Lets bring this billboard to cities across Canada.

Join the conversation. #LetsTalkMen

Introducing Parental Alienation and Fatherlessness

The second in our three part Men’s Issues Billboard Advertisements have arrived!

“I am not parental prey. Help me keep mommy AND daddy. Parental Alienation Hurts”

Look for this billboard at the following locations:

* Avenue Rd at Roe Ave

* Danforth Ave at Dawes Rd

* Dupont St at Dufferin St.

Read the Media Advisory:

Denying a Child Their Father is Child Abuse, New Toronto Billboards Affirm

Watch the Press Conference:



This initiative is CAFE’s contribution to International Men’s Day on November 19th and November Men’s Health Month. #LetsTalkMen

Want to help? Here’s what you can do:

1. Donate so we can extend this ad beyond 1 month or get these billboard ads up across Canadian cities.

We have 3 billboards up during November 2015. Donate through the link top right, then email us if you wish to direct your donation to a particular city.

2. Participate in our forum

3. Tweet or join the conversation on social media using #LetsTalkMen @EqualityCanada, or retweet

Disappearing Dads: If you demonize fathers you injure children. CAFE launches new Toronto billboards #LetsTalkMen https://t.co/c3gtCsayJx — CdnAssocForEquality (@equalitycanada) November 17, 2015

Family Coach Jasmin Newman calls on you to support this campaign.



#LetsTalkMen – Support Children To Keep Both Their Parents

Disappearing Dads: How children Suffer When We Demonize Fathers

Join us for a panel exploring the legal and mental health aspects of parental alienation and the declining status of fathers. Hosted by the University of Toronto Men’s Issues Society

Featuring Child psychologist Dr. Sol Goldstein, Criminal lawyer Walter Fox, Family lawyer Brian Ludmer and Family Counsellor Karen Woodall

Thursday, November 26 at 7:00PM

1 Medical Sciences Building Room 2170, 1 King’s College Circle

Download the Flyer

Are You a Separated or Divorced Father?

Register for a New Program Designed for You!

Fathering After Separation or Divorce is a new program providing knowledge, resources and skills with a curriculum built for fathers, based on the best research from child psychologists, father-friendly lawyers and men’s health providers. Register now and join us at the Canadian Centre for Men and Families.

Starting in fall 2015 we will be offering an exciting new program dedicated to divorced or separated fathers. The ‘Fathering After Separation or Divorce’ (FASD) program will provide a broad range of knowledge, resources and skills for fathers looking to maintain a strong relationship with their children following a divorce or separation.

What is Parental Alienation?

Parental alienation sometimes occurs when parents engage in a high-conflict separation or divorce. Parental alienation means that the child has become enmeshed with one parent (the preferred parent) and has rejected a relationship with the other parent (the target parent) without legitimate justification.

Read the CAFE Research Brief

What Are We Recommending?

1. Parents should put the well being of their children first and adopt co-parenting arrangements that allow for a full relationship with both parents

2. A presumption of equal shared parenting should be made the law in Canada following a family break up

3. We must make available fathering programs that support dads undergoing a family break-up with resources and tools to maintain a healthy relationship with their child or children

The Importance of a Father on a Child’s Development

Read the research brief

Consequences of Parental Alienation

Adult Children that have experienced parental alienation may exhibit the following effects long term:

Low self-esteem

Depression

Truancy

Lack of trust in others

Difficulty with intimate relationships

Feeling shame for hurting the rejected parent

Alcohol or drug problems

Higher propensity for divorce

Signs of Parental Alienation

17 Signs of Parental Alienation

Behaviour & Warning Signs Exhibited by Child, Alienating Parent and Rejected Parent



What Are the Symptoms of Parental Alienation

The Benefits of Shared Parenting

Shared Parenting: Facts and Fiction, by Dr. Linda Nielsen, Professor of Women’s Studies, Wake Forest University

Support Organizations

Scholarly Research

An Attachment-Based Model of Parental Alienation: Foundations, by C.A. Childress, Psy.D.

Key findings:

The characteristic psychopathology of the narcissistic/(borderline) parent draws the child into a role-reversal relationship to help the narcissistic/(borderline) parent regulate three separate but interrelated sources of intense anxiety

Parental Alienation Syndrome — The Parent/Child Disconnect, by Amy J. L. Baker, PhD, Social Work Today, Vol. 8 No. 6 P. 26

Key findings:

1 Parental alienation syndrome develops in children who come to hate, fear, and reject the targeted parent as someone unworthy of having a relationship with them.

2 Richard Gardner, PhD described that there are eight behavioral components that have been validated in a survey of 68 targeted parents of severely alienated children (Baker & Darnall, 2007), including A Campaign of Denigration, Absence of Guilt About the Treatment of the Targeted Parent and Rejection of Extended Family

The Hostage Metaphor for “Parental Alienation,” by C.A. Childress, Psy.D. (2014)

The Impact of Parental Alienation on Children – Undermining Loving Parent-Child Relationships as Child Maltreatment, by Edward Kruk, April 25, 2013

Key findings:

1. One parent denigrating the other “targeted” parent results in the child’s emotional rejection of the targeted parent, and the loss of a capable and loving parent from the life of the child.

2. The severe effects of parental alienation on children are well-documented; low self-esteem and self-hatred, lack of trust, depression, and substance abuse and other forms of addiction are widespread, as children lose the capacity to give and accept love from a parent.

