Parental gatekeeping is a phrase that is used to describe the way parents interact in protecting their children.  The Huffington Post describes parental gatekeeping as a way parents facilitate or restrict the relationship of their child to the other parent.  Parental gatekeeping can have a severe impact in a custody battle.       The divorce process is a very emotional and trying one.  Spouses tend to get angry and start to restrict the other spouse from seeing their children.  This is known as restrictive gatekeeping.  Restrictive gatekeeping may be in the child’s best interest in cases such as physical abuse, neglect, drug abuse, and other similar circumstances.  However, when a child’s protection is not the basis for the restrictive gatekeeping, a court may not look highly upon the actions that parent took to keep the child from the other parent.       For example, an individual may be hurt because their spouse was unfaithful.  That individual may try to keep the kids from the other spouse because they may believe that other spouse does not deserve to see the children due to their acts of being unfaithful.  There are many factors that are not in the child’s best interest which may play into why an individual may try to prevent the other spouse from developing a relationship with the child.  Parents need to be very careful in the actions that they take in preventing the other parent from seeing their children.       Restrictive gatekeeping may have a negative impact on your custody battle if it is not done to protect the child, but rather harass or keep the other parent from building a relationship with their child when no harm to the child is present.  Many factors play into a custody dispute. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/b-robert-farzad/are-specific-child-custody-gatekeeping_b_5666848.html Call the Law Office of Keith Short and allow us to counsel you throughout the custody process.