Recovering From Parental Alienation

Parental alienation, where the children refuse to spend time with one of the parents, is the worst-case scenario in divorce, and the goal of the parenting plan system is to avoid it.  Florida law assumes that children have the right to a relationship with both parents, and parents have a responsibility to contribute to their children’s care in financial and non-financial ways.  If the parents cannot get along with each other, the court might order them to communicate with each other through a co-parenting app that archives their text messages rather than having them reignite their conflicts with every phone conversation or face-to-face interaction.  If their relationship is so volatile that even that does not work, the court might assign third parties a role in the co-parenting relationship; these might include extended family members, a guardian ad litem, or a parenting coordinator.  If you believe that one of these parties is doing more harm than good to your relationship with your children, you have recourse to the family courts to resolve the conflict.  To find out more about parenting coordinators and others who can help you manage a high conflict co-parenting relationship, contact a Boca Raton child custody lawyer.

Sometimes It Takes a Village to Reunite a Family

Parenting plans set the rules of family dynamics after divorce, but it is up to the parents to follow them.  Sometimes, despite the existence of a court order, namely the parenting plan, telling them to do otherwise, parents skip out on their parenting time or refuse to let their ex spend time with the children.  Motions to enforce the parenting plan and contempt of court orders are coercive measures, and sometimes they work, but if your goal is a sustainable co-parenting experience, then you must rely on other people to help you keep the peace.

You can do this with a co-parenting coordinator.  Every county has a list of professionals registered to serve as such; they must renew their registration every two years.  The cost of involving a co-parenting coordinator in your case varies from one county to another, but it is usually several hundred dollars.

A Broward County lawsuit from several years ago shows what can go wrong if you assign someone the role of co-parenting coordinator unofficially.  A father named Roberto relied on the help of his children’s psychotherapist to resume parenting time after his ex-wife had kept the children away from him until they refused to see him.  The plan was for the children to meet with the therapist twice before their scheduled unsupervised weekend with Roberto, but after the two sessions, the therapist sent the children’s guardian ad litem a report about the visit, and the guardian ad litem recommended postponing it.  Roberto eventually sued the therapist for breach of parent-therapist confidentiality.

Contact Schwartz | White About Reuniting With Your Children After Estrangement

A South Florida family law attorney can help you repair your relationship with your minor children after a messy divorce.  Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.

Source:

scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17657671699810638218&q=divorce+fire&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10&as_ylo=2015&as_yhi=2025