When "Family" Court "Professionals" Defend Cutting Off a Child From Their Parent.

When “family” court “professionals” defend cutting a child off from a parent, they almost always claim it’s for “protection.” They say the child is “safer” without contact, or that the parent is “too harmful” to be in their life.

But here’s the truth: if it were really about safety, the child would still have access to the safe parts of that parent’s world, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, and family friends.

When a child is denied all of those relationships, that’s not protection. That’s erasure. And erasure is the clearest sign of alienation.

Is it Alienation or is it Protection? Ask one simple question:

If this child is truly being “protected” from an unsafe parent, why are they also being cut off from everyone else connected to that parent?

Safe grandparents? Gone.

Loving aunts and uncles? Cut off.

Cousins who share family history? Blocked.

Siblings connected through the “dangerous” parent? Ignored.

Even positive friendships or mentors tied to that parent? Discouraged. This isn’t about protecting the child. It’s about controlling the child.

If a child hasn’t seen their grandparents, siblings, or relatives of their “dangerous” parent, then alienation isn’t only coming from the custodial parent.

The Guardian ad Litem who overlooks this is participating in alienation. Their job is to safeguard the child’s best interests, and no child’s best interest is isolation.

The child’s therapist who ignores missing family bonds is reinforcing alienation. Therapy should strengthen a child’s identity, not erase half of it.

Any professional who sees this pattern and stays silent is complicit in alienation. When they fail to preserve family identity, they stop protecting the child and start protecting the system.

Children Have a Right to Family Identity. Family isn’t just one parent. It’s history, belonging, identity. A child’s sense of self is shaped by knowing where they come from and who they are connected to.

To cut off one side of a child’s family isn’t just to punish the parent, it’s to amputate the child’s own roots. And the wound of that loss follows them into adulthood.

Alienation isn’t just the act of one parent. It’s a system-wide failure.

If a child hasn’t seen their grandparents, siblings, or extended family for years, then we can stop pretending this is about protection. That’s alienation.

And when professionals allow it to happen, when they fail to question it, prevent it, or repair it, then they too are alienating the child.

A child doesn’t just lose a parent in alienation. They lose an entire family. They lose part of themselves. And no court has the right to erase that.

There’s no immunity from child abuse.