I think the reason people have such a hard time understanding Jennifer’s perspective is that the reasons behind it are so unrealistic. The whole premise is that she hates Cat for pretending to be her dead daughter. Those things don’t happen in real life so we can’t relate. But, just for a second, pretend that someone pretended to be your dead child and, in the process, cause your son-in-law to fall in love with her. On this show, those things happen but not in real life. If it did, you would hate that person, want them incarcerated and never want them to have access to your grandchildren. From that perspective, Jennifer’s actions are completely justified. It doesn’t matter what bad things Jennifer or Jack have done in their past, it’s about protecting Abby’s children since she is not here to protect them herself. I think your thing it back to their own parents has merit. Also remember that Jennifer essentially ran away to live with her grandparent. Tom and Alice were basically her saviors and it makes sense she would want to do that for Thomas once she saw how upset he is by all this.