How to Prove Parental Alienation

No divorce is easy, but in the best-case scenario of Colorado divorces, parents put the best interests of their children first and work together to co-parent effectively. Colorado family courts make child custody decisions in a child’s best interest. One important consideration is each spouse’s willingness to facilitate and encourage their child’s continued close relationship with the other parent.

Unfortunately, not all divorced parents prioritize their children’s emotional need for the love, support, and nurturing of their other parent and, instead, take active steps to effectively alienate the other parent from their child’s affections.

What Is Parental Alienation?

Studies show that as many as 30% of divorced parents feel that the other spouse has alienated their children’s affections. Parental alienation is one parent’s deliberate attempt to sway a child’s affection and loyalty away from the other parent and undermine the other parent’s authority. They may do this through the following actions:

• Belittling the other parent in front of the children
• Making disparaging remarks
• Intentionally aiding children in breaking rules set by the other parent
• Lie about or exaggerate the other parent’s negative qualities and their role in the divorce
• Telling children that their other parent left them or no longer loves them
• Falsely present themselves as the victim of the other parent’s abuse or betrayal
• Discouraging children from showing affection to the other parent
• Encouraging children to resist spending court-ordered parenting time with the other parent

Less commonly, parental alienation occurs when another family member, such as a grandparent, uses these tactics to alienate a parent from their child’s affections in favor of the other parent.

What Evidence Can I Use to Prove Parental Alienation?

Alienating one parent from their child has serious detrimental effects on the child’s emotional well-being that impact them long into adulthood. Proving that one parent is intentionally alienating the other parent can lead the court to revisit child custody agreements and issue a modification, potentially giving the alienated parent a greater number of custody days or primary custody. Useful evidence to prove parental alienation includes the following:

• Documenting evidence by recording dates and times that children missed visitation or custody dates due to parental interference
• Keep a written record of comments made by the children referring to detrimental actions taken by the other parent
• Save all communications from the other parent, such as text messages, voice messages, and emails
• Gather eyewitness statements from other family members or friends testifying to the other parent’s manipulative actions
• Save screenshots of negative or disparaging social media posts made by the other parent or by older children repeating a parent’s remarks
• Keep any video evidence of the other parent disparaging you or encouraging the children to resist spending time with you
• Seek a professional evaluation by a family therapist with experience identifying and treating children who’ve experienced parental alienation

After gathering evidence of parental alienation, seek an experienced child custody attorney in Fort Collins and bring a copy of your child custody agreement to your consultation.

Knowing Your Rights In Parental Alienation Cases

It’s important to recognize that your children’s hostility toward you may be due to the other parent’s intentional and malicious alienation tactics. It’s never in a child’s best interest for a parent to disparage a child’s other parent or cause children to doubt the quality and sincerity of their other parent’s love, nurturing, and support. Proving parental alienation is occurring in your children’s lives is an important step in recovering a close relationship.