When mothers are living without their children
“When mothers are living without their children†: a topic of growing urgency. Increasing numbers of women, finding themselves at a loss, are breaking free of traditional familial structures. Their decisions to leave their children with their husbands are not the result of indifference or egotism. On the contrary: for most of them, such partings are painful, the result of a desire to leave the children in a familiar environment, once they find themselves incapable — for whatever reason — of offering them the kind of lives they can enjoy with their fathers. For the sake of their children, they willingly accept the never-ending agonies of separation. Nonetheless, they suffer severe levels of social stigmatization. And their husbands, feeling aggrieved, often turn their children against their own mothers, deliberately alienating them — the process of so-called PAS (Parental Alienation Syndrome). One thing leads to another: once fathers have children on their sides, the latter will often inform the authorities of their desire to terminate all contact with their mothers. In many cases, the child welfare office quickly responds by depriving her of all parental or custody rights. When a man leaves his family, it is seen as “normal† — even socially acceptable. But a mother who leaves is called a “bad parent.† Currently being set up throughout the Federal Republic are self-help groups for women who are fighting for the right to see their children again.
