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Topic : 12/26 "Brainwashed by My Parents"

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Created on : Friday, September 26, 2008, 02:43:44 pm
Author : DrPhilBoard3

(Original Air Date: 10/03/08) It’s being called the ultimate form of child abuse -- brainwashing your children against an ex-spouse to win custody. Could you be harming your child emotionally and not even know it? First up, Ken is a successful surgeon who says he’s the victim of parental alienation syndrome (PAS). He says he hasn’t seen his 14-year-old son since last October and claims his ex-wife destroyed what was once a loving father-son relationship. Mel Feit, director of the National Center for Men, says Ken’s situation is a classic case of kids being turned against their father, but family law attorney Liz Kates says PAS is a phony tactic used by some men to get out of paying child support. What does Dr. Phil think? Then, Karen lost custody of her children after she was accused of parental alienation syndrome by her ex-husband. Karen maintains her innocence, so why were her parental rights terminated when her daughters accused her ex of sexual abuse? Plus, 19-year-old Demi joins the show via Web cam and says her father verbally abused her mother during their divorce. Now, she fears that her 15-year-old sister is caught in the middle. Find out what you can do if you’re caught between sparring parents. And, meet a father so desperate to see his young children, he kidnapped them from his ex-wife and went on the lam for two years. Talk about the show here.


Find out what happened on the show.


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October 3, 2008, 3:04 pm PDT

Dads that pled to be the victims

Quote From: rred64

      My soon to be ex has very little contact with his children, he doesn't call them, txt them, or see them. Men want to complain but I have seen this with a lot of my friends.  I think there are a lot more dads out there that aren't stepping up than women who are exhibiting this behavior. I would love it if my ex would have something to do with his kids. I am the one who has to tell them there dad loves them.
This is exactly what my ex husband has done.  He pleds he wants to spend time with the kids and won't budge on his visitation schedule.  We never know if he is going to show up or not each week.  So I finally had to get an attorney to modify the schedule.  He has only seen the kids since January maybe 10 times.  He has bounced around since we got divorced from his brothers, to his parents, to living with a room mate and then after 3 weeks of dating someone he moved in with her.........the kids have had it with him.  The sad thing is we were married 15 years and he really was a good dad.  Or at least a great team player.  Could never be the coach though.  Now he has his self in a situation where the new girlfriend has taken over and he is the puppet.  She is in complete competition with the kids.  He still wants to blame me for not being able to visit his kids.  He doesn't call hardly at all and when he does it is when his girlfriend isn't around.  She has complete control of his money, email,cell phone, text messages.  It is ridiculas.  He claims I'm standing in the way but the truth is he isn't man enough to do what REAL DADS DO.  Be a dad.  Nobody cares he has a relationship, but you can't put someone in front of your children.  It's a sad story and only one that he can fix if he wants to save his relationship with his kids.
 
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October 3, 2008, 3:05 pm PDT

10/03 "Brainwashed by My Parents"

My ex husband was verbally abusive to me when we were married and tried to continue the practice after the divorce but I still sent my son to see him on his visits.   There were many times that my son did not want to go with his father, but I encouraged him to go because I felt that he needed to have a relationship with him.  When he came home it would take several days to get him back into his normal routine.  The visits became less and less.  Now my son is 21 and will not even call his father because his father is verbally abusive to him whenever he does call.  I still try to get him to call his father but at his age he is in charge of his own relationships.  My daughter was much older when the divorce happened and her father has chosen not to have a close relationship with her and her children.  I feel that I did the right thing but I don't think that I was always the best parent in this situation.
 
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October 3, 2008, 3:07 pm PDT

It happens and court is the wrong place for this

Our family has personal experience.  My husband's ex-wife constantly referred to him w/derrogatory statements, she called throughout his visitation, had his daughter take a shower when she came home from our home b/c we had a live christmas tree and she didn't want any of that in her house (supposedly she was deathly allergic but interestingly she had a live pine wreath on her front door).  She took us to court every summer when we wanted to exercise the court ordered summer vacation.  Sadly, she is married to a lawyer and so we haven't been treated fairly in the courtroom.  We asked for things to be put on the record and were told by one judge that he would not allow a court reporter to record the proceedings even if we personally paid for it.  Another judge heard an "abuse" allegation and we agreed to have our home evaluated etc... but also asked that her home be evaluated... instead the judge ruled in the mom's favor based only on a written statement from a 9 year old and the judge interviewing the 9 year old (how arrogant and niave that a judge thinks she is more qualified to evaluate than social services or qualified therapists.  So, yes it does happen and I personally believe the visitation thing needs to be taken away from the courts, overhauled and monitored by some other organization so it doesn't bankrupt families w/out the financial resources and make lawyers wealthy on the backs of the families that should instead be using that money for the benefit of the children.  It is also criminal the lack of uniformity between the states in how children are provided for.  I'm all for states have some autonomy but I do not think they need to have that in regards to how children are protected and provided for.
 
