During a divorce, your child can experience tremendous amounts of stress. This is a psychologically difficult time for everyone involved. And unfortunately, some people have no intention of making it easy on you.
Some parents will take this opportunity to try turning your child against you. You must maintain vigilance to work against the issue of parental alienation.
The onset of parental alienation
Psychiatric Times discuss ways in which you can prevent parental alienation. This includes ways of spotting it early, which is the best way to act toward effective prevention. It is much harder to work with a child already well through the process of parental alienation.
Thus, you should know that your child refusing to spend time with you is one of the later signs. By the time parents notice this, a child may have already undergone weeks or even months of abuse at the alienating parent’s hands. After all, courts classify parental alienation as a form of child psychological abuse due to the harm it inflicts on them.
Early warning signs
Instead, pay attention to smaller signs. For example, many children grow increasingly insulting toward the alienated parent. They may get pickier about food that you serve. They might suddenly take issue with how you clean your house. They could nitpick over every little thing.
Behavioral signs often factor in, too. For example, a child suffering from parental alienation may withdraw from others and display signs of depression or anxiety. They may also lash out at others instead, displaying aggressive behavioral tendencies and rejecting authority. Noticing any of these factors could be a red flag that points toward parental alienation.
