In a Texas divorce or child custody case, parents like yourself face one of the most difficult aspects: deciding with their Co-parent how to divide rights and duties associated with their children. While many parents focus primarily on time with their children, a better analysis regarding this subject would incorporate conservatorships and possession into the equation. Conservatorships probably isn’t a word that you are overly familiar with regarding child custody and divorce cases. We hear a lot about custody and possession but relatively little about conservatorship. This becomes particularly relevant in cases involving allegations of non custodial parent harassment, where one parent may attempt to exert control or manipulate the other parent’s rights and access to the children.

A word on conservatorships in family law cases

Being the conservator for another person means that you can make decisions on that person’s behalf and hold the responsibility to do what is in that person’s best interest. As a parent, you are a conservator of your child even if you’ve never thought about yourself in those terms. Once you enter into a family law case, the rights and duties associated with conservatorships of a child in Texas become extremely important. Rather than being a conservator in a theoretical sense, you will now be a conservator in a very legal sense. The conservatorship agreement will clearly outline the rights that you and your Co-parent hold regarding your child.

Although we as parents are emotional and sentimental when it comes to our time with our kids, your ability to make decisions for your children is equally as important, in my opinion. A normal reaction for a parent during a family law case would be to concern Dover how you will be able to spend time with your kids after a family law case. It would help if you also focused your attention on your ability to have a say in the important decisions made on behalf of your child by you and your Co-parent. This is the essence of conservatorship.

How will your relationship with your Co-parent impact the proceedings of a divorce or child custody case?

You and your Co-parent may not be on speaking terms at the beginning of your divorce or child custody case. By opting for separate legal representation, you may intend to prevent potential conflicts or confrontations between you and your Co-parent. However, establishing this precedent early in a contentious family law case may not be beneficial for your family in the long run. You need to objectively examine your mindset as you began your family law case about your Co-parent. Not only does having a negative relationship with that person impact your ability to complete a family law case, but it stands to harm your child both in the near and long term future.

If your Co-parent is acting maliciously or negatively towards you, then this may be a serious problem for you to face. This behavior is referred to as malicious parent syndrome in the realm of family law. When your Co-parent does everything they can to harm you and your relationship with your child and isn’t concerned about using your child to do so, this can be an extremely tenuous situation to find yourself in.

What can you keep an eye out for when trying to identify malicious parent syndrome?

Alienation is a hallmark of malicious parent syndrome. If your Co-parent is doing their best to alienate your children from you, you may be facing a person afflicted with malicious parent syndrome. Their objective is to do everything they can to convince your children 2 resist any feelings towards you and instead push you away from a physical and emotional standpoint. Alienation can occur in a few different ways depending on your circumstances in the ages of your children.

Dealing with Co-Parent Lies and Their Impact on Your Child’s Perception

On a simple level, your Co-parent may tell lies to your children about you or use their words to paint you in the most unflattering light possible. The most worrisome part about this is how this will shape your child’s view of you in the long term. While children can have good memories, they do not possess the experience or worldliness to contextualize the things they observe in their day-to-day lives. They may observe things in their daily lives but rely upon you and your Co-parent to guide them as far as how to place into context those observations.

It would be effortless for your Co-parent to misconstrue or allow your children to take out of context something you did or said previously. From there, your Co-parent could add onto or embellish something that occurred previously to cement a point further. this is a dangerous position for you to find yourself in. Now that you and your Co-parent reside in different households, there is no way for you to effectively police what is being said about you while you are away from your children.

Protecting Your Parent-Child Relationship Amidst Co-Parent’s Legal Tactics

As your family law case begins to unfold, your Co-parent may even try to use the courts to harm your relationship with your children. For example, your spouse may make allegations of abuse or neglect against you about themselves or your children. Even if there is no evidence to substantiate their claim, simply making the allegation has the effect of putting you on the defensive. You will likely act differently around them as a result, and the case will almost certainly be made known to your children. Even if they know that you truly never abused or neglected them, the mere thought may begin to enter their minds and impact the way that they view you.

Wrongful denials of visitation

one of the hallmarks of living in a divided household is sharing Visitation time with your Co-parent. Transitioning into a life where you rely on your Co-parent to ensure your children are ready and able to visit and spend time with you can put you in a precarious position. There needs to be a great deal of trust and understanding between you and your Co-parent to ensure that no problems occur regularly in Visitation exchanges.

Unfortunately, when your Co-parent has malicious parent syndrome, you can expect that problems regarding Visitation exchanges will be the norm. At the beginning of each visitation session, you may find yourself waiting for extended periods for your children to be made ready to come to your home. This can be extremely frustrating, especially if you find yourself having to wait in your vehicle outside of your Co-parent’s house and cannot approach the door or see what is going on. You can lose a great deal of time over a year when your children are 30 minutes late for every Visitation session you have.

Dealing with Wrongful Denial of Visitation

Another concern for parents in your position would be that your Co-parent could completely deny you Visitation but have no basis to do so. This is referred to as wrongful denial of visitation. There are legitimate reasons why your Co-parent would deny you the opportunity to see your children even if you have court-ordered time with them. Legitimate suspicions of abuse, illness of the child, or other extraordinary circumstances could lead to a time or experience where you may be denied Visitation or vice versa.

However, parents afflicted with malicious parents syndrome invent circumstances to deny the other parent Visitation opportunities. For instance, many parents allegations that a lack of child support payments influenced their decision to withhold Visitation from an ex-spouse or Co-parent. Bear in mind that this is not a valid excuse for the failure to make your children available for Visitation at the preset time or location. You cannot withhold possession of children for the failure to pay child support, and you cannot refuse to pay child support if you are having Visitation withheld from you.

