If your marriage ended with a lot of contention between you and your ex-spouse, you are not alone in your struggle. Many Kentucky spouses can relate to your circumstances. As a parent, your top priority was undoubtedly to protect your children’s interests and to achieve a settlement as painlessly as possible.
It can be challenging to achieve such goals, especially if your ex is trying to alienate you from your kids. Such schemes can cause emotional trauma and can also severely damage a parent’s relationship with his or her children.
Parental alienation often looks like this
While you and your ex might not get along well, that’s understandable and may have even been a determining factor in your decision to divorce. Beyond the strain of your personal relationship, however, how can you tell if he or she is systematically trying to turn your children against you? The following list includes some signs that you might be dealing with this type of problem:
- Are your kids increasingly sullen or moody around you? If so, it might have something to do with what they’re hearing from their other parent.
- A parent wishing to alienate children from a co-parent will often make disparaging remarks about the co-parent in front of the children.
- Has your ex been telling your kids that you don‘t love them or that you blame them for your divorce? This is another means a disgruntled parent might use to alienate kids from a co-parent.
- Maybe your ex asked you to change dates or times for custody exchange but then told your children you simply didn‘t show up.
- Have your children begun to show a lack of ambivalence toward you? If they‘ve gone from the normal ups and downs of a parent/child relationship to having a complete negative attitude toward you, there might be an underlying reason.
These are not the only signs of a parental alienation scheme. If you believe your ex is trying to impede your relationship with your children, you can be proactive and bring the scheme to a halt. Especially if there‘s an existing court order that your co-parent is disobeying, you can seek the court‘s intervention to help you resolve such problems.
Your children’s well-being
Moving on in life after divorce can be challenging, particularly as you try to help your kids cope and adapt to a new lifestyle. Having an ex that is intentionally trying to alienate your children from you as an act of revenge can cause great distress. It’s helpful to speak with someone who is well-versed on such issues to gain support in trying to determine how best to handle the situation and protect your parental rights.