Rejected Parents Need a Strategic Plan for Reunification

Children do not normally reject their parents absent a cause. Even children who have been sexually molested by a parent will still want to have some relationship with that parent. It is not normal for a child to sever all contact with a parent, and if the reasons given are flimsy or seem superficial, the odds are that they are being alienated by the other parent in a child custody case as part of a divorce.

For a parent who is being rejected, they need to first establish what is happening, when they come in to my family law office in Santa Monica, we determine what are the alleged reasons for the rejection. In one case it was because the alienated parent made the child set the table for dinner -hardly a reason for the termination of all communication – so clearly something else was going on.

Once it is determined what it happening to cause the rejection of the parent by the child, a therapeutic intervention or a court ordered intervention can be arranged. In Los Angeles County, we file a Request for Orders to have a judge order the parties to co-parenting classes, reunification therapy and a child custody evaluation to provide the court with an unbiased opinion of each parent’s skills and strengths.

We develop a long term strategy that can take 6-12 months to fully implement and during which the rejected parent is taking action to get back the formerly loving relationship they had with their child.