Back in the early 1770s, when Thomas Jefferson sat down to write some thoughts of this new experiment in governance it was an exceedingly heady, dangerous and stressful time. I am afraid that Grandparents rights were not front and center in his mind. As a matter of fact neither were parents rights, they were interjected later as an amendment. Not only that but Parents rights were and are written into the constitution as subject to the judgement of the state.
I bring this up to start a conversation, not about the legalities of Grandparents rights and/or parents rights, but rather to explain that what we need to do as Grandparents is to be SMART about our approach. Rather than saying, “shoulda, coulda, woulda”, which turns out to be absolutely worthless in our quest to keep the best interest of our grandkids front and center, we should develop strategies that are beneficial to the most people, most of the time, with the grands being first on the list.
If it is still important to you to beat this drum of legal rights I suggest you spend some time looking at blog.constitutioncenter.org. Try starting with typing in parental rights. I find this site to be the most unvarnished site about the constitution.
Now back to reality. I propose there are many ways much more effective than trying to rewrite antiquated, sometimes well intentioned, but always incomplete laws. I propose we approach the subject in a way that will be valuable for our grandchildren to watch.
Check back, much more to come on this subject!
Thank You for being Caring Grandparents. Grandpa NEIL
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