Child custody disputes can easily become contentious, with each parent thinking they know what’s best for their child. While these disagreements oftentimes can be sorted out through negotiations, sometimes these differences lead to manipulation and parental alienation. Parental alienation can be extremely harmful to your child and your relationship with them, too, giving your child false perceptions of you and blocking you from having meaningful contact with them.
But, unless you act, parental alienation won’t be stopped, and the damage it causes won’t be reversed. So, be bold, be brave, and be prepared to stand up to protect your child’s best interests.
Even though you can feel hopeless when your child turns against you and the other parent seems to block your every attempt to build and maintain a meaningful relationship with your child, there are steps you can take to bring parental alienation to a stop. This includes the following:
- Knowing the signs of parental alienation: You won’t be able to stop parental alienation if you don’t realize what it is. So, be on the lookout for common signs of alienation, including your child’s unwavering support of the other parent, the child’s unfair criticism of you, and efforts by the other parent to prevent you from communicating with your child. Once you start to spot signs of alienation, then you can get to work bringing it to a stop.
- Keep a written record: The best way to track the extent and details of parental alienation is to create a written record. By detailing each indication of parental alienation, you’ll be able to more easily recall them, which can be powerful during settlement negotiations and litigation.
- Request a child custody evaluation: If you don’t feel like you’re getting far in your own efforts to curtail parental alienation, then you might need help from a professional. You could secure counseling for your child, but the other parent will likely block those efforts, which is why you might want to consider a child custody evaluation. Here, a professional evaluates your family dynamics, observes parenting time, and interviews the child, parents, and collateral sources of information to determine what sort of custody arrangement is best for the child. This evaluation oftentimes uncovers parental alienation.
- Refrain from retaliation: When the frustrations associated with parental alienation take hold, it can be tempting to retaliate by bad mouthing the other parent in front of your child or even lashing out against your child for false statements that they’ve made about you or the other parent. But retaliating won’t do any good. In fact, it might cause additional harm to your child, and it could give the other parent evidence to use against you in a custody modification hearing. So, be careful with what you say, and turn to your attorney or your own mental health professional if you need to vent your frustrations.
Be aggressive to bring parental alienation to a stop
Fighting against alienation can be tough, but success is possible if you’re diligent and aggressive. But you can’t improvise your arguments, even if you think you have a handle on all the facts of your case. Therefore, before you file anything with the court to try to formally bring parental alienation to a stop, like a custody modification request, you need to fully prepare your arguments. So, now is the time to get to work developing the case necessary to protect your child’s best interests.
