{"id":465,"date":"2026-02-12T21:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T21:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=465"},"modified":"2026-02-12T21:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T21:15:09","slug":"room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=465","title":{"rendered":"Room"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\"><em>Am I to clean this room today? <\/em><br>She asks, eyebrows arched,<br>pointing to the closed door <br>of my child's usually open room.<br><br>I struggle to find<br>the right words to explain.<br>We've never had to<br>hold a boundary like this before.<br><br><em>Well, soooo, she uh<\/em>\u2014 [I bear my teeth]<em><br>She didn't keep it clean so<\/em>\u2014 [I wince]<em><br>She is not to<\/em> \u2014 [I shrug, hands fly up]<em><br>We didn't want<\/em> \u2014 [my brows knit]<br><br>The cleaning leader shakes her head<br>then cuts in and exerts her sway:<br><em>No problem, Ms.<br>Say no more; I got you.<\/em><br><br>With a knowing smile, she swivels<br>on the heel of her <br>immaculate Air Jordan 1s<br>calling out: <em>Not today, ladies.<\/em><br><br>I can hear the <br>kind-hearted smirk<br>in her warm voice<br>as she reunites with her team.<br><br>I sense a familiar \"Ahh!\" <br>A ripple of understanding as<br>head nods flow like a current <br>through the all-female crew.<br><br>Parenting<br>is Hard.<br>Feeling Seen<br>is a gift.<br><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cRoom,\u201d a poem on mutual understanding on the vagaries of parenting and boundaries. Written February 12, poem 043 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo: &#8220;No Grone Ups All Oud!&#8221; by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[117,118,38,9,40,10,70],"class_list":["post-465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-poems","tag-adulting","tag-boundaries","tag-community","tag-humor","tag-kids","tag-parenting","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=465"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions\/476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}