Parental Alienation Against a Mother or a Father

Does the other parent of your child go out of their way to limit your time with your child? Does the other parent speak poorly about you in front of your child? Does the other parent refuse to share important information or major updates with you about your child? Does the other parent make things up about you to your child? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you could be experiencing parental alienation at the hands of the other parent. Parental alienation against a mother or a father can feel infuriating, frustrating, and heart wrenching.

Parents who commit parental alienation against a mother or a father are typically quick to anger, assign blame, refuse to take self-responsibility for any issue, and are often difficult, if not impossible, to communicate with. These parents also tend to be highly narcissistic and to place their own personal wants or needs above the best interests of their own child.

Parental alienation against a mother or a father can be hard to prove by only looking at one instance in particular, but becomes quite clear when looking at numerous instances over a period of time.

A Story of Parental Alienation:

I am presently representing a father who has been fighting in court just to see his 5 year old son over the last few years. Mom expects Dad to provide financial support for their son but clearly does not see dad as having any other value as a parent. Mom regularly marginalizes Dad from the child’s life. During this court case, the court appointed a psychiatric evaluator to evaluate both parties, and the psychiatrist found Mom to engage in severe parental alienation.

Examples of her severe parental alienation against the father are the following:

• Mom did not list Dad on any of the child’s school forms, medical forms, or activities. Mom refuses to provide Dad with any school, medical or activity information and engages in sole-decision making.

• Upon the child returning from Dad’s home, Mom questions the child about every single thing he did with Dad.

• When Dad was awarded FaceTime calls with the child throughout the week, Mom refused to allow a single member of Dad’s family to ever speak to the child during the calls “unless it was a holiday”.

• Mom cancelled the FaceTime calls regularly with a plethora of excuses, such as, the child has a cough, the child fell asleep really early, the child had a bad day at school, Mom was out running errands, the child is in the car, or simply by not answering the call.

• Mom refused to accept delivery of the birthday gifts Dad sent to his son, causing the gifts to be returned.

• While the child had Dad’s last name, Mom began referring to the child by his first and middle name, to the point where the child forgot his last name.

• Mom told the child that Dad was trying to take him away from her and that Dad was getting Mom in trouble in court. While in the car with Dad, the child began playing with toys and pretended one toy was a Judge yelling at the other toys.

• Mom overheard Dad telling the child during a FaceTime call that he had purchased him a Captain America costume which the child was very excited to play with next week. The following day, Mom purchased the child the exact costume and gave it to the child before Dad could see his son.

We were able to secure Dad’s parental rights in Court, and he is now going to begin having regular visitations with his son. Due to Mom’s severe parental alienation, the Judge made a finding that the Mom was a serious danger to the child and ordered that Dad have the majority of parenting time.

Parental alienation against a mother or a father is downright WRONG. It is disgusting, it’s unethical, and the person it hurts the most is the child. While I can’t control how divorcing couples act, and/or if one person makes the decision to engage in parental alienation, I feel as a divorce attorney, a sense of responsibility to protect children from this horrible behavior.

The good news is, if you are willing to fight for your children and not give up, I truly think justice is often served in these kinds of cases, and I’d love to help you get the justice that you and your children deserve.

Need More Information or Representation?

Do you need help securing your parental rights against a parent who is trying to alienate you from your child? If you are looking to start or are going through a divorce or custody proceeding, and need more information regarding your rights or obligations in court, give The Law Office of Tiffany M. Hughes a call at 773-893-0228 for a complimentary phone consultation. Our practice is solely dedicated to the area of family law. We are highly experienced and help parents obtain the custody judgment that is best for their children.

Tiffany M. Hughes is a divorce attorney and Managing Partner of The Law office of Tiffany M. Hughes. Awarded as a Top 100 in Lawyers Magazine in 2018 and 2019, Hughes represents individuals in all aspects of family and matrimonial law proceedings, including litigation, mediation, allocation of parental responsibility (formerly known as custody), parentage, divorce and other child-related matters.