I Didn’t Need Protection From My Parent I Needed Protection From Their Agenda.

I Didn’t Need Protection from My Parent. I Needed Protection from Their Agenda.

When the family court system decides who a child should be “protected” from, it often fails to recognize the most dangerous force of all, the manipulation of truth for personal or professional gain.

For countless children, the parent they were told to fear wasn’t the one who caused them harm. It was the one who was rewritten into a villain’s role by adults who stood to benefit, emotionally, financially, or professionally, from the separation.

The phrase “best interest of the child” is used like a shield. But behind that shield, agendas thrive, legal, financial, and psychological.

Guardians ad Litem, therapists, and attorneys tell themselves they’re protecting children.

But when they allow one parent’s narrative to dominate, or worse, when they actively participate in managing that narrative, protection becomes possession.

It’s not about safeguarding a child anymore.

It’s about controlling the story that justifies their own involvement, their fees, and their authority.

Children caught in high-conflict custody cases aren’t just navigating emotional pain, they’re being conditioned.

They learn quickly which emotions are “safe” to express, which names they can say without tension, which truths will cost them love or approval.

When professionals align with an alienating parent, that conditioning becomes clinical. It’s reinforced by therapy sessions, reports, and “observations” designed to confirm a pre-written conclusion.

And the child begins to believe: “If I love the wrong parent, I lose everyone.” That’s not therapy. That’s psychological grooming.

When professionals choose sides under the guise of neutrality, children lose the chance to heal.

When therapists take direction from attorneys instead of ethics, therapy becomes evidence-gathering. When a Guardian ad Litem acts as both investigator and therapist, a child loses both advocacy and privacy.

The system doesn’t protect the child from harm, it protects its own narrative. And the child grows up thinking that love itself is dangerous.

Children don’t need protection from a parent who loves them. They need protection from adults who manipulate that love to serve a cause, a case, or a career.

Children deserve: Therapists who are independent, not directed by attorneys or GALs. Guardians ad Litem who advocate, not diagnose. Judges who understand that “safety” is not the same as silence. A system that values truth over control.

Because every time we allow an agenda to dictate a child’s relationship with their parent, we teach that child one devastating lesson: Love is conditional. Truth is negotiable.

Children grow up. And one day, they will look back and realize who protected them, and who protected the lie.

“I didn’t need protection from my parent. I needed protection from their agenda.” That sentence isn’t just a reflection. It’s a warning.