Married parents generally divorce because of a change in their relationship. Bad behavior or a mismatch of values can result in an unsustainable family arrangement. The fact that they share children with one another means that the divorcing spouses do not have the option of completely severing their connections to one another.
Instead, they likely need to interact with one another regularly. Parents typically share custody, which entails dividing time with the children and sharing decision-making authority. Some people resent the dynamics of shared custody. They may try to interfere in the parent-child relationship. Parental alienation can be an issue in any divorce scenario. However, there may be more of an incentive to engage in misconduct in high-asset divorce cases.
What do parents need to know about the risk of parental alienation when facing a high-asset divorce?
What alienation involves
Parental alienation involves a pattern of intentional behavior that damages the connection one adult has with their children. Parental alienation often relates to denied parenting time. However, alienation can also entail one parent speaking negatively about the other consistently to manipulate how the children view that parent.
Alienation can result in the children refusing to see the other parent or being openly hostile to them during their parenting time. In a high-income divorce scenario, it is often the primary caregiver who attempts to alienate the children from the primary wage earner. However, the opposite can also occur. The parent with more money may try to use that as leverage as they seek to interfere in the connection the other parent has with the children.
Parental alienation is damaging
Parental alienation does not just harm the parent who doesn’t get to spend time with their children or faces a hostile dynamic with them. It also causes significant harm to the children themselves. They may become resentful toward both of their parents because of the alienation that they experience. They may also have a harder time healing from the divorce.
Parental alienation is actionable
The courts generally disapprove of parents who put their own selfish desires ahead of what is best for their children. When one parent can prove through communication records and canceled visits that the other has attempted to negatively affect their relationship with the children, they can ask the courts to enforce or even modify the current custody order.
Judges may order makeup parenting time or even reunification counseling to help improve a parent-child relationship compromised by intentional interference. They can also theoretically reduce the parenting time of an adult who has allegedly put their own desires ahead of what is best for their children.
The team at Taege Law Offices has experience addressing parental alienation and other complications that can arise in high-asset divorces. Those facing parental alienation often need help resolving the issue and protecting the bond they have with their children, and that’s okay.