What is Parental Alienation?

I hear people accuse the other party of this all the time." He or she is alienating my kids from me". I usually calmly look at my client and say, "ok, tell me how"? Most of the time what I hear is, "I called the kids and they did not answer the phone", or "she brought my daughter back 10 minutes late from her visitation". Ok, take a deep breath, and let's look at this a little more objectively to more clearly define what is and is not parental alienation.

Parental Alienation is generally defined as: One parent deliber­ately damages, and in some
cases destroys, the previously healthy, loving relationship between his or her child and the child's other parent.Four Myths of Parental Alienation, Richmond County Bar Association Journal, Feb
2005.

So what does this mean exactly? The key word is that the action is deliberate. I argue, telling
your kids the other parent does not love you, mommy wanted to not live with you, Daddy would rather be with his girlfriend, interfering with visitation, refusing reasonable contact while exercising visitation, etc.... As I tell my clients, "Stop with the games". You know what this is, and you know if you are doing it or not. As I have said before; for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Concentrate on building your relationship with your children, believe me, it is a whole lot easier for your attorney to advocate that you are a positive influence on your children and a loving parent then it is to prove the other party is a bad
parent.

For more information I would read this article, I think it is fascinating and offers a lot of good information about this topic. http://www.afamilysheartbreak.com/articles/03-four_myths.pdf