Children are fragile and impressionable. That’s why we fight hard to help Glen Burnie parents protect the best interests of their children in child custody and visitation matters. But not all child custody and visitation disputes are created equally. Some issues in these matters, especially those pertaining to parental alienation, require fierce advocacy to ensure that you protect your relationship with your child and keep them safe from what essentially equates as child abuse.
What is parental alienation?
Do you feel like your child has suddenly started being pit against you, unjustifiably criticizing you for no reason? If so, then your child’s other parent might be alienating you from your child. Parental alienation, in its simplest terms, is the process of manipulating a child so as to distance him or her from his or her other parent. There are a lot of ways that parental alienation can occur. In many instances, a parent simply feeds false information to the child to change his or her perception of the other parent. In the most severe situations, a parent brainwashes a child into believing that he or she has been subjected to abuse at the hands of the other parent.
What are the signs of parental alienation?
If you keep your eyes and ears open, you can probably spot signs of parental alienation. In addition to unfair criticism, your child might speak to you in terms that sound like those of an adult, and they simply might bring up falsehoods about you that only your child’s other parent could fabricate. Your child’s other parent might also use slick tactics to try to distance you from your child, such as by planning the child’s favorite activities during a time when you’re supposed to be visiting with the child.
What can you do about it?
Parental alienation can be challenging to prove, but the family courts are becoming more receptive to arguments pertaining to it. This means that you need to be diligent in gathering evidence of alienation and crafting arguments that show not only that alienation is occurring, but also how it has been or is potentially harmful to your child.
At the Law Offices of Thomas Maronick Jr., we aggressively fight for our clients who are facing child custody and visitation issues. Therefore, if you need help crafting the strong legal arguments that you need, then we encourage you to reach out to a firm like ours to discuss what kind of strategy might work best for you.