Unfortunately, parental alienation can get to a point to where the child will object to seeing the other parent to the degree that only physical force will bring the child to the vehicle of the parent picking up that child.
It is very often found that one parent is either encouraging the child to not visit the other parent or “making it okay” not to visit, which causes parental alienation.
Some examples would be the other parent planning events for that weekend that the child believes they will miss out on, such as pizza, going the beach, a barbeque, cousins visiting, or some other tactic. Another example would be that one parent is stricter than the other, such as a boyfriend or girlfriend can come over to mom’s but is not allowed at dad’s.
Regardless of the reason, there are ways to handle this. One would be to change pick up and drop off to the time school is dismissed. Another would be to provide a court appointed advocate to interview the child to straighten out any foul play.
At the end of the day, the worst thing you can do is nothing as that would be setting a pattern of conduct in allowing the child to act in their own best interest instead of taking charge.
For information about visitation and other child custody issues, please call The Barrera Law Firm at (956) 428-2822 or complete our on-line form for a free consultation.
