11/24/2025
Parental alienation doesn’t always look dramatic. Sometimes it starts with a missed phone call, a “forgotten” sports event, or tiny comments meant to shift a child’s loyalty.
But the damage? Huge.
Parental alienation is a real and serious form of emotional abuse.
It happens when one parent influences a child to reject the other parent for reasons that are not based on the child’s own experiences.
Important distinction:
Not all rejected parents are victims of alienation.
If a child has witnessed domestic violence, active substance abuse, direct harm, or severe unaddressed mental illness — the refusal may be valid.
But in roughly 10% of high-conflict separations, alienation is present and often overlooked.
Alienating parents may:
• Block communication
• Twist stories or rewrite history
• Portray themselves as the only “safe” parent
• Encourage the child to see the other parent as dangerous or unloving
• Misrepresent the other parent to teachers, courts, and professionals
Children absorb these messages.
They become confused, anxious, withdrawn, and aligned with the “favored” parent to survive the emotional pressure.
Alienation isn’t proof that the rejected parent is harmful; it’s proof the conflict is.
Kids deserve meaningful connection with BOTH parents (unless real safety issues exist).
They deserve freedom from adult manipulation.
They deserve emotional truth, not stories designed to control them.
Let’s talk about parental alienation.
Let’s advocate for kids.
Let’s break the silence around this painful but very real issue.
