Parental Alienation and How It Can Affect Your Divorce

 Posted on December 00,0000 in Child Custody

When you are going through a divorce, it can pretty much turn your life upside down. Though you may experience some stress and anger, there are ways that you can combat that stress and deal with your anger in a healthy way. Unfortunately, this is not what happens in all divorces. In some cases, one parent may have so much hate for the other parent that it overcomes the love that they have for their children. This is when parental alienation usually appears and it can be detrimental to your child’s wellbeing.

What Is Parental Alienation?

Parental alienation occurs when one parent tries to turn the children against the other parent. Most of the time, this happens when one parent is so angry at the other parent that they use deprecating comments, false allegations, and bribery to try to get the child to turn against the parent. Both the mother and the father are equally as likely to be the alienated and alienating parent. Typically, parental alienation occurs in families in which one or both parents have a personality disorder, but parental alienation can happen in any family.

Parental alienation is detrimental to children because the parent who initiates the alienation undermines the child’s relationship with the targeted parent. The child, who does not know any better, rejects the targeted parent and begins to believe that the parent is evil and untrustworthy, even when that is not the case. More disturbingly, children who are victims of parental alienation often report feelings of self-hatred, low self-esteem, depression and lack of trust.

Signs of Parental Alienation

There are many different ways your spouse can attempt to turn your child against you. Warning signs that your spouse may be trying to alienate your child from you include:

• Your child requests that you do not come to events;
• You are no longer listed as the parent to contact for school;
• Your child becomes combative and does not want to listen to you; and
• Your child repeats derogatory phrases that they heard from your spouse.

A DuPage County Divorce Lawyer Can Help

Parental alienation is never appropriate in any situation. Not only is it heartbreaking for you, but it is detrimental to your children. If you think your spouse may be trying to alienate you from your child, you should contact a skilled Aurora, IL divorce lawyer. At the Law Office of Matthew M. Williams, P.C., we can help you figure out a strategy to deal with your child’s other parent, but more importantly, we can help you work out a favorable parenting plan. To schedule a consultation and begin working on your case, call our office at 630-409-8184.

Sources:

https://goodmenproject.com/divorce/9-warning-signs-parental-alienation-cmtt/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/family-law-attorney/resolution-not-conflict/201802/parental-alienation-syndrome-what-is-it-and-who-does-it

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/family-law-attorney/co-parenting-after-divorce/201304/the-impact-parental-alienation-children