If you are going through a separation from your spouse, you are bound to go through many rough patches. The involvement of children in the whole matter is even more complicated. For a child, co-parenting would be the most suitable. However, it is sometimes impossible.
Your spouse may interfere in your relationship with your child. As a result, the court may decide parenting in favor of your spouse. In situations like this, parental alienation comes to the limelight.
In this article, you will learn about dealing with parental alienation and laws against parental alienation. You will also know what to do about parental alienation if the situation comes to this with your spouse.
What is Parental Alienation?
Parental alienation refers to psychological manipulation. When your spouse is using words or actions to develop misperceptions about you in your child’s mind, it is called parental alienation. One parent usually does this hideous act to win the custody battle by ruining the child’s relationship with the other parent.
The main goal of parental alienation by one parent is to harm the child’s view over the other parent. As a result, the child may itself want to live with the person responsible for parental alienation.
Moreover, the victim’s parent may end up losing the custody battle, and the visitation facilities are sometimes harmed as well. The children may even build a negative and harmful perception of the parent who has been alienated. In the long run, this greatly harms the cognitive and emotional upbringing of the child.
During a custody battle, the court usually takes the involved child’s best interest into account. As a result, one parent who seeks custody may end up manipulating the child to turn the verdict of the court and wishes of the child into his or her favor.
What Are The Outcomes of Parental Alienation?
Losing the right to visitation can be one of the major ways parental alienation affect you as a parent. There are other ways the law may go against you in this matter.
Your Children Testifying Against You
This would probably be the toughest challenge to overcome. When a child is manipulated, it is basically brainwashed to testify against you. Therefore, your child will end up taking the side of your spouse. Eventually, your child will be against you to be in favor of your spouse.
Misconception Can Ruin Your Reputation
Feeding lies to the public, family members, and children is how parental alienation works. As a result, many people who know you will start having misperceptions about you. Eventually, they, as well as your child, will testify against you in court. This can easily ruin your reputation for the rest of your life.
It could be Dangerous for Your Child to Live with Your Spouse
The alienating parents can convince your child to stay with them as they can claim to be safe for the child. However, the contrary may be true. As a result, alienating a child from a parent will be kept in a harmful environment that is unsafe.
You may Lose Every Right Over Your Child
Eventually, losing the custody battle for parental alienation can affect you in any decision-making power over your child. You can never keep your child with you. If the allegations against you are too strong yet dishonest, you can even lose visitation rights.
Eventually, you not only lose to keep your child with you but also lose the right to see your own child. Therefore, it is crucial to have proper strategies to fight parental alienation.
What to do about Parental Alienation: 5 Parental Alienation Tactics to Win The Battle Against Your Spouse
Now, you know what allegations can be brought against you and what the outcomes can be from parental alienation help. You need to know how to fight this battle to keep your child with you. Here are 5 tactics to fight this battle against your spouse, who you are about to divorce.
Starting Small
Alienating child from father or mother can take an extreme turn when the kids do not want to see you at all. The key here is to start small and keep things simple. Instead of fighting against your spouse, you need to build bonding opportunities with your child.
The bonding system needs to be simple and small. You cannot expect to do grand things for your kid when the kid is not willing to meet you at all. You can send a thoughtful holiday card or a birthday card with a small present. Scheduling weekly video or audio calls can help in the process as well.
Staying involved with the life of your child can bring significant outcomes for you. In this regard, you can even request frequent supervised visits, even if the duration is shorter. Showing up for school events and activities can be helpful as well.
However, you need to ensure that you have the legal approval to visit your child. Starting to build small bonding opportunities with your child in the initial stages can give your kid the necessary confidence in you.
Do not Involve Your Children in The Fight Against Parental Alienation
While you look for small bonding opportunities with your child, you should not involve your child in the battle against your spouse. It is essential to leave the child to its place and not let it take part in all the legal drama.
Judges consider such allegations against one parent seriously. Therefore, if your child is somehow caught in the middle of the legal cases, the allegations against you may end up proven in court. As a result, you can conduct activities to build a healthy relationship with your child with little things and not include your child in any courtroom activities.
Gather Witnesses to Testify in Your Favor
Your own evidence and witnesses can strongly help you in the case. If one parent is throwing false allegations against you, the people involved in the child’s life are surely observing behavioral changes in the child. You can reach out to them and ask for their support by explaining all the concerns you may have for your child.
Again, leaving your child out of the process is extremely important. However, you will need to listen to your lawyer’s suggestions, whether there is any short interview needed with the child and witnesses or not.
Document Your Evidence Accordingly
You cannot expect to prove your innocence without proper evidence. Documentation plays an extremely significant role in this aspect.
You should be in charge of collecting all the documents. Any lawyer you hire can assist you in the process. It is crucial to document any interaction with the alienating parent. These interactions can be through email, phone calls, text messages, and social media instant messaging. You can keep screenshots and print out these pieces of evidence to show in the court when your ex is wrongfully criticizing you.
Request Judicial Intervention
Your first strategy should be to build a strong relationship with your child and gather evidence to prove against the alienation. If your ex is still unwilling to stop, you will have to reach out to the family court.
In the family court, filing for a modification or contempt can start your process to fight alienation. Sometimes, you may have to file a case for child custody modification. A judge from the family court will understand that an extreme false allegation against another parent can mentally harm the child.
You can also hire a professional family lawyer to help you guide through the whole process. A family lawyer can help you in gathering evidence, witness, and file a case in the family court on your behalf.
Conclusion
Parental alienation can greatly affect the mental health of your child. Moreover, it can greatly harm any custodial and visitation right to your child. Therefore, it is imperative to know what to do about parental alienation. The 5 tactical approaches mentioned in this article can be of great assist in fighting the issue with your ex.
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