk too much. They say ridiculous things. They invent things. They fight. They make up. They laugh.<\/p>\n\n And I enjoy them.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"quote\">\n So sometimes I am not tired of parenting.<\/strong><\/p>\n I am just tired.<\/p>\n Those are not the same thing.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n Because by the time the day is done and everybody is settled down and sleeping, I am so happy to see each of them.<\/p>\n\n These fat, juicy, prosperous little people who are mine and my husband’s.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n People I think about.<\/p>\n People who are in my heart.<\/p>\n People I plan my day around.<\/p>\n People who remind me what I love.<\/p>\n People who give my days purpose.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n And they love me too.<\/p>\n\n My fat little juicies love me so much.<\/p>\n\n They all want to sleep beside me.<\/p>\n\n They rub my titties to fall asleep.<\/p>\n\n They kiss my cheeks.<\/p>\n\n They want to tell me about their day.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n \u201cPlease, Mommy.\u201d<\/p>\n Mommy this.<\/p>\n Mommy that.<\/p>\n Mommy come.<\/p>\n Mommy look.<\/p>\n Mommy listen.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n They want me.<\/p>\n\n Even after I get angry with them.<\/p>\n\n Sometimes I correct one of them and then afterward I sit there questioning myself.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Did I overreact?<\/p>\n Was that correction really for their greater good?<\/p>\n Was I correcting them because they needed correcting, or was I already tired, hungry or irritated and they got a stronger version of me than they needed?<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n I cross-check myself.<\/p>\n\n They may cry.<\/p>\n\n And then somehow that same child comes and curls up beside me afterward.<\/p>\n\n Or I kiss their cheeks.<\/p>\n\n Or somebody gets a slice of mango.<\/p>\n\n And we carry on.<\/p>\n\n There is a lot of love moving around inside a family.<\/p>\n\n Sometimes so much of it is buried underneath work that you do not notice it.<\/p>\n\n I am not only loving these children.<\/p>\n\n They are loving me too.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Their little arms.<\/p>\n Their kisses.<\/p>\n Their stories.<\/p>\n Their need to be close.<\/p>\n Their absolute assumption that Mommy belongs right here in the middle of their world.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n And I do.<\/p>\n\n I know something else very strongly too.<\/p>\n\n I would not give them back.<\/p>\n\n Not one.<\/p>\n\n I may want more sleep.<\/p>\n\n I may want more uninterrupted time with my husband.<\/p>\n\n I may want somebody to stop calling me for ten minutes.<\/p>\n\n I may want to wake up one morning and not immediately have to think about what everybody is going to eat.<\/p>\n\n But I do not want a life where these people do not exist.<\/p>\n\n That is where the word happiness starts to feel too small.<\/p>\n\n <h2>We Have a Lot of Years to Live<\/h2>\n\n There is another part of this that is not very deep at all.<\/p>\n\n We have years to live.<\/p>\n\n A lot of years.<\/p>\n\n We need company.<\/p>\n\n We need people to love and people who love us.<\/p>\n\n We need somebody to talk to.<\/p>\n\n Somebody to fuss over.<\/p>\n\n Somebody to cook something nicer for.<\/p>\n\n Somebody to surprise.<\/p>\n\n Somebody to worry about.<\/p>\n\n Somebody to sit beside.<\/p>\n\n Somebody whose future matters enough to us that we start thinking harder about how life should be arranged.<\/p>\n\n A spouse gives us much of that.<\/p>\n\n But even a husband and wife who love each other deeply are not going to be available to each other at every moment.<\/p>\n\n I may be excited to tell my husband something at the exact moment he is tired or distracted.<\/p>\n\n He may want to talk when I am somewhere else mentally.<\/p>\n\n I may want affection when he wants quiet.<\/p>\n\n He may be full of energy when I have none left.<\/p>\n\n That is just human life.<\/p>\n\n Family spreads life out.<\/p>\n\n One child wants to sit with you.<\/p>\n\n Another wants to tell you something.<\/p>\n\n Your husband takes one of them while you get a little quiet.<\/p>\n\n You cook while somebody talks to you.<\/p>\n\n Someone else is laughing in another room.<\/p>\n\n Later everybody comes back together.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Attention moves around.<\/p>\n Affection moves around.<\/p>\n Energy moves around.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n The family absorbs each other and diffuses energy.<\/p>\n\n Nobody has to be everything to everybody every hour of the day.<\/p>\n\n There are people around.<\/p>\n\n Life has somewhere to move.<\/p>\n\n And really, we get bored.<\/p>\n\n We need companionship to pass the time.<\/p>\n\n That sounds almost too simple, but a human lifetime is mostly ordinary days.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Breakfast.<\/p>\n Baths.<\/p>\n Work.<\/p>\n Cooking.<\/p>\n Cleaning.<\/p>\n Talking.<\/p>\n Sitting around.<\/p>\n Going somewhere.<\/p>\n Coming back.