Parental alienation is more common than many people realize, which is attributable, at least in part, to the ease with which a parent can manipulate their child. Children can be gullible, making the lies told to them even more powerful and damaging.
Additionally, manipulative parents often control their children’s schedules, which makes it easy for them to drive a wedge between the child and their other parent. All too often this results in a complete breakdown in contact between the child and that other parent, which can cause significant damage to their relationship.
There’s no doubt that parental alienation is harmful to children. In fact, some consider the process to be a form of child abuse. That’s why if you want to protect your child and your relationship with them, then now is the time to act.
But how can you prove parental alienation in your custody case?
If you want to bring parental alienation to a stop, then you’re going to have to file something in your custody case, which may take the form of a motion to modify. However, before doing so, you need to ensure that you have persuasive arguments on your side. Here are some ways that you can try to prove parental alienation and give yourself a leg up in your custody case:
- Find witnesses who are willing to testify: Alienation doesn’t always occur in secret. Family members, friends, and even neighbors might be able to testify about how the other parent talks poorly about you in front of your child. This can help demonstrate that your child’s other parent has waged a campaign of denigration against you that has morphed your child’s view of you for the worse.
- Secure social media posts: Your child’s other parent might’ve also turned to social media as a way to attack you. If your child has access to these pages, then it’s easy to see how they can be impacted by them. However, you might want to check your child’s social media page, too, to see if they provide any indication of how the alienation has impacted them and their view of you.
- Retain communications: Emails, text messages, and voicemails from your child or their other parent might provide some insight into how you’ve been treated and how your child views you. This can help support your parental alienation arguments.
- Obtain a mental health professional’s opinion: A mental health professional is probably best positioned to determine if manipulation and alienation is occurring. Therefore, you might want to secure an expert opinion from one of these professionals, which will carry a lot of weight in court. Of course, you can run into an issue if your child isn’t in therapy, but you might be able to obtain a court order for that mental health treatment, which would then give you in the in that you need.
Don’t let parental alienation ruin your relationship with your child
There’s a lot on the line in a parental alienation case. And time is of the essence. If you don’t act quickly enough, then it might be harder for you to undo the damage that’s been caused to your child and your relationship with them. That’s why you shouldn’t hesitate to start gathering the evidence that you need to support your request for custody modification.
We know the process can seem daunting, but presenting a well-prepared case is what it’s going to take to secure the outcome that you want and that your child deserves.