Parental Alienation: When Co-parents Fail to Communicate

Another similar way that your Co-parent may be engaging and alienating behavior is by not keeping you informed of events that surround your child’s life. You may often be left in the dark regarding a parent-teacher conference or another meeting regarding your child’s education. Having this happen once could cause you to assume that it was an honest mistake. However, when it occurs more than once, we can begin to see a trend and assume that it is malicious or alienating behavior.

This situation becomes even more obtrusive when you can see in your final divorce decree from your child custody case that both parents must share information about extracurricular activities, parent-teacher conferences, or doctor’s appointments with the other parent. I’ve encountered several situations where both parents engage in these mean-spirited and alienating games, resulting in frequent threats of legal action against each other throughout the year. Not only is this troublesome for the long-term relationship with your Co-parent, but it can strain your relationship with your child, as well.

Not telling the truth to your children

Parents afflicted with malicious parent syndrome actively seek to tarnish your reputation. Some may do so passively, by neglecting responsibilities, while others may intentionally spread rumors and lies to your children. It’s important to remember that children retain information well but lack the experience to fully comprehend the implications of what they hear. Lies told about you can harm your relationship with your children, and even if they discover the truth later, the damage may already be irreversible. Moreover, you have no control over what your Co-parent says to your children in your absence, making trust essential for effective co-parenting. When trust is absent, maintaining a relationship becomes challenging.

You may find yourself in a situation where not only is visitation denied to you, but your Co-parent has also lied to your children about why they cannot spend time with you, adding insult to injury. I have heard parents telling their children that the other parent doesn’t want to spend time with them or that she has other things to do rather than spend time with the kids. All the while, that parent was the one to deny Visitation or two outright make up stories about the children being sick so that Visitation sessions would not occur.

Pay attention to how your children act around you

those are just some of the examples of how your Co-parent may be engaging in malicious parent syndrome. It is unrealistic to think that they will be honest with you about how they are communicating with your children about you. Hence, you need to be able to look closely at your children’s behavior to determine whether or not alienating behavior is occurring at the other parents’ home.

An obvious change in your child’s demeanor with you should be a telltale sign that alienation is occurring. If your child acts withdrawn or hesitates to engage with you, this may indicate that they are fed lies about you behind your back. Your instinct would probably be to confront your child and ask them what is happening, and you can do this to the extent that you feel comfortable.

Addressing Co-parent Behavior: A Non-Aggressive Approach

On the other hand, it may be more effective for you to address your Co-parent in a non-aggressive fashion directly. Simply pointing out to them what is happening and then letting them know that you will not tolerate this kind of behavior can go a long way towards increasing transparency. Of course, there is no way to guarantee that they will stop this behavior but sometimes, just letting the person know directly that you can see what is going on is enough for them to take a step back.

But this is already occurring during a child custody divorce case; you should, of course, address it directly with your attorney. They can begin to have conversations with your opposing counsel or schedule a hearing to bring the issue before a judge. You almost certainly will have court orders in place, whether they are final or temporary, that bar your Co-parent from engaging in much of the kind of behavior we have discussed today. Taking these issues to court and having them addressed by a judge can serve as a significant deterrent against future actions that could escalate.

Dealing with Co-parenting Challenges: Modification vs. Enforcement

If you are experiencing issues like this after a divorce or child custody case, they have the option to file either a modification or an enforcement case against them, seeking to either change your final orders from the court or two enforced terms that prohibit alienating or malicious behavior in the 1st place. If this becomes habitual for your Co-parent, they risk losing parental rights and certainly losing time with the children.

Your best bet is to keep track of these malicious actions and organize any missed Visitation opportunities for future enforcement proceedings. Simply having a gut feeling about malicious actions or alienating behavior is not enough to move forward in a modification or enforcement case. Do your best to maintain your relationship with your child, never reciprocate in malicious behavior and keep track of any alienating information to provide to your attorney if need be.

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Other Related Articles

1. What Is “Malicious Parent Syndrome?”
2. Mental Health Considerations in Custody Cases in Texas: The Inside Story
3. Safety, Substance Abuse and Mental Health: Helping yourself through a Texas family law case
4. Can your parental rights be terminated in regard to your mental health?
5. A blog post for those facing mental health problems during a divorce
6. The importance of mental health and substance abuse on divorce
7. Can a possession order be affected by the mental health problems of a parent?
8. The effect of substance abuse on child custody determinations
9. Responding to an alcohol abuse accusation in child custody courts
10. How a judge assesses evidence in divorce that involves domestic abuse

Frequently Asked Questions

Bryan Joseph Fagan( Attorney )

Bryan Fagan, a native of Atascocita, Texas, is a dedicated family law attorney inspired by John Grisham’s “The Pelican Brief.” He is the first lawyer in his family, which includes two adopted brothers. Bryan’s commitment to family is personal and professional; he cared for his grandmother with Alzheimer’s while completing his degree and attended the South Texas College of Law at night.

Married with three children, Bryan’s personal experiences enrich his understanding of family dynamics, which is central to his legal practice. He specializes in family law, offering innovative and efficient legal services. A certified member of the College of the State Bar of Texas, Bryan is part of an elite group of legal professionals committed to ongoing education and high-level expertise.

His legal practice covers divorce, custody disputes, property disputes, adoption, paternity, and mediation. Bryan is also experienced in drafting marital property agreements. He leads a team dedicated to complex family law cases and protecting families from false CPS allegations.

Based in Houston, Bryan is active in the Houston Family Law Sector of the Houston Bar Association and various family law groups in Texas. His deep understanding of family values and his professional dedication make him a compassionate advocate for families navigating Texas family law.