Grandparents raising their grandchildren need to be protected by the courts

Situations in which grandparents raise their grandchildren are certainly not new, but the cases of this happening have been skyrocketing over the last decade. Studies are long overdue as to the number of grandparents in the country who are raising their grandchildren. State and Federal Government agencies that are responsible for gathering such family data need to address this issue.

The number of grandparents raising their grandchildren has rapidly increased. With this increase some grandparents are finding themselves overwhelmed. Whole heartedly they take on the task of providing a loving, safe, stable environment for their grandchildren to thrive and grown with-in. Without regard to their financial status, physical health or personal needs, grandparents are undertaking being a parent to their grandchildren, with very few given legal rights to do so.

Circumstances surrounding grandchildren being raised by their grandparents vary tremendously. The best scenario is where the biological parents have a working relationship with the grandparents, thus allowing them to work jointly in the best interest of the children.

However, this is not the situation for the vast majority of grandchildren being raised by grandparents. These grandchildren are products of dysfunctional parents, drug addicted parents, neglectful parents, abusive parents, extremely violent environments, non-supervisory parents, and incarcerated parents.

By not maintaining adequate laws to protect these 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 die at the hands of their parents or friends.

If the laws do not change allowing grandparents legal rights to protect and defend their grandchildren they will become statistics society will contend with. Just another thing our state and federal legal system should have and could have prevented, but refused and failed to do so.

You can consult The Custody Center to find out what the current grandparents rights are in the state you reside in. But in the long run the courts need to re-examine this issue and provide some better legal protections for grandparents who put their lives on hold to take care of their grandchildren.

NEIL