<\/p>\n Fixing things.<\/p>\n Somebody being tired.<\/p>\n Somebody being excited.<\/p>\n Somebody needing something.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n Who we spend those ordinary days loving matters.<\/p>\n\n <h2>Family Gives Human Energy Somewhere to Go<\/h2>\n\n A person alone can care about food, shelter, education, land, water, safety, travel, beauty and the future.<\/p>\n\n But once you love particular people, those things become very concrete.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"quote\">\n I want this house better because my children live here.<\/p>\n I want to solve this because my husband is dealing with it too.<\/p>\n I want better food because these little people need feeding every day.<\/p>\n I want this room nicer because somebody I love will sleep in it.<\/p>\n I will fight this problem because it threatens somebody I love.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n Family gives human energy somewhere to go.<\/p>\n\n It gives me people to build for.<\/p>\n\n People to protect.<\/p>\n\n People to feed.<\/p>\n\n People whose comfort matters to me.<\/p>\n\n People whose future makes me think harder about what kind of life we are creating.<\/p>\n\n The future gets faces.<\/p>\n\n <h2>Children Expose You<\/h2>\n\n Children expose you too.<\/p>\n\n You can think you are patient until you hear \u201cMummy\u201d seventeen times while trying to finish one thing.<\/p>\n\n You can think you are generous until somebody wants the food you were saving for yourself.<\/p>\n\n You discover protectiveness you did not know you had.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Anger.<\/p>\n Fear.<\/p>\n Tenderness.<\/p>\n Pride.<\/p>\n Irritation.<\/p>\n Sacrifice.<\/p>\n Stubbornness.<\/p>\n Inventiveness.<\/p>\n Sometimes selfishness that you have to confront.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n Children keep pressing buttons you did not know were installed.<\/p>\n\n Marriage does some of that too.<\/p>\n\n Children multiply it.<\/p>\n\n They draw things out of you.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n Good things.<\/p>\n Ugly things.<\/p>\n Things you did not even know were there.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n And they make you develop.<\/p>\n\n You organize better because disorder now affects several people.<\/p>\n\n You cook better because people you love are eating the food.<\/p>\n\n You think harder about the house because children are living in it.<\/p>\n\n You think harder about education because these particular children have to learn.<\/p>\n\n You think harder about safety because suddenly the world contains people you would fight to protect.<\/p>\n\n That changes you.<\/p>\n\n <h2>I Want More Children Too<\/h2>\n\n And here is another strange part.<\/p>\n\n I want more children.<\/p>\n\n Even knowing exactly what comes with them.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n I know pregnancy.<\/p>\n I know birth.<\/p>\n I know pain.<\/p>\n I know newborn nights.<\/p>\n I know waking up already responsible for somebody.<\/p>\n I know cooking for everybody every day of my life almost as soon as my eyes open.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n I know the work.<\/p>\n\n And I do not particularly want more of that.<\/p>\n\n If somebody offered me more children without pregnancy, birth, sleepless nights, constant cooking and another mountain of daily work, I would be very interested.<\/p>\n\n That tells me something.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"quote\">\n I am not resisting the people.<\/p>\n I am resisting the machinery around them.<\/p>\n I want the little humans.<\/p>\n I do not always want everything required to produce and maintain the little humans.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n Some of the weariness of family life gets blamed on children when a lot of it is actually coming from the repetitive work around them.<\/p>\n\n Food has to appear every day.<\/p>\n\n Clothes have to be washed.<\/p>\n\n People have to be bathed.<\/p>\n\n Somebody has to remember things.<\/p>\n\n Somebody has to plan ahead.<\/p>\n\n Somebody has to think about what happens tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n Sometimes the hardest part of family is not loving the family.<\/p>\n\n It is servicing the family.<\/p>\n\n That can wear you out.<\/p>\n\n But being worn out does not mean I wish the people away.<\/p>\n\n <h2>Another Side of Marriage<\/h2>\n\n Children also change companionship between husband and wife.<\/p>\n\n We are no longer only loving each other.<\/p>\n\n We are loving other people together.<\/p>\n\n We are raising them together.<\/p>\n\n We are learning them together.<\/p>\n\n We are worrying about them together.<\/p>\n\n We are solving problems for them together.<\/p>\n\n We are watching these little people grow while also watching each other become parents.<\/p>\n\n That gives us a kind of companionship we did not have before.<\/p>\n\n There are memories that belong only to us because nobody else was there.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n The pregnancy.<\/p>\n The birth.<\/p>\n The first night home.