November 5, 2010
Caring Grandparents www.caringgrandparents.com No Greater Loss, Neil Taft AARP 601 E Street NW Washington, DC 20049 888-OUR-AARP www.aarp.org Grandparents Rights Organization 1760 S. Telegraph Ste. 300 Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302 248-646-7177 www.grandparentsrights.org Grandparents Magazine www.grandparentsmagazine.net Grandparents for Children’s Rights www.uwex.edu/ces/gprg/qandas.html Grandparents Resource Center grc4usa.org Grandparents Today grandparentstoday.org Grandparents Raising Grandchildren www.raisingyourgrandchildren.com GRAND magazine www.grandmagazine.com Grandparents United DE, Inc. grandparentsunitedde.org Grandparent’s Web www.cyberparent.com/gran National Adoption Information Clearinghouse 330 C Street, SW Washington, DC 20447 703-352-3488 naic.acf.hhs.gov BOOKS Canfield, Jack & Hansen, Mark Victor. Chicken Soup for the Soul: Grand and Great. Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, 2008. Covey, Stephen. The […]
October 31, 2010
The rise in grandparents custody today can be attributed to many things, especially the percentage of marriages that end in divorce. You can add to that parental problems with drugs and alcohol, financial issues, criminal issues, and the premature death of parents. In these tough times many things can cause grandparents to have to take responsibility for their grandchildren. There is a lot of happiness that comes along with raising grandchildren, but there are also many problems that can come about along the way. To get additional help with health care, finances and schooling you need to learn about the laws […]
October 30, 2010
Looking at today’s flawed laws it is not hard to make the case for grandparents rights. By not maintaining adequate laws to protect our children, our legal system has miserably failed them. The antiquated laws governing grandparents rights need to be revised to reflect the times we live in. More and more children’s childhoods will be destroyed, leaving them to become part of the juvenile justice system or suffer at the hands of their parents or unfit guardians. If the laws do not change allowing grandparents legal rights to protect and defend their grandchildren they will just become statistics society […]
October 29, 2010
Although you will find more information about how to select and obtain an attorney in my book No Greater Loss the first question you must ask when considering filing for custody of your grandchildren is what is at stake? Once you decide on the importance of your efforts that should help you decide whether to hire an attorney. Although there are no hard and fast rules about hiring an attorney, the following general rules will likely apply to your case if you have decided to apply for custody of your grandchild: *If your case is going to be contested, that […]
October 26, 2010
One of the best times to ask for grandparents visitation rights is when the parents of your grandchildren are in the process of getting a divorce. Timing of agreements is important. Your best chance at having visitation rights is if they are stated in the separation agreement and that normally becomes part of the divorce decree. If the case involves parents who are divorced the courts will look at the divorce settlement and the custody and visitation arrangements already made. In fact, the best time to get the courts to enforce your grandparents rights is often during a divorce when […]
October 23, 2010
The most serious allegation that you can attempt to prove in court is that of abuse or neglect of the child. Therefore, if you make this allegation you can expect a spirited denial from the parent whom you charge with such an action or pattern of actions. Such actions can not only cause a parent to lose a child permanently but also lead to criminal charges. It is important to remember that if you suspect the abuse of a child it is your duty to report the matter to authorities, regardless of your decision about seeking custody. In fact, under […]
October 17, 2010
If you are a grandparents who is actually providing primary care for your grandchildren you may need to take affirmative steps to protect your grandparents rights in the case that your grandchildren’s parents later come back and wish to assert their own custody or wishes. This can often be done by obtaining legal guardianship over the grandchildren, or by actually obtaining an order of custody. However you need to know the laws of custody and of your state to do so. Absent a formal legal grant of rights, grandparents may find it much more difficult to preserve their relationship with […]
October 14, 2010
Anyone interested and involved with grandparents rights needs to be aware of the Troxel case and its subsequent implications on grandparents rights. The Supreme Court issued this ruling with a 6-3 decision in June of 2000. It cancelled out a state law in Washington which permitted courts to grant visitation rights to any interested party as long as it was in the best interest of the child. The Troxel v. Granville came about in 1993 when two grandparents asked for visitation with two grandchildren, who were in the custody of their son’s estranged girlfriend after his suicide. The grandparents, Gary […]
October 11, 2010
Caring grandparents love to spoil their grandchildren and have special feelings for them. In some cases, grandparents are unable to have a close relationship with their grandchildren because of health issues and other reasons but this does not mean that the grandparents don’t love or want to see their grandchildren and this is something that the parents must think about. When a couple divorces they must decide or let the court decide, which parent the children will live with and in most cases, there is shared custody of the children. This makes it easier for the parents both being with […]
October 9, 2010
This is a question I get asked all the time by grandparents who are feeling shut out of their grandchildrens’ lives. Some amount of conflict between parents and grandparents over the raising of children is common. If you are having difficulty seeing your grandchildren the first (and second) options should be to attempt to negotiate and mediate a compromise with the parents. If you can avoid going to court you should do so. There is a lot of information on reasons not to go to court and how to handle disputes in my new book about grandparents rights No Greater […]