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October 3, 2008, 3:07 pm PDT

SAD VERY SAD ANYONE HEAR KIDS FIRST

On a fathers4kids.com Dr. Warren Farrell states in an article. That EACH parent is half of a childs identity and keeping a parent away effects there self image. Read on AWESOME INFORMATION.
    I am currently devastated my court ordered visitation is being denied. ( LOVELY Daughter inside and out 14 year old Courtney, "Greatest Kid in the WORLD 9 year old Trey !!!!  Wish the world knew them you would enjoy them !!! )

     I am 39. Was good enough to help create these wonderful kids. Raised them for 12 & 7 years. Raised a child from her previous relationship my oldest daughter who is now 16 .  Ex has wealthy boy friend. SHE HERSELF has never provieded anything for her kids.  She now has another baby.

    MY entire life I have wanted to be a father .  My kids are at an age I would LOVE  to be involved !!!!!!

Visitation is not for ME it is for my children !!!!

    GOD RICHLY BLESS any parent trying to see their KIDS !   I am sorry for anytime in my life I did not put them FIRST . PLEASE GOD FORGIVE ME. OPEN HER EYES !!!     GOOD LUCK TO EACH OF YOU CAUGHT UP IN THIS !!!!   Again GOD BLESS AND PROTECT ALL OUR KIDS !!!!!!!!
  

 
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October 3, 2008, 3:08 pm PDT

I'm was in this guys shoes

I've had to be diligant in seeing my kids as soon as the children where seperated from me I started getting letter from my kids which were obviously written by a adult or completely coached. My exwife allienated me it wasn'nt just the ex. it was my ex's parents my mother in law was a huge part of the problem. I just never stop seeing the kids I went above and beyond , jump through every hoop, never missed one visit , Now 7 years later my ex and her mom cannot convince them I'm a bad guy, but they tried really, really hard to get me out of the picture. I can see females being afraid of this, it could be abused by a dishonest person, and it favors the men. I just would like you to know this truely does exist and if your on the negitive side and your fighting to be a parent, and the ex. is making it as hard as possible, or filling the kids head with fear, you would feel different . IT TRUELY DOES EXIST ! IT DOES ! I've seen it first hand and it really hurts.

 
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October 3, 2008, 3:11 pm PDT

Brainwashed by my parents

Quote From: aprilynn

My step son was brainwashed by is biological mother against his father who is my husband.  This mother hurt my husband more than words can ever express.  When I met Mike (husband) he and his son had a close relationship.  I did not interfere with that.  I built a relationship of my own with my step son and sincerely thought that it was a good one.  I treated him better than I did my own.  But that is not the point, the bio mom made it impossible for Mike and his son to have a conversation let alone a relationship.  I am happy to say that today father and son communicate regularly.  To twist things a bit here, my parents brainwashed my daughter against me. it is a very long story and painful story one that is too long to post here.  Brainwashing is not a good thing for anyone.  It is a lose -lose situation.

Aprilynn in Kansas

I too have 2 step sons and have went through the same thing. The oldest son have come around the older he gets, the youngest is a different story. His mother is teaching him that the only thing that his father and I are good for is to buy him things. She also tapes his telephone calls and has told him things like " If he left her to stay with us she would be heartbroken" . We even went to court only to be told that it would be "better for the child to stay with his mother". Even after we showed the court system in Maine that the child was being left alone and was falling behind in school.The relationship between my husband and the youngest son is stressed to say the least. They did talk almost everyday, now they may talk once or twice a month.

It's sad when a father and son can't have a relationship and that when one parent does ask for help the system fails.

 
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October 3, 2008, 3:11 pm PDT

10/03 "Brainwashed by My Parents"

Quote From: teach56

I'm sure that there are two sides to everything -- here's mine.   My ex assaulted me, verbally abused me was charged with resisting arrest when the police came to remove him from the home.  Fast forward -- my daughter and ex  went to three court appointed counselors because of my ex's problems.  The last counselor reported to the court that my ex had severe problems in his relationship with his daughter and that he also allowed his mother to get involved when she shouldn't have.  The end result was that my ex was ordered by the court to have a psychological evaluation performed in order to speak to or see our child other than in the presence of the counselor.  That was more than three years ago and he hasn't made one move to see our daughter even in the presence of the counselor.

