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 […]
September 23, 2010
I have just published the definitive volume on Grandparents Rights today. My new book No Greater Loss: The Guidebook to Today’s Grandparents Rights is now available in print. It contains everything you need to know about Grandparents Rights regarding visitation, custody, guardianship and much more. I have written this book to help bridge the gap between Logic and Law. Grandparents have provided and still provide so much caring continuity in our extended families…and yet there is a danger that these relationships are being lost to misdirected anger and vindictiveness by irrational people in the process of fracturing the family unit. […]
September 17, 2010
The thing that bothers me most about the increasing need for Grandparents rights is that it is the children who suffer. Our grandkids deserve all the love and support we can give them. It is when this support is interrupted by two adults that are attempting to resolve and/or dissolve their own relationship with each other but using the children as weapons. As a caring grandparent this makes me angry. I realize that marriages are disintegrating at an ever increasing rate. It is because of, not in spite of this fact that their is an ever increasing need for both […]
September 8, 2010
Grandparents Rights are not something that are given to us. It is incumbent upon us to be proactive. I don’t mean that we take something from someone as much as we give something to the most important people in our lives. In today’s legal climate the best way to insure your Grandparents visitation rights is to be so much a part of your grandchildren’s lives that you are virtually indispensable. If you take every opportunity to create those magic moments that bond us to our grandkids your commitment to them will be undeniable. It is an excellent idea for many […]
September 1, 2010
I wrote a hub page post on Monday and one of the comments reminded me why I do this stuff. In my mind Grandparents rights are all about the kids. I know in my heart of hearts that if we are to do anything with our energy then the highest and best use of that energy would be to help these little ones reach for whatever it is that they want in life. A corny but true fact is that the more love and support they receive the better their chance to succeed at what ever they pursue. Jump over […]