<\/p>\n The sickness.<\/p>\n The funny things.<\/p>\n The frightening things.<\/p>\n The impossible days.<\/p>\n The ordinary days.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n The child who looks exactly like one of us when angry.<\/p>\n\n The strange habit both of us noticed at the same time.<\/p>\n\n The moment one parent looks across the room at the other because the child has said something completely ridiculous.<\/p>\n\n We build a private history together.<\/p>\n\n But children can also bury the marriage under work.<\/p>\n\n That is another contradiction.<\/p>\n\n A husband and wife may be doing more together than ever before and still feel like they have less time together than ever before.<\/p>\n\n You can become very good at running a family while barely sitting down with each other.<\/p>\n\n You can spend the whole day serving the same people and still miss each other.<\/p>\n\n I understand that much better now.<\/p>\n\n The children become part of the companionship between husband and wife, but they can also swallow up nearly all the space where the original companionship used to happen.<\/p>\n\n Both things are true.<\/p>\n\n <h2>So Do Children Make Us Happier?<\/h2>\n\n I still do not think that is the right question.<\/p>\n\n Ask me when I am hungry, tired, trying to work and being interrupted for the sixth time and I may tell you children make life much harder.<\/p>\n\n Ask me on a peaceful day when everybody has eaten and the house has some order and the children are laughing, and I will tell you they are one of the sweetest parts of my life.<\/p>\n\n Ask me at night when they are sleeping and I can look at them without anybody asking me for anything, and I know immediately that I want them here.<\/p>\n\n Every one of them.<\/p>\n\n And strangely enough, I want more.<\/p>\n\n I just do not particularly want more pain, more sleeplessness, more cooking and more work.<\/p>\n\n So this is where I have landed for now.<\/p>\n\n Children do not simply make a person happier.<\/p>\n\n They fill life with people.<\/p>\n\n <div class=\"beat\">\n People to love.<\/p>\n People to fuss over.<\/p>\n People to protect.<\/p>\n People to cook for.<\/p>\n People to build for.<\/p>\n People who irritate you.<\/p>\n People who expose you.<\/p>\n People who love you back.<\/p>\n People who give your energy somewhere to go.<\/p>\n People who become part of how you spend your years.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n Sometimes family is exhausting.<\/p>\n\n Sometimes it is noisy.<\/p>\n\n Sometimes I want everybody to leave me alone.<\/p>\n\n Sometimes I want another baby.<\/p>\n\n All of these things are true at once.<\/p>\n\n <section class=\"final\">\n But the one thing I am most definite about is this:<\/p>\n\n My husband and my children are my world.<\/p>\n\n And I am their world.<\/p>\n\n That cannot be bought.<\/p>\n\n It cannot be replicated somewhere else or in another human organization.<\/p>\n\n These are the people whose lives are tied to mine in the most intimate way.<\/p>\n\n My husband and I chose each other.<\/p>\n\n Our children came from us.<\/p>\n\n We wake up inside each other’s lives every day.<\/p>\n\n We know each other’s moods, habits, weaknesses, funny ways, needs and histories.<\/p>\n\n We worry about each other.<\/p>\n\n We build around each other.<\/p>\n\n We change our plans because of each other.<\/p>\n\n We carry each other through different seasons.<\/p>\n\n Some days all of that feels heavy.<\/p>\n\n Some days it feels like pure delight.<\/p>\n\n But whether the day is easy or difficult, they are still my people.<\/p>\n\n That is family.<\/strong> A life full of people I love, who love me, and who cannot simply be replaced.<\/p>\n <\/section>\n <\/article>\n\n <footer>\n Personal reflection.\n <\/footer>\n <\/main>\n<\/body>\n<\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do Children Make Us Happier? A Family Reflection Do Children Make Us Happier? A personal reflection on love, exhaustion, companionship, family life and the people who become our world. Today I really reached the depth of my human patience. Enough to make me ask myself some of the deepest human questions. You can’t reach these…<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/do-children-make-us-happier\/\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tbfbkm_featured_url":"","_tbfbkm_featured_mime":"","_tbfbkm_featured_type":"","_tbfbkm_featured_title":"","_tbfbkm_featured_poster_url":"","_tbfbkm_featured_mode":"","_tbfbkm_featured_music_video_url":"","_tbfbkm_featured_music_video_items":[],"_tbfbkm_featured_music_video_slide_duration":0,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","wds_primary_category":1,"footnotes":"","_tbfbkm_featured_dynamic_movie_id":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-random-tbu-1drop"],"tbfbkm_featured_media":null,"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118192"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118195,"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118192\/revisions\/118195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trottbaileyfamily.com\/1drop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}