What happens if one parent doesn’t love the child?

Q. What happens if one parent doesn’t love the child? Aren’t you lying to the child?

A. What right does one person have to assume that the ex-partner or absent partner doesn’t love that child?

What right has one parent to say to the child that the other parent doesn’t love them?

Whether the other has left the family unit, died or run off with Joe or Joan, Bill or Mary… what right has the primary parent to tell their child that the other parent doesn’t love them?

On the contrary, I feel it would be more appropriate for the parent who has the custodianship of the child to reinforce the fact that of course the other parent loves the child, whether it is true or not.

The non-custodial parent may not be paying maintenance, may not be seeing the child, may even appear to be ignoring the child, may not acknowledge birthdays or Christmas, but that doesn’t automatically mean they don’t love their child.

However even if the parent has lost interest or doesn’t love the child, what is the benefit to the child of saying so?

If the child has the self-image of being loved by both parents and later on finds out that, in fact, that parent didn’t love them, at least they will be able to deal with it with a positive self-image.

To me, that’s better than telling a child that they are not loved.