Thank you to everyone for your helpful words. I think I can find the balance between blending or speaking my mind. When opinions are opposed, she shuts down because there's nothing to talk about. Fluffy talk is boring and pointless, to both of us. And I know when we've hit that point, because the cell phone comes out and the wall is thrown up. Which means I'm there to listen, but then she gets annoyed if I sit there and say nothing. It's difficult for me to have empathy for Christine Ford, since I don't believe her. I suppose I could have deflected the conversation into something similar where I could have said the words to my daughter that she clearly wanted to hear. So I need to learn when the question is "what do you think mom?' The real question is: how can you be supportive to me with regard to this issue?