 

My only concern was how he verbally treated her (he also left disparaging messages on the court appointed answering machine).  Most single parents enjoy having some time to themselves when their child goes for visitation with the other party as long as the parent feels the child is safe.  As long as my ex abided by court rules, I had no problem with him having visitation.  This man called the police on me twice in one day (pick up and return of our child); the second time was because "I brought my daughter home two hours late and my wife (I wasn't at the time) is giving me a hard time."

 

I'm sure that "parental allienation syndrome" exists in some forms, but please don't only take the side of fathers.  My ex has done everything and anything he can do to cause problems -- he reported me to DYFS for abusing my daughter and I had to get Senator Diane Allen involved to call off the people from DYFS) not paying support, calling my friends and relatives, bad-mouthing me to people, even neighbors (calling me a drug addict, showing lists of doctor prescribed medications to everyone), told PSE&G that he moved from the home (he forgot to tell them that his daughter and wife -- at the time-- still lived there and then I got a "shut-off at any time notice"), and he cancelled my automatic oil delivery (it was in winter and we could have run out of oil).  I could go on and on and on, but you probably have heard it all.

 

I watched your show and was having a slow, rapidly increasing burn over almost every comment that you guest made.  I just had to get my angst out via this message board.

I don't think he was taking the side of the fathers. He was saying that there is a problem and it does need to be recognized. It seems that you are pretty angry that somebody would even bring up the issue. Like somebody on the show said it is primarily an issue with men since the majority of NCP's are male. Since 97% of women are the CP then I do not think it is his fault for not having 97 men and 3 women to support your' idea of this demographic. It also seems that you have issues with men and not your' x since you told him not to take the side of the fathers. I still do not or have I ever thought it is a crime to be born with reproductive organs that protrude past my stomach.
 
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October 3, 2008, 3:11 pm PDT

I know brainwashing is very real

     I am a child of divorce and watched in happen in my own household. My sister and I were very young (3 and 1) when my parents divorced. My father in the end got custody of both of us. I am the oldest, so I was more aware of what was going on during everything. We got to see our mother the second weekend of every month and three weeks in the summer. As I grew up my father would tell me things about my mother, that I should have not heard. I to this day do not know if they are true and don't care to find out. Everytime my mom would call to talk to us, we would hide in the other room and talk quitely to her. I would not get excited or show emotion when we talked. He always made us feel guilty for wanted to talk to her. He would bash her left and right infront of us.

     There were two times in my life where I wanted to go live with my mother. I remember come home tell my father that I wanted to live with mom. He made me feel so quilty and said that I would never see my sister again, because when I would come and visit him, she would be visiting my mom. He would tell me that he guessed I didn't love him. I remember telling him I didn't want to move with mom anymore, just so I didn't have to hear how I didn't love him anymore. The second time I wanted to move in with my mom, I made her tell him, because I was scared. Again the same thing happened and I dropped the issue. As for my mother, she never said a thing about my father infront of us.

      Now, I am 27 years old and I have nothing to do with my father. I moved out when I was 18 and went to live on my own. I think about what happened and resent my father for everything he put me though. On a positive note through, I have the strongest relationship with my mother now, then I ever did when I was younger. I believe parent brainwashing is real! Children are effected by this and in the end the parent or parents that are doing this, will have their children resent them in the end. It is wrong and it hurts!!

 
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October 3, 2008, 3:15 pm PDT

Grow UP!!

This is disgusting! This isn't about the jealous parents! It's about the kids. Do the right thing by your kids! Teach them, give them consequences, and ALWAYS (unless it's an abuse thing) let them spend time with each parent. I find this topic disgusting! I've been divorced. I'm re-married. My ex is re-married. I don't use the two kids as leverage. That would be sick! I get along wonderfully with my ex and his wife (she's wonderful to my girls). I have no tolerance for an adult who is jealous and/or cannot  lay their agendas aside to be good parents. It's time they get over themselves and do their best to parent their children UN-SELFISHLY!
 
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October 3, 2008, 3:15 pm PDT

PAS

     My son is the victim of PAS from his X . he has not seen or had any contact with him for the last two years.   It has taken a very serious toll on him in various ways mentally, emotionally well as physically. The very root cause of all this trauma is the unfair treatment from the courts.  Its a known fact the mother has all the power.  The father not so much if any at all.  I contend if the courts would make it more level playing field for both parents and put the best interests of the child first this might be avoided.

Of course, that's what they all say but, we know that's Not the reality. I could go on and vent and tell you all kinds of horror stories but that won't change what is.  In the state of Missouri in recent years there has been some cases of missing pregnant unwed mothers (presumed dead) now don't you have to wonder why it has come to this.  when are our lawmakers going to see what's happening.

 
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