{"id":5857,"date":"2026-04-10T06:26:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/?p=5857"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:26:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:26:24","slug":"he-didnt-want-a-baby-he-wanted-approval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/?p=5857","title":{"rendered":"He Didn\u2019t Want a Baby\u2014He Wanted Approval"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"53\" data-end=\"232\">When I told my ex I might be pregnant, he was suddenly all in\u2014bringing snacks, rubbing my feet, talking about how our lives were about to \u201cchange forever.\u201d I thought it was sweet.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"234\" data-end=\"255\">Then I took the test.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"257\" data-end=\"266\">Negative.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"268\" data-end=\"430\">I told him, expecting relief or at least a normal reaction. Instead, he just stared at me and quietly said, \u201cCould you take another one? Maybe a different brand?\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"432\" data-end=\"463\">That\u2019s when everything clicked.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"465\" data-end=\"500\">He wasn\u2019t excited about <em data-start=\"489\" data-end=\"494\">our<\/em> baby.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"502\" data-end=\"685\">He wanted a baby because he thought it would impress his parents\u2014like it would prove he was finally \u201cgrown up\u201d and convince them to let him move back home and start his life properly.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"687\" data-end=\"732\">In his mind, a child wasn\u2019t a responsibility.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"734\" data-end=\"752\">It was a shortcut.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"754\" data-end=\"943\">That moment changed how I saw him completely. What I thought was love and support was really just a plan\u2014one that had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with his need for approval.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"945\" data-end=\"1008\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">I\u2019m just glad I found out the truth before it became permanent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I told my ex I might be pregnant, he was suddenly all in\u2014bringing snacks, rubbing my feet, talking about how our lives were about to \u201cchange forever.\u201d I thought it was sweet. Then I took the test. Negative. I told him, expecting relief or at least a normal reaction. Instead, he just stared at &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5859,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857\/revisions\/5859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}