One of the most atrocious things that can happen when parents divorce is that one of the parents will try to turn the children against the other. This can considerably harm the parent-child relationship and should be avoided. However, there are cases in which parental alienation is a huge problem.

The primary way that one parent attempts to alienate the other parent is by lying to the children. They say things that make the other parent look bad, and this is often done by speaking negatively of the other parent. Children might not want to say anything because they’re worried that they’ll get in trouble if they speak up.

Unfortunately, parental alienation usually goes pretty far before it’s caught. By this point, the children might not want to be around the parent who’s the subject of the lies. The parent who’s doing the alienating might couple the lying with doing positive things for the children. This further makes the situation unfair because the alienating parent looks like the “good guy” and the children might cling to that since they don’t see the truth about what’s going on.

Parental alienation is wrong but it is often difficult to prove so some parents end up suffering silently as this goes on. If you find out that your ex is taking part in this type of behavior, alert your attorney so they can fight for you. No parent who is willing and able to care for their children should be pushed out of the picture by a parent who wants to lie and scheme as a way to break that parent-child bond.