Four Warning Signs That Could Indicate Parental Alienation in Your Divorce

 Posted on December 20, 2017 in Child Custody

In most healthy relationships, parents will work together during a divorce to protect the best interests of their children. They communicate, either with one another directly or through their attorneys, and are sensitive to the feelings and needs of their child when negotiating the details of their parenting plan, especially when it comes to the other parent.

Sadly, this is not the experience that every family has during divorce. Instead, one parent ends up fighting against the other, asserting their parental rights in hopes that they can still preserve the bond they have with their child. These parents are often victims of parental alienation. Why is this problematic, how can you recognize it in your divorce, and what can you do if you suspect that it is happening to you? The following information explains further.

Defining Parental Alienation

Seen most often in high conflict divorces and separations, parental alienation is defined as a set of behaviors that one parent uses to erode the bond that the child has with the other parent. Manipulation and bullying, sometimes at extreme levels, are the most commonly used tactics, and they can have serious, life-long consequences for the child, especially if it is left unaddressed. It can rob a child of the warm and loving relationship they once had with the alienated parent, and it may even increase the child’s odds of a mental or psychological disorder.

Four Warning Signs of Parental Alienation

While there are many potential warning signs that can clue you in as to whether parental alienation is occurring in your divorce, some are more common and easier to spot than others. These are the ones that parents are encouraged to focus on. They include:

1. Sudden or extreme changes in your child’s behavior (i.e. becoming hostile or hateful toward you when they used to be loving and excited to see you);]
2. Visitation interference, which could take the form of temptations to get the child to skip their time with a targeted parent, a hostile parent speaking for the child and stating they do not want to visit, or the outright denial of a targeted parent’s time and access to the child;
3. A child that seems to know more about the divorce and its details than they should; and
4. The child starts to blame the targeted parent for the divorce, money troubles, or some other aspect that they do not or should not have information about.

Contact Our Wheaton Divorce Lawyers

Parental alienation can have both immediate and long-term consequences for both the child and the targeted parent. Sadly, parents who attempt to handle the situation alone may end up doing more harm than good, as the hostile parent will usually stop at nothing to deny access to the child. Schedule a personalized consultation with the Wheaton divorce lawyers at Davi Law Group, LLC and obtain the skilled assistance you need and deserve. Call 630-657-5052 today.

Source:

http://www.paawareness.com/what-is-pa.asp