How Can Parental Alienation Affect My Child?

Divorce is scary for many reasons, but most divorced parents’ worst fear is that all the disruption and hurt feelings will lead to the children becoming estranged from one or both parents when they grow up. Family estrangement does not happen overnight, and the family courts of Illinois aim to issue and enforce parenting plans that facilitate a strong relationship between the child and both of his or her parents, even if the parents live far apart or have unequal amounts of court-ordered parenting time. When a child becomes alienated from one parent after a divorce, it is usually because the other parent is actively sabotaging the child’s relationship with the targeted parent. If you complain to the court that your ex-spouse is trying to harm your relationship with your children, the court will try to help you preserve and rebuild your relationship with your children; this may require modifications to your parenting plan. A Chicago parental alienation lawyer can help you if your ex-spouse is bad-mouthing you in front of your children or trying to stop you from exercising your parenting time.

What is Parental Alienation, and Why is it So Dangerous?

No one wins in divorce, but a lot of divorced parents feel the urge to compete with their former spouses for their children’s love. Despite this, you must put your children’s needs first and avoid putting them in the middle of your conflicts with your ex. Parental alienation is when your ex tries to stop you from seeing your children or says bad things about you in your children’s presence. As painful as parental alienation is while it is going on, it is worse when children grow up and begin to understand that they are being used and manipulated. It might make them feel like they cannot trust either parent.

A Family Law Attorney Can Protect Your Children From Parental Alienation

As long as you get to spend time with your children, you can show them, without directly bad-mouthing your ex, that you are not nearly as bad as your ex is making you sound. Therefore, if your ex tries to stop you from exercising your parenting time, you should contact your lawyer immediately and go to court to enforce your parenting plan. If your ex does not comply, the court can hold him in contempt of court, reduce his parenting time, and impose fees or even jail time. If the problem is just that your ex is bad-mouthing you, even though both parents are abiding by the parenting plan, the court might modify the parenting plan to give you more parenting time. The law holds that it is against a child’s best interest to hear one parent say bad things about the other.

Contact Women’s Divorce and Family Law Group About Parental Alienation

A Chicago family law attorney can help you if your ex-spouse is trying to interfere with your parenting time or with your emotional bond with your children. Contact Women’s Divorce & Family Law Group in Chicago, Illinois, to discuss your case.