I just realized that I never thought about what Regina thought when she realized Neal was way older then Emma. Because she knew she had Henry around 17/18 years old in prison.
At first, before learning about Neal, she probably thought Emma had a boyfriend in high-school and ended up with a teen pregnancy while also being a criminal. So a very careless and untrustworthy child in her eyes.
Then she found out this older dude started dating an underaged Emma, got her pregnant and abandoned her because some random dude told him he should. And that HE was the reason she ended up with stolen watches Emma had to take the fall for.
I wonder if, in theory, in univers, she would've thought Emma and her had more in commun then she thought. Both being in relationship with older man when very young. The difference being Emma was groomed, Regina was forced to marry. Emma might not be aware of how wrong it was. Regina knew how wrong her situation was.
I wonder if they built Emma character with the idea of her being aware that it was wrong. Because it felt like she acted as if it was normal and ok for a maybe in his mid to late 20's looking guy (who's actually probably 100+ who knows) to start dating a 16/17 year old and impregnate her then put her in prison. Even baby aside, it would still be F-up. But she acted like it was... ok. And no one reacted. For Regina it was F-up too but we can argue that in the enchanted forest it was viewed as ok. But what happened to Emma was not there.
I firmly believed she saw what happened to Regina as morality VERY wrong. But did she saw the same for herself ?