Parental alienation, the process whereby one parent manipulates their child in hopes of driving a wedge between the child and their other parent, is more common than most people realize. In fact, one study estimates that 22 million American parents are subjected to alienating behaviors, and that nearly 4 million children are moderately or severely alienated from one of their parents. Therefore, you and your child may be subjected to alienating behavior without realizing it.
You have to be aware of your child’s behaviors and your interactions with the other parent. Classic signs of alienation to be on the lookout for include:
- Your child exhibits unjustified hostility toward you and your relatives.
- Your child seems to hold opinions that mimic those of the other parent.
- Despite their sometimes-egregious behavior toward you, your child fails to exhibit any feelings of guilt.
- Your child views the other parent in an unwavering positive light.
- The other parent is constantly talking poorly about you in ways that are accessible by your child.
- The other parent withholds important information about the child from you, including that related to their medical care, schooling, and extracurricular activities.
- The other parent feeds the child false information, including that you don’t love and don’t care about the child.
- The other parent often creates scheduling conflicts that forces the child to choose one parent over the other, thus putting you in a position where you can’t win because spending time with your child may take them away from an activity that they’d rather engage in.
- The other parent limits the amount of contact you have with the child.
Don’t let parental alienation ruin your relationship with your child
Parental alienation can have extremely harmful effects on children and their relationships with their parents. To protect your child, then, you need to act to bring parental alienation to a stop.
