Leaders who act like children fail all of us

Gege and Didi couldn’t stop laughing at bedtime. Every minute or so, more giggles pealed forth as my husband read from Dav Pilkey’s “Captain Underpants” series. We’d recently bought a set, but I hadn’t had a chance to read it to them yet.

“What was so funny?” I asked afterward.

“It’s very silly,” my husband told me, with a goofy grin on his face.

The next night, when it was my turn to read, I discovered why: potty humor, and lots of it, involving characters with names like Professor Pippy Pee-Pee Poopypants. (I challenge you to say it aloud without giggling.)

The humor is gentle, and never meanspirited, in contrast to what happened after Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader of North Korea, called President Trump a dotard. Trump sarcastically hit back on Twitter: “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat?’ Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend — and maybe someday that will happen!”

It seemed like a parody. Sadly, it wasn’t. The president sinks to schoolyard taunts, even though his careless words could set off a nuclear war.

Somewhere along the way, Trump forgot his manners, or maybe he never learned them at all. I don’t mean manners in the sense of using the correct fork at a fancy dinner party, or knowing when to bow and curtsy. Rather, manners as in commonly accepted standards of decency, of kindness and sensitivity.

He should heed the “Think First” lessons that Gege and Didi are getting in class, on how to manage their emotions, develop empathy for others and solve problems cooperatively, or World Kindness Day, celebrated earlier this week at their school and elsewhere.

Now, if we talk sternly to the boys, they stand up for themselves.

“Stop splashing,” I said during bath time. “You’re getting water everywhere.”

“You’re bullying me! You have to give us respect,” Gege said.

At first, I was taken aback. Couldn’t they just obey? And yet, I was glad that they were learning how to talk out their feelings, how to protest without resorting to childish insults of the kind that the president hurls around.

The world feels turned upside down, with adults acting like children — and in an even greater perversion, adults have gone after them.

Earlier this week, her voice quavering, wiping away tears, Beverly Young Nelson recounted meeting Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, when she was 15 years old. After offering her a ride home, he allegedly groped her in his car behind the restaurant where she worked as a waitress.

As victim after victim has come forward alleging sexual and harassment by a roll call of powerful men — including actor Kevin Spacey, comedian Louis C.K. and NPR’s Mike Oreskes — Nelson stands out because she was underage. Another girl, Leigh Corfman, was just 14 when the 32-year-old then-assistant district attorney allegedly brought her back to his house for a sexual encounter.

Fourteen? That’s when I was an eighth-grader, and that fall, a freshman in high school. Back then, I had crushes on classmates, read Sassy magazine, hoped I’d get to be first flute in the symphonic band and worked on the school literary magazine.

I’m fortunate that no one more than twice my age attempted to take advantage of me, at a time when I was still figuring myself out. Many young people aren’t as lucky.

Inspired by the #MeAt14 trending on Twitter — raising awareness about the age of consent — I looked through my old yearbooks. How gawky and halfgrown everyone seemed!

Although Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republican leaders have urged Moore to drop out of the race, some still defend him, calling the allegations a smear campaign. Moore — who fought gay marriage and referred to Islam as a “false religion” — could still win the Dec. 12 special election, despite the brave women sharing their stories.

I’ve felt that shock of betrayal — that disappointment in someone you thought valued you, your work and your ideas, but wanted only one thing from you after all. At least I was an adult by then.

Moore preyed on young and vulnerable girls, who have had to swallow their fear and shame for a lifetime. He was the adult, and he should known better — and so, too, every leader now failing us.

It seemed like a parody. Sadly, it wasn’t. The president sinks to schoolyard taunts, even though his ... words could set off a nuclear war.