Children are the best companions to the aging grandparents. In the past they were under grandparent’s custody irrespective of their parents alive or not. Later the society has undergone changes and now separation, divorce, premature deaths to parents are most common among the society. In these circumstances grandparent’s rights on their loving grandchildren become questioned which necessitated for legislative rulings for grandparent’s visitation rights on children. It is a legal right to keep in touch with the children in the event of any of the parents objects such an act due to the reasons stated earlier. In the US all states have separate statues that give permission to the grandparents to maintain contact with their children.
Though all fifty states have regulations on grandparent’s legal rights, it varies considerably on procedure and practice. Since the matter is crucial to the physical and emotional development of the child, the courts always ruled that the best interest of the child should always be protected when granting visitation rights to grandparents. In all states the law requires that it is the responsibility of the grandparent to prove that visitation is in the best interest of the grandchild.
Over the years all states adopted the legislation which assured the grandparents rights for petition in the case of parental death or separation. The legislation provided satisfactory relief to the grandparents and the children but when the custodian of the child moved to another state, the grandparents needed to fight again in that state for the same issue. To solve this, The passing of the Visitation Rights Enforcement Act in 1998 guaranteed that the grandparents could visit their grandchildren anywhere in the United States if they had visitation rights in any one state.
In recent times the issue became more complicated due to frequent divorce, drug, and alcohol addiction and family separations in large numbers in the society. The merits and demerits of any particular case depend on the circumstances as the sudden separation from the loved ones causes emotional problems to grandparents and children alike.
In 2000 the U S Supreme Court delivered an important judgment in the case of Troxel v. Granville in which it was stated that a parent who provided adequate care for the children was free to take a decision on the matter with whom the children would associate and leaving the matter to court decisions would be in conflict with the parent’s basic constitutional rights. Though this interpretation from the apex court was widely criticized the state courts still take the judgment as basis for any subsequent decisions. Several grandparents’ organizations in US are moving for a suitable legislation to address the issue promptly.
And as a grandparent please keep your grandchildren’s best interest in mind. I hope that you are one of those lucky grandparents that has a good relationship with your grandchildren and their parents but if you are not please search out your options by reading my book or using some of our grandparents rights resources. The rights of grandparents raising grandchildren are certainly something to check out.
