What is Parental Manipulation?
We define Parental Manipulation (PM) as any action by a father or mother intended to disrupt, harm, and/or destroy the emotional bond between their child and their spouse.
In its most severe form, PM leads to Parental Alienation (PA), which represents a significant harm to all family members, including the alienating spouse. In other words, the negative and long-term consequences disturb the healthy development of all members of the nuclear family and often extend to the broader family. Above all, it overrides the Best Interests of the Child.
Parental Manipulation harms the emotional bond between a child and one of their parental figures.
The Movement Against Parental Manipulation (MvsPM) emphasizes raising awareness about the manipulation of children against one of their parents as a precursor to mental health issues and family disintegration. In fact, parental manipulation is so normalized that parents often aren't even aware they are frequently manipulating their children.
In recent years, PA has drawn attention from authorities. It has been a controversial topic, especially when it comes to defining its existence, causes, and treatment. In Mexico, although there is a legal framework intended to protect the best interests of the child, no clear and specific regulations directly address PA, complicating its handling and resolution in courts.
In our country, concrete legal mechanisms to prevent and address PA are still limited. Although the General Law on the Rights of Children and Adolescents establishes the right of minors to maintain a continuous and healthy relationship with both parents, in practice, the detection and treatment of PA depend largely on the judges, lawyers, and experts involved in each case.
While PA has profound effects on children, reversing it is possible but requires a joint effort by parents, specialists, and authorities. The key lies in consistently working to rebuild the relationship with the child.
Effective approaches include:
Family or individual therapy
to help the child express and understand their feelings of rejection.
Reunification therapy
specifically designed to improve the relationship between the child and the rejected parent.
Emotional support and ongoing guidance
for the affected parent, as they also need tools to cope with rejection.
Parental Alienation is a deep wound that, while difficult to heal, can recover with appropriate support. As a society, we are called to protect children from this emotional manipulation by establishing clear and effective measures so that minors can grow up with a balanced and loving view of their parents, free from emotional burdens that do not belong to them.
Parental Alienation is the extreme manipulation of a child to make them reject their mother or father.
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