Your child is the most important person to you. That means that the outcome of your child custody and visitation dispute may leave you feeling nervous about how your relationship with your child will be impacted. This is especially true if you feel like your child is making false statements about you. In fact, if this is happening, your child’s other parent may be exposing your child to parental alienation.
How do you identify parental alienation?
Parental alienation is a process where one of the parents manipulates a child to hurt the relationship between the child and the other parent. Alienating tactics are often used to try to restrict a parent’s access to their child, which may not be in the child’s best interests.
How does alienation occur?
Alienation can present in different ways. Each of the following may constitute alienating behavior:
- Lying to the child about the other parent
- Sharing intimate and embarrassing details about the parent’s relationship or marriage
- Failing to share information about the child with the other parent
- Withholding physical visitation or phone contact with the child from the other parent
- Leading the child to believe that they have been abused or neglected by the other parent
These are just a few of the ways that parental alienation occurs, so if you suspect manipulation, be on the lookout for behaviors that support your position.
What to do if you suspect alienation
If you feel that the second parent is subjecting them to parental alienation, there is no time to waste before intervening. A mental health professional who can speak to alienating behaviors and the impact they have on your child may be able to help. Also, you might want to know how to make legal arguments that show how parental alienation isn’t in the child’s best interests. That’s why you may want to reach out to a legal team to learn more about how to protect your child and your relationship with them.