{"id":331,"date":"2023-04-11T23:50:25","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T22:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thingsistillremember.wordpress.com\/?p=331"},"modified":"2023-08-26T22:05:14","modified_gmt":"2023-08-26T20:05:14","slug":"dad-on-the-answer-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/index.php\/2023\/04\/11\/dad-on-the-answer-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"Dad on the answering machine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"604\" height=\"604\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/wickedlola_evil_telephone_c5c576d0-8790-4519-92e0-0130cb557337.png?resize=604%2C604&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-588\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/wickedlola_evil_telephone_c5c576d0-8790-4519-92e0-0130cb557337.png?w=604&amp;ssl=1 604w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/wickedlola_evil_telephone_c5c576d0-8790-4519-92e0-0130cb557337.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/wickedlola_evil_telephone_c5c576d0-8790-4519-92e0-0130cb557337.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So I return to my home one day and see that my dad has called. He\u2019s left a message on the answering machine. As always he sounds exasperated. As if I\u2019m never in or I don\u2019t call him straight back, which is not the case. Straight away I feel small and nervous and in desperate need to get this over with. To call him back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am 53 years old, financially independent with my own business and a grown up daughter. But I\u2019m not wanting to do this. Because I know I always come away upset. Something is always just not right. He just can\u2019t hold it in. Shut his fucking mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This particular time whatever the conversation was initially about I happen to mention in passing we have got a little chihuahua now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I might as well have been 17 the way my father spoke to me. I\u2019d done the stupidest thing in the universe. Didn\u2019t I know that they shit and pissed everywhere? Why oh why? My carpets would smell. I\u2019d have to take them for walks. Blah fucking blah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One time I told my dad my daughter might go down  the social work route when she finished Uni. His and his wife&#8217;s reaction warranted it&#8217;s own drama. It&#8217;s own fucking film. I held the phone away from my head and thought &#8216;how the fuck dare you?&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I only wish I&#8217;d said it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So I return to my home one day and see that my dad has called. He\u2019s left a message on the answering machine. As always he sounds exasperated. As if I\u2019m never in or I don\u2019t call him straight back, which is not the case. Straight away I feel small&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5,6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-i-remember-in-my-50s","category-i-remember-in-my-forties","category-i-remember-in-my-thirties","category-i-remember-in-my-twenties"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/wickedlola_evil_telephone_c5c576d0-8790-4519-92e0-0130cb557337.png?fit=604%2C604&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":590,"href":"https:\/\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions\/590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thethingsiremember.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}