Over the last several years there have been laws created in 45 states to give grandparents visitation rights. There are laws like this now in almost every state. Before then there was no such law and grandparents rights did not exist as far as having legal standing in the courts to even attempt to have visitation. If a parent did not want a grandparent to see their grandchildren and tried to stop, any type of visitation there was no law that gave the grandparents any options to go back on. Grandparents rights may be different in each state. Some states may allow the grandparents to go to court to seek visitation although there is no certain guarantee that it will happen. Other states may have set laws that let grandparents have some form of visitation with needing to be a part of their grandchild’s life.
Grandparent’s visitation rights have come about because grandparents want to have the right to see their grandchildren. These laws do not always go in favor of the grandparents but sometimes they do and it is worth seeking it out to be able to see and have a relationship with their grandchildren. The grandchildren need to be able to bond with their grandparents if their parents divorce or have died. This gives the children some kind of normalcy if they can keep up a good relationship with other family members. It is best if the grandparents and parents can work something out instead of going to court for the benefit of the grandchildren.
It is nice to know that today grandparents have a right to see and be with their grandchildren. Some states believe that this interferes with the parents rights taking away their choice of care, control and custody of their children. People think differently about this subject and that is why the courts have to step in to solve these problems. Parents only want what is best for their children but stopping their relationship with their grandchildren because of divorce or something else is only being unfair to the children and hurting them in the long run. Grandparent’s visitation is still up in the air in most states for visitation rights. States are constantly changing their laws for better improvement on grandparent’s rights.
Organizations like AARP and GRO (Grandparents Rights Organization) stand ready to help. We also offer a Grandparents Rights Manual (upper right of this page) as well as 200 other products to help you learn more.
