It is one of the most wrenching experiences a mother or father can endure: parental alienation. It exists when one parent emotionally manipulates their child into believing that the other parent is a bad person. The result of parental alienation is hostility exhibited by the child toward the parent unfairly cast as bad, evil, abusive or all of the above.
An article in Parent Herald points out that a recent study shows that more than 22 million U.S. parents are at risk of becoming victims of parental alienation. As you might expect, the phenomenon often occurs leading up to and during a contentious divorce with a child custody dispute.
According to a report from The Good Man Project, parental alienation is too often ignored or unnoticed by family law courts.
It can also be difficult for a person to effectively make accusations of parental alienation in a child custody case, the Parent Herald article states. The risk is that the charge might fall on deaf ears in court and that hostility in not only the legal proceedings will increase, but that co-parenting will become even more difficult.
Clearly, if parental alienation will be or could be a factor in your child custody matters, you should discuss the possibility with your Dallas family law attorney. An experienced and skilled lawyer will help you protect yourself and your children as custody matters are negotiated or litigated.