The Silent Harm of Oversharing in the Name of “Support”

By Terry Loerch

In an era where personal trauma is often mistaken for personal branding, there's a fine line between advocacy and exploitation. I saw that line crossed in the worst way recently, a post on LinkedIn by a woman claiming to advocate for her child, yet doing the very thing an advocate should never do: violating her child’s privacy.

What made it worse?

Her professional title.

She works in stress management, wellness, and hiring.

Let that sink in.

This was not a post about advocacy.

It was a public execution of trust.

The Child Was Never the Focus

This woman shared her child’s private thoughts, actual written notes, and framed them within a post meant to shame her ex. She broadcast intimate details of her family’s pain for an audience, disguising it as empowerment. But if you looked closely, it wasn’t about the child at all. It was about her. Her feelings. Her pain. Her narrative.

What she did wasn’t protection. It was a projection.

The child, already dealing with the complexities of divorce or conflict, now becomes the centerpiece of public discourse, exposed, analyzed, and judged by strangers. That’s not brave parenting. That’s betrayal.

Abuse isn’t gendered, and Neither Is Accountability

Let’s kill the false dichotomy now: this is not about men vs. women. This isn’t about who suffers more in court. Abuse isn’t a gender war. It transcends gender, orientation, and identity. What matters is accountability, and it’s sorely missing in posts like these.

Publicly humiliating a co-parent does not make you a better one. Publicly weaponizing your child’s words doesn’t make you a survivor. It makes you part of the cycle. And platforms like LinkedIn, which were never meant to be therapy couches, have unfortunately become a stage for those who confuse emotional vomit for vulnerability.

A Professional Contradiction

Here’s the kicker.... the woman who made this post claims to work in stress-related hiring and trauma support. How can someone in such a position not see the contradiction?

If you promote stress-resilience and emotional intelligence in others while publicly airing your child’s trauma and family court complaints, then you're not supporting healing, you're commodifying harm. And that contradiction doesn’t just damage personal credibility. It undermines the very profession you're supposed to represent.

It begs the question.... if this is how you handle personal stress, how do you lead others through theirs?

The Real Impact, The Child’s Voice is Silenced

In this entire post, nowhere was the child’s voice truly honored. His handwriting was displayed, but not his consent. His feelings were mentioned, but not protected. He was not uplifted.

Imagine being that child ten years from now, Googling your name only to find your trauma turned into someone else’s empowerment badge.

This is not the world we should be building.

To the Enablers, You Are the Problem

Yes, I said it. If you applaud this behavior, like that post, or comment with blind solidarity without addressing the ethical issue at hand, you are part of the problem.

Advocacy does not mean enabling the exploitation of a child’s pain for personal narrative control. It means asking hard questions. Holding ourselves accountable.

Protecting the most vulnerable.

Even when it's uncomfortable.

Even when it’s someone “on your side.”

Let’s bring integrity back to advocacy.

Let’s respect children’s privacy.

Let’s do better.