A 30-year-old lady who is having a child with her 60-year-old husband has spoken out about the horrible vitriol they face on social media, including trolls who predict he will be dead by the time their kid is five.
Larry and Mindy Mikla, both from Florida, began dating in 2015. They met when Mindy was involved in a car accident and Larry, who was a police officer at the time, arrived to assist her. Despite their three-decade age difference, they fell in love and married one year later.
The pair is now expecting their first baby together, but after expressing the happy news on social media in December, they began to receive harsh criticism from users who said things like, ‘That child is not going to have a father in five to ten years,’ and, ‘It’s unfortunate the kids won’t get to see his father live long.’
Now, Larry and Mindy have spoken up about the horrifying internet abuse they’ve received as a result of their age gap, involving comments like “he seems like her grandpa” and “their romance is filthy.”
According to Mindy, who has over 265,000 YouTube subscribers, she created videos for a whole year before introducing Larry to her channel – and right away, she saw a barrage of negative replies, which she wasn’t expecting for.
She expressed that she began recording films of herself and people kept questioning who she was speaking to behind the camera. She had been on YouTube for a year before she introduced Larry, but when people started asking, that’s when she revealed him.
A lot of people were extremely supportive, but they also got a lot of resentment and hatred for the age difference, which was a bit of a surprise.
She wasn’t ready and wasn’t prepared. She has built a thick skin and is alright now, but it was a long road for her. And the hatred has only grown when they revealed last year that they were expecting a baby together.
The pregnant mother added that she assumes social media is becoming a less tolerant environment. Since announcing their pregnancy, they’ve received a new storm of criticism, with individuals stating how selfish the choice is.
The interesting thing about the hate and harsh remarks is that they have never had someone come up to them and say this to their face. It’s simply keyboard warriors. They wouldn’t say it to their faces, but they don’t mind typing it.
Although Mindy acknowledged that social media had some wonderful qualities, such as interacting with people, she described it as a ‘cruel and judgemental world.’ She added that one can find common ground with other individuals and not feel so alone, which is a nice element of social media.
However, it is nasty – it can be a really harsh and judgemental environment, which is difficult to cope with. If she could just tell our internet detractors one thing, it would be to be courteous.
Despite all of the bad feedback, the pair attempts to look at the positive reactions.
Larry explained that it’s sort of remarkable to witness the overflow of love that they get. It’s amazing to have so many individuals leave good remarks like that for them and wish them success.
‘The folks who leave comments like, “I really loved your videos,” or “I’m having a tough time and you guys got me through it,” or “I had exams and I was stressed and you helped lessen my worry,” are why the pair does what they do.
Mindy concluded that they don’t make films or publish images for comments. They do it since it’s something they enjoy doing, and they enjoy sharing their life with people in the hopes that it may be applicable to someone else.
