When our children do it, we shut it down. Mean-spirited mocking is something that most parents will eventually witness their child doing, but mothers who are trying to raise kind and empathetic children , usually don’t let it slide.

We pull our child aside, explain why mocking is hurtful and help them find a more helpful, productive way to express themselves, while also considering the perspectives and emotions of other people. When the President mocks someone, the moms of America can’t pull him aside. But they can, and are, taking to Twitter to let him know it’s not right. On Tuesday night, President Trump stood behind a POTUS podium and mocked Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who says she was sexually assaulted by President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, at a party when they were in high school in the 1980s. “How’d you get home? I don’t remember. How’d you get there? I don’t remember. Where was the place? I don’t remember,” Trump said before a Mississippi crowd Tuesday night in a parody of Dr. Ford’s testimony regarding the night she says she was assaulted.
Mothers across the political spectrum were unimpressed with Trump’s speech, and said so on the President’s favorite social media platform, Twitter.
Asha Dornfest, author of Parent Hacks: 134 Genius Shortcuts for Life with Kids , noted that a young boy can be seen in the background as Trump is mocking Dr. Ford. “I am heartbroken for him, and for all of our children,” Dornfest wrote. Our children need to see kindness and respect modeled by mom and dad at home, and by adults in positions of power. That’s not something the children in the crowd got to see during Trump’s speech.
Evangelical author Jen Hatmaker, a mom of five, found the President’s mockery (and the dark laughter that followed) to be at odds with her values as a woman of faith.
During his speech, President Trump implored the crowd to “Think of your son, think of your husband” as being in Kavanaugh’s shoes. For self-described #boymom Jennifer, Trump’s showing empathy for the accused while mocking the accuser did not sit well. “All he is worried about is what the future of our sons look[s] like,” she wrote, adding that the President doesn’t seem concerned about how American women who have been through sexual assault feel seeing the nation’s leader insulting a woman who came forward.
Mother and grandmother Karen Tosado understands why victims of sexual assault don’t come forward, but also the pain that having to carry the experience alone, without a chance for justice, causes them. Her own mother went through it, and she’s not impressed with the President’s comments.
Milena, whose Twitter bio lists her a mother from Wales, made a good point about the possible ramifications of the mocking of Dr. Ford, suggesting that his actions may make it harder for young victims of sexual violence to tell their parents. “His supporters are cheering that on,” she wrote. “How can their daughters, sons, wives, husbands go to them now if they suffered an assault? They will never be believed by them.”
Closer to home, New-York based mom and Deputy Editor Huffington Post Personal, Emily McCombs, noted that today may be a hard day for some of us. “Sending love to every survivor today who doesn’t know how to exist in a country where our leaders mock our pain and suffering,” she wrote. Because as women, so many of America’s mothers can relate to Dr. Ford’s story. We have to take care of ourselves today, so that we can keep taking care of our children. So that we can teach them not to do what the President did on Tuesday, and to offer empathy and kindness instead.

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