Parental Alienation in Chicago Divorce

Parental Alienation Methods

Parents and other adults can alienate a child to the child’s other parent intentionally or without realizing they are doing it. Adults in the latter category might alienate a child from a parent through their expression of their own frustrations with the parent and positive reinforcement of the child’s validating responses.

A few examples of ways an adult can alienate a child to the child’s parent include:

• Making negative statements about the parent and describing him or her to the child in negative terms;
• Capitalizing on miscommunication, different parenting styles, and even different cultural practices to cast the parent in a negative light;
• Lying to the child about the parent’s past or current actions; and
• Triangulating the child into conflict between the parents. Triangulation is the use of a third party to communicate with another in an effort to control communications between those parties, generally in an effort to turn them against each other or paint the triangulating party as a hero or savior.

What to Do if you are Dealing with Parental Alienation from your Child

Parental alienation as a medical disorder is a debated topic in the mental health community. When a parent alleges that is it present in his or her relationship with a child, it is treated like any other allegation of child abuse – the parent must prove that it is occurring and that it has a harmful effect on the child in order for it to be considered grounds for modifying a parenting plan.

Discuss your concerns with your lawyer and gather evidence to support your claim that your child is facing parental alienation from another adult.