What is Parental Alienation and How Does it Impact Children
Divorce is something which is unpleasant for whole families, not only the couple who are divorcing. Often children suffer many consequences of being caught up in the middle of two parents, especially when the divorce is very bitter and there are lots of negative emotions running high.
Something that has come up many times and in many cases of divorce is the subject of parental alienation. When a couple split, they will go to a solicitor in most cases like this solicitor Gloucester www.deeandgriffin.co.uk who specialises in family law. This will also help them to arrange things like the finances and the split of them, assets and of course, when there are children involved the custody of the children.
However, something that happens all too frequently in the case of an acrimonious divorce, is one parent manipulating the child or children to turn them against the other partner. This then leads to problematic behaviours from the children, who will then usually refuse to see the other parent.
There are lots of different ways that parental alienation can happen – for example, strategies often include things like bad-mouthing the other parent to the child, telling lies about the other parent, telling the child that the other parent was entirely at fault for the divorce, and encouraging the child to behave badly for the other parent and then rewarding that behaviour.
These are just a few examples and by no means an exhaustive list of all the methods of parental alienation. It is something that is done to push the other parent out and to create a barrier between the other person and their child.
Parental alienation in the long term is very bad for the child mentally. It is likened in some cases to programming a child with negative ideas and opinions of the other parent, similar to how a cult might work. In the long term, parental alienation can lead to problems for the child such as feeling neglected, having low self-esteem, having anger issues or lacking empathy for others.
Although it is an emotional time and of course it can be tempting to say things about someone who has hurt you, every effort should be made in order to help a child maintain a good relationship with both parents.
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