Parental Alienation Shows Up Through Access Manipulations

This weeks episode of The Divorce Recovery Show with Diane Valiquette, Diane goes into an example of parental alienation by manipulating child access. She illustrates some of the drama and problems that are common using one of the cases she has seen. While parental alienation is practiced by both men and women, it is done more often by women than men.

What often happens when couples separate and divorce is that they are often blinded by the acrimonious feelings they harbour and cannot focus on the optimal goal of serving the best interests of the children. This creates a lot of confusion, guilt, anger and behaviours for the children for decades to come.

Parents for some reason forget or do not understand that the child is not divorcing the other parent. They did not choose to separate from them, they still love both of their parents. When one parent talks poorly of the other they are in fact hurting the child. Children need both parents in their lives and coparenting in a collaborative way is always in the best interests of the child.

When people start alienating the child and hindering parental access and forces resolution through the courts, it can take years and thousands of dollars that many families cannot afford. This also increases the damage inflicted upon the children. In the initial phases a judge may share their opinion but no motion will be filed forcing the parents to cooperate in the best interests of the children. Far too often, the alienated parent will give up either because of lack of money or just pure defeat.

Parental Alienation is a real problem and now even has a diagnosis called Parental Alienation Syndrome. There still no legal routes set up to make this injustice go away and give the alienated parents support and maintaining ongoing contact with their children. It is a social tragedy. If you need help for yourself or kids please contact The Clarity Divorce Centre

Be sure to check out part 2 of the Parental Alienation mini series Diane has created.