When parents in Illinois are staring down a divorce, the thought of how their relationship change will affect their own relationships with their children can be daunting and terrifying. In situations where a couple has vehement anger toward each other, parental alienation may be a very real risk. While it may not appear to affect anyone besides the children of the parents, this damaging “solution” to bitter battles can actually be incredibly harmful to everyone involved.
According to Psychology Today, the damaging cycle of parental alienation occurs when one parent seeks to abolish the relationship between their children and their own former spouse to solve their own issues and desires. As such, the children lose out on what could be a healthy and productive relationship with their other parent and are often given false information to lead them to believe that the alienation is the fault of the other parent. Parents who are enduring this trauma are better off remaining surefooted in their efforts to be a committed and loving parent, and being firm about their desire to maintain a relationship with their children, as well as their accessibility when the children decide to come around if they do.
Many experts suggest that divorcing couples consider co-parenting as an option to continue successfully and healthily pursuing a constructive parent-child relationship and parent-parent balance despite the divorce. Helpguide.com suggests that some of the benefits of co-parenting include a couple/s ability to provide their children with stable, healthy and secure relationships that have the potential to continually develop and strengthen over time.