3. Hatred is not an emotion that comes naturally to a child; it has to be taught. A parent who would teach a child to hate or fear the other parent represents a grave and persistent danger to the mental and emotional health of that child.

Shared Parental Responsibility: A Harm Reduction-Based Approach to Divorce Law Reform, Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, Vol. 43(3/4) 2005

Key findings:

1 “Shared parental responsibility” approach which embodies the principle of the “best interests of the child, from the perspective of the child,” emphasizing children’s needs for protection from harm, parental equality and family autonomy as core interests of children in the divorce transition.

2 The “shared parental responsibility” approach to divorce law reform is comprised of four main elements:

1) The establishment of a legal expectation that parents must jointly or separately develop a parenting plan before a court hearing is held on matters related to their divorce.

2) The establishment of a legal expectation that existing parent-child relationships will continue after separation.

3) Shared parental responsibility will be the legal rebuttable presumption.

4) Exempt will be established cases of abuse and domestic violence which will continue to be dealt with via third party intervention, with child protection as the overriding concern.

Woozles: Their Role in Custody Law Reform, Parenting Plans, and Family Court, by Linda Nielsen, Wake Forest University, American Psychological Association, 2014, in Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, Vol. 20, No. 2, 164 –180

Social Science and Parenting Plans for Young Children: A Consensus Report, by Richard A. Warshak, American Psychological Association, 2014, in Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, Vol. 20, No. 1, 46 – 67

Key findings:

Young children’s interests benefit when two adequate parents follow a parenting plan that provides their children with balanced and meaningful contact with each parent. Overnights help to reduce the tension associated with rushing to return the child, and thus potentially improve the quality and satisfaction of the contact both for the parent and child. An additional advantage of overnights is that in the morning the father can return the child to the daycare; this avoids exposing the child to tensions associated with the parents’ direct contact with each other.

Statistics Canada 2007 – Study: Frequency of contact between separated fathers and their children

Key findings:

1. Dads who remained closely involved with their children in the first few months following separation had a much greater chance of remaining so later on, the study showed.

2. The majority of fathers and mothers form new unions in the years following separation, often with individuals who also have children from an earlier union. Close to half of these new couples go on to have a child together.

3. The earlier separated fathers entered a new union, the less frequently they saw their children later on. In particular, non-resident fathers who began a new union within two months of separation had significantly less contact with children than those who did not.

4. Fathers who invest time in their children are also more inclined to invest money and other resources

5. Fathers who were involved in their non-resident children’s lives after separation did not abandon them, whatever the family commitments they later took on.

Lesson Notes: How Do Fathers Fit In? – Topic: The importance of fathers, from Civitas

Fathers’ Involvement With Their Children: United States, 2006–2010, by Jo Jones, Ph.D., and William D. Mosher, Ph.D., National Health Statistics Report, Division of Vital Statistics, Number 71, December 20, 2013



Key findings:

1 Black fathers (70%) were most likely to have bathed, dressed, diapered, or helped their children use the toilet every day compared with white (60%) and Hispanic fathers (45%).

2 A larger percentage of older fathers had not played with their non co-residential children compared with the youngest fathers.

3 Fathers who lived with children under age 5 were six times more likely than fathers who did not live with their young children to have read to them.

Shared Physical Custody: Summary of 40 Studies on Outcomes for Children, by Linda Nielsena Department of Education, Wake Forest University, in the Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, Published online: 04 Nov 2014.

Key findings

1. Shared parenting children of all ages made better grades, were less depressed, and were more well-adjusted behaviorally than the children in the sole residence families.

2. High, ongoing conflict in which the children are involved sometimes diminish the benefits of shared parenting. But this does not mean shared parenting will create negative impact, in fact, shared parenting is more likely to decrease the negative impact of conflict.

3. Even though shared parenting couples tend to have somewhat higher incomes and somewhat less verbal conflict than other parents, these two factors alone do not explain the better outcomes for the children.

Mum’s the Word of Fatherhood Download the book by Jim Macnamara

Ideology and Dysfunction in Family Law

Download the Book By Grant A. Brown | May 6, 2014

For several decades now, fathers have faced significant, widespread bias in family courts across Canada. But as author Grant Brown shows in this free e-book, many of the popular prejudices behind this bias simply have no basis in law or fact. In Ideology And Dysfunction In Family Law – How Courts Disenfranchise Fathers, Brown shows us why dads are getting such a raw deal – and what can be done about it.

child custody, access and parental responsibility

Download the Book by Edward Kruk, University of British Columbia Professor | December 2008

News Headlines

Kidnapper’s Trick, Time Magazine, September 2006, by Nathan Thornburgh

Judge not, lest ye be judged: In family courts across the land, judges hold effectively the same powers over separated parents as feudal lords held over their serfs, and it pleases them to exercise this power without much restraint.

The plight of divorced dads(National Post December 08, 2007)

Videos

Trailer – Erasing Dad documentary

Welcome Back Pluto Chapter 6



Good morning America Interveiw of Dr. Amy J. L. Bake

First of Dr. Craig Childress YouTube video’s

Second Dr. Craig Childress YouTube Speaking to the child

They Ambushed My Dad I Child of Parental Alienation I Ryan Thomas Speaks



Want to Learn More?

“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us… We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.”

– Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum

“He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it”.

— Clarence Budington Kelland.

Read CAFE’s blog posts on Parental Alienation, authored by Kiran Thomas

Infographics