As America struggles to acclimate into their “new pandemic normal,” parents are faced with the task of figuring out how to entertain their children who are no longer at school.  Ivanka Trump, who is the advisor to President Donald Trump (and happens to also be the President’s daughter) is not immune to those struggles.

On Tuesday, she posted a photo to Twitter offering an idea on what to do with the children at home while people are in isolation.  She wrote, “Staying home today w/ kids? Plan living room camp out! Throw a bedsheet over some taped together brooms. Plan a menu & ‘pack’ sandwiches, salads (S’mores optional). A fun activity that also brings family together for a meal! Share your ideas & use the hashtag #TogetherApart”

With this post, she included a photo of her and her children under a bedsheet tent. 

It’s a great photo and a great idea.  Every mom and dad should – at some point – make a bedsheet tent with their kids. Now is as good time as any. However, the reaction to this photo online was really over the top.  People questioned whether she built the tent, whether she had a right to self-isolate with her children while others are financially struggling, and questioned her father’s immigration policies.  Also, when someone discovered the photo she used was two years old, people acted like it was some sort of scandal.  I guess the Twitter police believe every photo must be posted within thirty seconds or it’s evidence of bad character.

Or, did they not want her to post it at all?  It’s hard to keep all this straight.

Here’s just a sampling of the twenty thousand comments.  Yes, twenty thousand.

“Congratulations on being rich & being married to a guy actually profiting off this catastrophe There are actually people suffering. Without enough food. Without nannies or cooks or cleaning people to help with the kids. Who are forced to work or risk losing their job/business.”

And, cool tent Ivanka, I hope you thanked whichever one of your servants set it up for you

I have an idea that will bring your family close together but it involves a judge, a jury, and some very sturdy bars. #TogetherApart

Believe me, these were not the worst.  Others posted photos of dead immigrants. We live in a terribly complicated and scary time.  This is not the time for us to be petty and small when it comes to people on the other side of the aisle.

Let’s give each other some grace and suspend our skepticism, disbelief, and rudeness until all of this is over. 

And if your idea of social commentary is insulting a mother posting a picture of her children, you might want to use this time to re-evaluate your approach to politics and life in general.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

About The Author

Mark was a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, and served as the national coordinator. He left the organization to work more broadly on expanding the self-governance movement beyond the partisan divide. Mark appears regularly on television in outlets as diverse as MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC. He’s highly sought after for the tea party perspective from print and electronic media outlets, from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Examiner, Politico and the The Hill. Mark blogs at MarkMeckler.com, and his opinion editorials regularly run in many of the leading political newspapers both on and offline. Mark has a BA in English from San Diego State University and graduated with honors from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1988. He practiced real estate and business law for almost a decade. For the last eleven years of his legal career he specialized in Internet advertising law. When not fighting for the future of our nation, Mark is an avid horseman, and lives in rural northern California with his wife Patty and two children.

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