Dan Saltzstein: I can’t believe I’m asking this but how do I explain this news to my daughter without explaining “hush money to a porn star”

I can’t believe I’m asking this but how do I explain this news to my daughter without explaining “hush money to a porn star”

I’m totally serious, I can’t wrap my brain around how

I just did this for a 4yo. He had a secret relationship with someone else while married to a lady named Melania, and he paid her money to keep it secret while pretending it was for something else. You can leave out porn star

Paid someone to keep a bad thing secret?

Too vague. “Someone?” “Bad thing?”

Paid a woman not to talk about their affair?

That works, I think

A WOMAN

He paid a magazine money to not run a story about bad things he did that only they knew about.

“bad things” won’t fly

And I take it you want to stop short of the concept of "infidelity." Maybe "that he wasn't being a good dad after Barron was born and wasn't spending time at home with his wife and baby the way dads should"?

I started off by saying, “okay you know how Trump has been on trial—“ and my kid interrupted “yeah, he’s been on trial a lot lately” 😂

lol

Ain’t no burn like an adolescent’s offhand burn

Get them out on the campaign trail! (Also, update: I asked my wife and she was like, we’re telling her the truth. She knows what sex is, that porn exists and she needs to know what he’s capable of. Sounds good to me.)

I told the 9yo that he was found guilty of making fake records about doing something not great that you’ll learn about later, and that 12 people listened to all the evidence and decided he was guilty. A good day for our system, that nobody is above the law. She went, oh ok what’s for dinner.

“doing something not great” is going to get followup questions from my almost 12 yr old

The three years difference between the kids is a big one! Can you say something like “he was cheating on his wife and paid her to not say anything right before the election. And he made fake papers to help him out. making those fake papers and trying to cover it up - that’s against the law.”

Yes, that might work. She gets cheating on a spouse.

Maybe tell her the actual truth, which is that he had sex with someone and paid her to keep quiet? Just told my 9 year old that. You don’t have to talk about Stormy Daniels being a porn star, although you should also tell your kids what porn is

The average 9YO may have actually already seen online porn. You are exactly right. Direct. Honest. Repeating the lesson that sex workers can still be raped and no matter who it is, consent is necessary.

"Paid off someone with damaging information to win the election, never mind what that information was"

I appreciate the attempt but that “never mind” is going to have the opposite effect

...fair

FWIW, she wasn't working that night, & has testified that she didn't actually want to have sex with him—I think I'd tell my kids (if they were still little!) that he "went out" with a woman who wasn't his wife, lied about it so people would vote for him, & then broke the law trying to hide his lie.

Ok, that’s not bad. She understands cheating on someone. That might fly.

I had to talk with my then not-quite-13-yo daughter about "grab 'em by the pussy," and wow have we all had to develop a very specific set of skills...!

Reminds me of clinton's cigar sex, which i asked my mom about ages 9

“Paid someone who he thought he could take advantage of to be silent about taking advantage of them”

How did parents explain the Clinton impeachment without explaining... you know?

I used “secret girlfriend.” They understood, and I didn’t have to drop those other details.

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