What is parental alienation? When parents are living apart, an angry parent can belittle, criticize, shut out, or verbally destroy the other parent in the eyes of the children. This is done for lots of reasons. Some might try to punish an ex or gain sympathy from the child. Others act out to gain more child support from the other parent. And sometimes, the alienating parent thinks the child belongs to them.
Adorable four-year-olds can turn into the angriest 14-year-olds, and even angrier and guilt-ridden 24-year-olds after years of living with a spin-doctor alienator. Please don’t do this to your children. Protect them. Don’t demean what’s part of them. There is always time to improve your behavior and course correct how you interact with your children and your partner to ensure you are not engaging in parental alienation.