"As a parent..."

Hmmm...like the others, agree and disagree. I remember not being a parent and it wasn't that I didn't care about people or children in particular, but your response to crime directed at children does change because you develop a visceral need to protect your child above anything else in your life. You see this and you don't just think how awful it is that someone would mug a child, but also, how will I protect my child if this happens to children these days?

For some people being a parent is the main part of their identity. I know many individuals who struggled to conceive and now they have a child will regularly start comments with ‘as a parent’. As they were traumatised when they thought they couldn’t have children they want to shout about being a parent.

Hmmm, yes and no.

On one hand being a parent doesn't make you more empathetic or anyhting - that would be ridiculous to suggest. However my feelings have definitely highened in respect of child related things since having kids. I went through about 5 years of donating to every child related charity going, if there were sad mistreated kids on a advert I was paying. So I definitely think it changes the emotional response you might have, maybe because you somehow feel closer to the situation or because suddenly it becomes much more relateable.

You are overthinking this and looking for things to be offended at.

She’s giving her opinion on it as a parent. It means she’s imagining how she’d feel if it were her child. It’s perfectly normal.

There are times where "as a parent" is relevant and times that it's not. I don't think either of you are unreasonable.

Since becoming a parent my response to some topics has changed and it's not that I care any more about the topic/situation because I'm a mother. It's like a change in emotional reaction and I wonder if on a subconscious level some parents put their child in the situation of the child in the situation and that's why they respond that way. Things involving children being harmed is one of those topics that despite years of professional training and experience with children, the gut emotional reaction felt different once having my DC.

Agree with you. Remember Andrea Leadsom getting slated for effectively saying she'd be a better candidate for Tory leadership than Theresa May because she is a mother. V lazy.