Noticing that your children are shying away from talking with you due to your ex-spouse’s interference can lead to stress and worry.
This form of manipulation, known as parental alienation, harms you in both emotional and practical ways.
Less time together
According to Psychology Today, manipulative co-parents can intimidate or lie to a child to get him or her to spend less time with his or her other parent. This leads to a fractured relationship as time goes on since the child feels scared or angry and refuses to talk to you.
Your children may get picked up early or dropped off later than they should. It can be hard to know exactly how to reply or what to do to combat this, since this form of alienation may not be apparent right away.
Broken bond
When your child stops sharing his or her thoughts or declines to invite you to school events, it can create a rift between you both. This new antisocial behavior, brought on by lies from your co-parent, can leave you confused and frustrated.
The younger a child is, the more this can cause stress for him or her. Parental alienation ranges from mild to severe, and the lack of a bond between children and one of their parents growing up can cause depression or anxiety.
Lack of direct communication
You may notice a lack of calls or texts as time goes on, since manipulative co-parents may disrupt communication between you and your children by preventing them from contacting you. With less time to talk to them face-to-face and no way to communicate while far away, your relationship can deteriorate.
Parental alienation can feel nerve-wracking, but there are ways to notice the subtle signs of it happening.