Child Abuse by another name?
There have been times when groups of fathers who have been unlawfully denied direct contact with their children, have been heard calling Judges, family lawyers, CAFCASS Officers, Social Workers, politicians and their ex-wife/girlfriend ‘child abusers’.
The NSPCC gives a definition of child abuse as follows: “Child abuse is when a child suffers harm or even death because of physical cruelty, emotional cruelty, sexual abuse or neglect by an adult” The NSPCC also say that “Bullying and racism are also forms of child abuse”, but they fail to mention ‘psychological abuse’, which is just as important and unacceptable.
Psychological and emotional child abuse, when they are inflicted in tandem with one another is more commonly known as ‘Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS)’.
PAS was described by the American Psychologist, Dr. Richard Gardner MD, and he defines it as “The parental alienation syndrome (PAS) is a disorder that arises primarily in the context of child-custody disputes. Its primary manifestation is the child’s campaign of denigration against a parent, a campaign that has no justification. It results from a combination of a programming (brainwashing) parent’s indoctrinations and the child’s own contributions to the vilification of the target parent”.
So when a Judge rules against a non resident parent for direct contact, a family lawyer works with the parent with care to stop direct contact, CAFCASS Officers and Social Workers recommend in their reports that direct contact should not take place, all without a lawful reason, then it is the child that suffers because that child loves the non-resident parent, and has them taken out of its life without consideration for its long term welfare, therefore, the child is being emotionally abused.
This emotional form of child abuse also extends to politicians who refuse to protect a child’s human right to a family life with BOTH parents by refusing to enshrine in legislation the legal presumption to direct contact.
Many parents with care inflict PAS on children they are supposed to love, some may not understand the full extent of the damage and long term harm they are committing but that is no excuse, since no parent who truly loves their child would dream of putting their own feelings before the feelings and needs of that child, by unlawfully denying that child direct contact with its non resident parent. Nor would they turn the child against the non resident parent by telling the child lies about the non resident parent, which would then make that child turn against its non-resident parent, since this inflicts further psychological damage upon the child.
We in the Equal Parenting Alliance hope this helps you to understand why fathers have been heard referring to certain groups of society as ‘child abusers’.
