When going into a co-parenting situation together with your ex-spouse, you may feel some trepidation at first. In most situations, parents will find a way to make things work for the sake of their kids.
However, in some cases, a parent may take it upon himself or herself to try alienating you from your children. What does this mean, and what can you do about it?
What is it and why does it happen?
The Psychiatric Times discusses parental alienation as a phenomenon. First of all, what is it? In short, parental alienation occurs when your co-parent attempts to get your child to dislike or even hate you.
Why does this happen? Parents will do this for various reasons, ranging from spiteful feelings toward you to a genuine belief that what they are doing is best for their child. In rare cases, they may not even be aware of what they are doing, but this does not happen often.
How does it happen?
How do they do it? Tactics will differ from situation to situation, but most often involve manipulation and deceit in some form. For example, your co-parent may lie or exaggerate about the reason for your divorce, placing much of the blame on you and making you out to be the villain of the story.
In extreme cases, the lies can be extreme, over-the-top and entirely out of hand. Your co-parent might lie to your child and say that you do not love them, or that you do not want to spend time with them.
If this is happening, you can take legal action in order to prevent your co-parent from doing even more damage.
