neil

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Grandparents have always had limited rights to visitation and custody of their grandchildren, and in 2000 the US Supreme Court limited these rights even further through its decision in the case of Troxell v. Granville. Currently the laws vary in each state. It is important to understand, however, that there are still some situations where a grandparent may have legal rights regarding a grandchild. Although a grandparent in many states lacks the ability to petition the court for custody of […]

Many people do not recognize that grandparents can actually be awarded legal custody of their grandchildren, but that is actually the case in some events. This scenario tends to happen when neither parent can provide a healthy and sufficient home to raise their children. It also can occur when there are legitimate concerns about safety due to known instances of drug use or child abuse. It is important to remember that the grandparent does have the responsibility in these cases […]

Grandparents rights cases rarely go as far as the courts, but even in those that don’t make it there it is important for grandparents to understand the factors a judge considers so that they have some leverage in negotiating their rights out of court. In actual court cases the importance of preserving and maintaining an existing relationship between the child and their grandparents will be weighed against the custodial parent’s need to exercise their parental rights and veto such visitation […]