Parental Alienation is a type of child abuse that involves the development of behaviors that are damaging to children's mental and emotional well-being, and often sees a child express hatred or unreasonably strong dislike of one parent, making access by the rejected parent difficult or impossible.

These behaviors most often accompany high conflict marriages, separation or divorce. In short, it’s when one parent (the alienator) pits their own child against the other (targeted) parent.

Alienating behaviors may include:

• Badmouthing the rejected parent 
• Interfering in a child’s contact with the rejected parent (i.e. throwing out letters or gifts from the rejected parent, or forbidding time with the rejected parent)
• Manipulating a child to reject a parent 
• Undermining the child’s relationship with the rejected parent (i.e. forcing a child to choose between parents, or allowing the child to decide whether they want to visit the rejected parent or not)
• Undermining the rejected parents’ role in the child’s life (i.e. refusing to provide the child’s information – medical, dental, school, or otherwise – to the rejected parent)

Children that suffer through this type of abuse are more likely to experience:

• Higher rates of depression, low self-esteem, and suicide
• Difficulty in school, and with authority/the law
• Difficulty sustaining intimate relationships once they become teens and adults
• Divorce and/or the loss of their own children through Parental Alienation 

You do not have to be a parent to inflict this type of abuse! Friends, grandparents, uncles, aunts, siblings, cousins, and even teachers, authorities, and neighbors are often bystanders to this terrible type of abuse.

The family court systems in the U.S. and Canada are in serious need of reform and making Parental Alienation illegal is one step to fixing the problem. Shared parenting should be the norm: No one should have to fight a narcissist in court in order to be "allowed" to see their own children! 

We are petitioning The United States and Canadian governments to make this yet unpunished crime against future generations a thing of the past. 

Help us stop the silence. Put Kids First.

Please visit us on our Kids First Parental Alienation Awareness website, where we have ribbons available for purchase and links to other support and resources.