Humpty Dumpty: A Child’s Conundrum

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall... It's a children's rhyme as old as time, and as old as a man and woman falling in love and having a family. But it's also as old as the families who are broken apart when the love between a man and woman is gone. Most often, when a couple divorce and one family becomes two, a psychological barrier-or wall-comes up between a child and the parent from whom he or she is separated. There are exceptions, of course-but sadly, those are rare. Many children are innocent victims. As a consequence of their parents' break-up, the child is confronted with an impossible conundrum. How does the child continue to love both parents? How does the child remain close to a parent from whom they are physically separated without offending or alienating the parent to whom they are totally dependent? They don't. And the sad truth of the matter is, it's often because of parental alienation-one parent turning the child against the other parent. That barrier, that wall, compounded by parental alienation, shatters into pieces the relationship between the child and the parent from whom he or she is separated. And, like Humpty Dumpty, those pieces can probably never be put together again. Ultimately, as a result of parental alienation, the child may no longer love the parent from whom he or she has been separated-and more often than not-grows to hate that parent. This thought-provoking memoir explores the impact of that conundrum on the life of one such child, and how that psychological barrier, or wall, shattered into pieces the relationship between one father and his beloved son.