Page 42 - How Children Learn to Hate Their Parents

Reversing the phenomenon, if we require the child to stay, allow a child to have a good visit, even an uneventful visit, the child will then turn the behavior around and barriers to future visits will be easier to break down.
Parents who bring their children to visitation kicking and screaming often deny any part in creating the child’s distress. Interviews with these children often confirm that they observe their parents upset when talking to or about the alienated parent. Research by Hatfield (1992) suggests that the mere act of observing the faces, postures, voices and movements of those around us, causes us to mirror and become in synchronization of those movements. This helps to explain why it is fun to be around happy people and depressing to be around depressed people (Meyers, 1996). It also helps to explain why children who refuse visitation act just like the parent they live and spend most of their time with.
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