What Can You Do if Your Kids Fight Your Parenting Time?

If your children are more than a few years old, you and your spouse have probably learned how to parent them effectively. That is, you may have divided parenting responsibilities to ensure neither you nor your husband or wife has too much of a burden. According to Psychology Today, this is an effective way to co-parent.

Now that you have decided to divorce your spouse, you are likely to be thankful to have some co-parenting practice under your belt. Still, if your kids fight your regular parenting time, your thankfulness may quickly turn to hopelessness.

Why Do Kids Fight Parenting Time?

Children tend to be creatures of habit, so it often takes some time for them to adjust to moving between two separate households. Beyond that, your kids may not want to pack up and go to your place during your scheduled parenting time for any of the following reasons:

• They are closer to their other parent

• They want to spend time with their friends

• They want to play with toys they cannot bring with them

• They are rebelling

What Can You Do?

Your options for resolving the situation may depend on whether you can get some buy-in from your former spouse. If he or she is on your side, the two of you can probably convince the kids to go with you. Otherwise, it may be beneficial to consider whether your ex is undercutting your parenting.

Parental alienation happens when one parent turns the kids against the other. If your ex-spouse is badmouthing you, telling the kids not to trust you or misbehaving in other ways, your parent-child relationships may be in extreme danger.

Ultimately, if your kids do not want to spend scheduled time with you because of parental alienation, you may have little choice but to take legal action.