Grandparents Rights

When grandparents have to fight their own children for grandparent rights or custody of grandchildren they must actually deal with entirely different set of stress factors and pain than when a parents fight each other. Grandparents may actually find themselves accused of everything from physical abuse to mental abuse to using drugs. This is possible, because any real or imagined grievances or misdeeds from your children’s childhood can be brought up in order to assault or accuse grandparents who only want their rights. It is more common than ever for grandparents to get physical custody with the incident of hard […]

I thank God every day that I don’t need to assert my grandparents rights on behalf of my grandchildren. It is heart rending to read about some circumstances that put children in volatile and dangerous situations due to a change in the structure of their functioning family unit. These changes can occur because of the death of one of the parents or (as is true in one half of the marriages) a divorce that results in an extended family and all sorts of legal implications. In increasing numbers we are seeing drug use and/or incarceration causing instability and peril to […]

If you are a grandparent then you already know the joy of a grandchild.  Your own child (the grandkid’s parent) may be amazed at how the strictest parent they ever knew is now the biggest pushover they have ever known.  Even though you said no to your kids about everything  the word might never out of your mouth now for your grandchildren. However, many grandparents have taken the grandchildren into their homes. This changes things a great deal and the changes are not always for the better. Reports say the 2.4 million grandparents are exercising their grandparents rights in raising […]

Check out the article I’ve just had published on parents rights and granparents rights on Ezine@rticles! I really think that it goes to the heart of these issues. I want to trumpet, declare and celebrate the fact that parents rights are and should be superior to grandparents rights. As a grandfather I am in awe of the great job my children and their spouses are doing in raising our grandchildren to be loving and lovable human beings. I don’t foresee any need for me to even have grandparents rights much less to have to assert them in a court of […]

In today’s society more than half of all marriages end in divorce. This creates problems and challenges for the immediate family unit but also for the extended family when it comes to grandparents visitation rights. Depending on the atmosphere surrounding the separation and divorce this could cause tremendous anxiety and even alienation. This could leave the grandparents out in the cold. This is an especially difficult time when there are children involved. The children feel great sadness because often they somehow feel like they are to blame. When a divorce happens, the courts have to decide who gets custody of […]

This is my way of communicating what this whole grandparents rights struggle is about. The following is a real life scenario of a court battle allowing the maternal grandmother to adopt two children of R.A.A. & L.R. in Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, January, 2010. Congratulations Grandma, you have accomplished an essential and wonderful deed. By asserting your grandparents rights you have managed to rescue your grandchildren from life in a very dysfunctional household. I hope you realize what a good and noble thing you have done. I for one recognize your very long and agonizing struggle to make life better […]

In most situations where a grandparent goes to court in an attempt to secure grandparents visitation rights, it is assumed that there must be some animosity amongst the respective family members. The rationale for that is that if such animosity did not exist, there would be no need for the intervention of the court. Case histories from the courts have demonstrated that even when the grandparents are awarded a grandparents visitation schedule, the parents who oppose are often likely not to comply with the court order. While grandparents do have outlets to enforce court orders, such as contempt and incarceration, […]

When grandparents rights are implemented in the way they were intended a great amount of good is the result. Nearly every state in the union has some form of grandparents rights legislation and, according to every court case, custody evaluation, and case study I have read all of these state laws place the emphasis in the best interest of the child. If there was ever a win-win situation then this is it. If only life were that clear cut. My heart aches a lot when I read the transcripts of the cases of very abused and neglected children. Story after story […]

In the news almost every day we learn of some very sad and nearly impossible to comprehend situations of child neglect and abuse.  Here in Charlotte North Carolina the other day a woman left her 4 young children sleeping completely alone in a home with a kerosene heater in the bedroom.  The house caught on fire and a seven year old daughter and 4 year old son survived but tragically their 1 and 2 year old brothers perished in the flames.  The neighbor who saved the two older children heard screams of “Mommy, Mommy”.  After saving the two children she […]

One important aspect when it comes to the grandparents visitation rights is whether the state you live in is “restrictive” or “permissive” when it comes to the rights you have to see your grandchildren. All 50 states currently have some type of grandparent visitation rights statute through which grandparents can ask a court to grant them the legal right to maintain their relationships with their grandchildren. But individual state laws vary greatly when it comes to the crucial details, such as who can visit and under what circumstances. Resources like The Custody Center can be crucial in figuring out what the grandparents […]