by Dr. Kathleen M. Reay

Do any of these behaviors sound familiar?

• Your child aligns with your ex in a campaign of denigration and hatred against you.
• Your child is actively saying negative things to you or acting negatively towards you.
• Your ex’s and/or child’s rationalizations for denigrating you are often weak, frivolous, cruel or completely absurd.
• There seems to be no ambivalence in your child’s feelings toward you. You or others notice that your child’s animosity toward you is demonstrably severe
• Your child states that the decisions to reject you are his/her own and are not influenced by your ex
• Your child seems to be very supportive of your ex and not you in any manner.
• Your child could care less about your own feelings. They appear to show no guilt or remorse for how they treat you so badly
• Your child seems to mimic various words, phrases or sayings that your ex tends to use
• Your child tends to know a lot about your business (for e.g., how much money you make, what’s going on with your divorce proceedings, and so on) that you have not discussed with him or her and that seems too adult-oriented for their particular age. Your child may have told you that your ex told them this information or it seems quite obvious that your ex must have shared this information with your child
• Your child’s denigration of you has a distinct rehearsed quality.
• Your child’s animosity towards you also extends to your extended family and friends.

If so, then you might be suffering from “parental alienation” or “parental alienation syndrome”.