A Low Down On "Parental Gate-keeping"

Parental gate-keeping can be broken down into paternal and maternal gate-keeping. Maternal gate-keeping has a far greater dominance over the paternal gate-keeping, yet the creation of barriers with respect to parent and child quality time, co-parenting and communication can be attributed to both in equal regard. This blog will set out to give you a brief low down on what parental gate-keeping exactly is.

What is Parental Gate-keeping?

In the context of family law, parental gate-keeping can be defined as an action or series of actions taken by a parent to protect the child from harm that is actual, perceived, or manufactured.

The 3 Categories of Parental Gate-Keeping

·         Parental Gate-Keeping Due To Actual Harm

This type of parental gate-keeping is sometimes referred to as protective gate-keeping. This type of gatekeeping is an action or series of actions taken by parent in an attempt to ward off the actual harm from the child. The most common example of such parental gate-keeping is parent protecting their child from emotional and/or physical abuse as well as emotional neglect. It is assumed that parents who use protective gate-keeping simply intend to do it in the best interest of their child and don’t intend on damaging the child-parent relationship.

·         Parental Gate-Keeping Because Of Perceived Harm

“Perception is stronger than reality.” This quote holds true in all aspects of life including family law proceedings and child custody issues. It is clear that in terms of divorce cases, the emotions can run high leading to concerns becoming fears in child custody proceedings of a divorce case.

This is often the case as observed with parents that have had sole authority of caring and nurturing of the child for most of the child’s life. In such instances, the notion of having their child taken away from them and placed in someone else’s custody for some periods of time due to the child custody settlements can lead to hypersensitive protective actions by the parents.

·         Parental Gate-Keeping Because Of A Manufactured Harm

Orange County family lawyers are likely to tell you, child custody proceedings are home to some of the most serious and heinous nature of false accusations leveled against one another. This type of gate-keeping is also known as restrictive gate-keeping and the use of false accusations makes up the core of this approach. This type of parental gate-keeping is reckless, malicious, and against the notion of genuine concern for the child and has more to do with the hate and sense of revenge towards the other spouse.

Gerald A. Maggio is an experienced Orange County divorce and family law attorney and family law attorney located in Irvine, California, serving the Orange County and Riverside areas. Mr. Maggio assists clients with legal issues including divorce, legal separation, divorce mediation, child custody, prenuptial agreements, stepparent adoptions, and other family law issues. Mr. Maggio has practiced law in California since 1999, and founded The Maggio Law Firm in 2005, focusing exclusively on divorce and family law matters.