CHRISTMAS, CHARLES DICKENS AND PARENTAL ALIENATION
The film of The Christmas Carol is all over the media every year, but this year seems to have been a Dickens fest. With Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist too.
So what has this got to do with Parental Alienation or – the better phrase – ‘alienating behaviours ‘‘of one parent towards the children?
Accusations about these have become labelled, as a result of campaigning, as a tactic used by abusive fathers to remove children from the care of mothers.
Well, Dickens had 10 children. He and his wife had a hostile split up – on his side anyway., Under the law of the time, correctly described as patriarchal, custody of all but the one too old -who went to live with his mother - was given to Charles.
It seems they were never allowed to see their mother again. By most accounts their childhood was pretty miserable. Most had unhappy lives.
Was this father ‘parental alienation’ imposed by their father?
Couples sometimes break up acrimoniously, as members of this charity are too well aware. The parent who gets control of the children can cause them to see that parent’s point to view. When fathers get it, some of them do ‘alienating behaviours’. Because they are in a position to do so. Our charity seems to be almost alone in saying it’s not a question of sex or gender of the parents .It should be about child welfare (half of them, of course, girls).
