Is Your Ex Turning Your Child Against You?

Parental alienation happens when one parent fully and successfully alienates a child from the other parent. In the Metro Detroit area, if you are fighting for child custody or seeking to modify a child custody order, and your ex-spouse is an alienating parent, you must be advised and represented by a Southfield parental alienation attorney.

When your ex is trying to alienate your child from you – and trying to violate your custody and child visitation rights for no good reason – it hurts everyone who is involved, and it almost always harms a child psychologically and emotionally.

Parental alienation intimidates or manipulates children into believing a loving parent is a bad parent and the cause of all their problems. Parental alienation is entirely unrelated to actual child abuse when a child rejects an abusive parent as a self-protection strategy.

What Should Fathers Know About Parental Alienation?

Parental alienation is the process through which a child becomes estranged from one parent due to psychological manipulation by the other parent. The estrangement may manifest as fear, hostility, or disrespect and may extend to other relatives or parties.

Parental alienation can affect children from infancy to their late teens. Both mothers and fathers can be alienating parents. However, according to the research, children are usually happier and more well-adjusted when they share meaningful, worthwhile relationships with both parents.

If your ex-spouse – with no justification – has restricted your child’s relationship with you or turned your child against you, or if your child withdraws from or refuses to communicate with you, it may be time to seek a modification of the child custody order.

If you believe that your ex is alienating your child from you, you may ask the court for custody of the child, or you may ask for a visitation schedule that gives you more time with your child. The first step is discussing your options with a Southfield parental alienation lawyer.

What Are the Signs and Indications of Parental Alienation?

An alienating parent fosters a child’s alienation from the other parent in several ways, such as criticizing or undermining the other parent in the child’s presence. Alienated children come to fear, hate, and reject the other parent as someone they should ignore and avoid.

Child psychiatrist Richard Gardner coined the term “parental alienation syndrome” in 1985 and described what he called its behavioral components:

  1.  Alienated children are full of hostility toward the targeted parent, deny any positive past experiences with that parent, and reject all communication.
  2.  Alienated children’s explanations for their hostility toward the targeted parent are often frivolous. Some children also make wild claims about a parent that can’t be true.
  3.  An alienated child reflexively and automatically supports the alienating parent and may even idealize and perceive that parent as perfect. The child does not believe that each parent has positive and negative qualities.
  4.  Although they seem unduly influenced by the alienating parent, alienated children may insist that rejecting the targeted parent is their free choice and deny that the alienating parent has influenced that choice.
  5.  Alienated children act rudely and spitefully toward the targeted parent. They seem to carry no feelings of guilt about treating that parent harshly.
  6.  In a parental conflict, alienated children will reflexively side with the alienating parent and will not consider the targeted parent’s viewpoint.
  7.  Alienated children often repeat ideas and phrases the alienating parent has used. When speaking about the targeted parent, they may appear to speak in a robotic or scripted manner.
  8.  The hatred of the targeted parent may extend to that parent’s family. The child may reject and avoid cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents merely because they are related to the targeted parent.

How Do Attorneys Help Fathers Fight Parental Alienation?

In the Metro Detroit area, if your ex has alienated your child from you, and your custody and visitation rights are at risk because of parental alienation, it is vital to discuss your case immediately with a Southfield parental alienation attorney.

If you take the matter to court, your lawyer must show how the alienating parent has fostered and contributed to parental alienation. Your lawyer should carefully document how your child’s mother acted to turn your child against you.

Your lawyer should then explain to the court how parental alienation developed and offer suggestions for improving the situation. Your lawyer may call on a child psychiatrist as an expert witness or even ask a mental health consultant to join your legal team.

What is the Court’s Highest Priority?

Children have the right to positive, healthy relationships with both parents. When a Michigan court hears a case involving a child, ensuring the child’s best interests is that court’s highest priority.

If you ask the court for custody or seek to spend more time with your child in response to parental alienation, you and your lawyer must prove that a court finding in your favor will serve the child’s best interests.

Proving parental alienation may be part of a legal strategy to show the court what is in the child’s best interests. A Southfield parental alienation lawyer will help you review your options and take the appropriate legal action.

We Represent Fathers and Fight for Their Rights

Fathers who are involved in family law disputes need strategic legal guidance. At the American Divorce Association for Men (ADAM), our extensive experience has equipped us to help fathers fight for their children and parental rights. We have been working for fathers since 1988.

We are divorce attorneys for men. We advocate for men’s rights in divorce, child custody, visitation, and child support cases. If you need to have the court’s child custody order modified because of parental alienation or for any other reason, call us promptly at 248-290-6675.

We can often settle family law disputes through private negotiations. If no voluntary out-of-court settlement is forthcoming, a Southfield fathers’ rights attorney at the American Divorce Association for Men will take your case to court and fight for you aggressively and effectively.