TikTok Famous: Parental Alienation and Barricaded Bedrooms

It’s All Your Fault: High Conflict People

Alienation in Utah

High-conflict situations often include extreme behaviors and the case we’ll discuss in this episode is a perfect example of extreme behaviors.

In the U.S. state of Utah, a 15-year-old boy released a TikTok video detailing his family’s high-conflict drama. According to the video, he had barricaded himself along with his 12-year-old sister inside a room at their mother’s house in order to avoid a judge’s order to reunite with their allegedly abusive father. His videos detailing this harrowing and dramatic experience have made him TikTok famous, at the very least.

The issue in many (most) alienation cases is that the courts don’t know who to believe. Is mom lying? Is dad lying? Are the kids lying? It’s a mess for the courts to identify what’s happening and a tragedy for all involved.

In today’s episode, Megan lists the case details and asks you, the listener, to decide who is lying and who is telling the truth. Then, Bill provides an analysis of the case and how we can use a structured approach to understanding what’s going on, or at least make a best attempt at figuring it out.

Links & Other Notes:

• RELATED NEWS ARTICLES
  • ProPublica article
  • New York Post article
• COURSES
  • High-Conflict Co-Parenting Online Course (coaching optional)
• BOOKS
  • BIFF for Co-Parent Communication: Your Guide to Difficult Texts, Emails, and Social Media Posts
  • Don’t Alienate the Kids
• ARTICLES
  • Alienation Update
  • High Conflict Divorce and Separations Basics (audios)
• Our website: https://www.highconflictinstitute.com/
• Submit a Question for Bill and Megan
• All of our books can be found in our online store or anywhere books are sold, including as e-books.
• You can also find these show notes at our site as well.

Note: We are not diagnosing anyone in our discussions, merely discussing patterns of behavior.

• (00:00) - Welcome to It's All Your Fault
• (01:26) - The Case of Ty and Brynlee Larson
• (07:00) - Breaking It Down
• (18:33) - Reasonable Force?
• (22:32) - Wrap Up
• (23:22) - Coming Next Week: Leaking Classified Documents