This episode delves into the impact of parents using their children as tools for control, punishment, and negotiation. The episode highlights how some parents, with unmet needs from their own upbringing, prioritise their own desires over their children's well-being. Through a detailed narrative, the episode explores a harrowing case where a child is subjected to emotional abuse and manipulation by one parent, leading to long-term emotional damage and the need for therapeutic support. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Children are highly dependent on parents and caregivers for various needs such as attention, affection, guidance, and security.

• Parents with unmet needs, due to their own upbringing, may struggle to provide adequate care for their children, leading to harmful behaviors.

• Using children as bargaining tools or weapons in conflicts between parents can have long-lasting negative effects on the child's emotional development.

• Court systems may not always fully grasp the impact of one parent's harmful actions on the child during private law proceedings.

• Children who are subjected to intentional conflict and abuse by one parent may require therapeutic support to address their unmet needs and emotional trauma.

BEST MOMENTS

• "Children are very vulnerable and highly dependent on parents and caregivers throughout the many years of their childhood."

• "Parents with unmet needs may, for example, have mental health difficulties, possibly because they were parented in an environment where they were never provided with the safety they needed to feel safe and protected."

• "Some parents compound their lack of insight by going further and putting conditions on the circumstances under which the child will see the other parent."

• "In choosing this course of action, no consideration was given to the damage the child was going to be subjected to, or the long-term impact that a child growing up in this type of environment was likely to experience."

• "Parents who use their children to negotiate more favourable deals for themselves, influence the actions of others, or as a means to inflict pain on others, are primarily focused on their own needs, and in the pursuit of doing so, cannot help but produce considerable harm that will likely rear itself in some stage in their child's future."

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HOST BIO
Michael Watson is a qualified social worker and author with over thirty years of experience working with children and families. As an expert in family court, Michael is in a key position to assist, advise, and coach parents through their private law family proceedings and provide them with the information and skills to represent themselves successfully in court. His two books, ‘How to Represent Yourself in Family Court’, and ‘FAMILY COURT: Giving Evidence In Family Court’, provide parents with a clearer understanding of family court proceedings, legislation, and parenting skills.