Parental alienation (PA) is becoming a rising issue for both parents and children. Parental alienation ‘happens when a child becomes enmeshed with one parent, strongly allying himself or herself with that parent, and rejects the other parent without legitimate justification. These children are encouraged by one parent, the favoured parent or alienating parent, to unjustly reject the other parent, the targeted parent. The children can fall prey to the alienating parent?s tactics as a means of escaping the conflict.’

As a charity, we would hope to prevent PA within families. We want to encourage shared parenting and essentially make sure the child is put first. PA can be seen as a type of child abuse. The impact this has on the child can be life-changing as they’re being brought up in a somewhat dark environment. Making your child go against the other parent will only bring disruption to the whole family. If the child has two loving parents even though they are divorced, there is a much better chance of them not being affected.

Would you not agree that this can be seen as child abuse?