Grandparents can offer many valuable resources to their grandchildren and their parents. Grandparents often provide free or low-cost child care. Their support may allow a parent to return to work or continue their education. Grandparents often have a positive relationship with their grandchildren. They go on excursions together, play games together and practice important life skills. Grandparents may also provide financial support by purchasing items that the parents cannot afford.
Children often look forward to their time with their grandparents, especially when they have been a regular presence in their lives. The beautiful relationship between a grandparent and a grandchild can be at risk in cases where there are issues with the parents. When unmarried parents break up or married parents divorce, custody disputes may follow.
Particularly in scenarios where one parent doesn’t seek or isn’t allocated much parenting time, grandparents may effectively lose contact with their grandchildren due to the changes in the family. In such scenarios, grandparents may need to assert themselves and ask for visitation.
The state recognizes the importance of grandparents
Ideally, parents and grandparents could work together to preserve the relationships that provide support for children going through a difficult time. Children of all ages struggle to adjust when their family circumstances shift because their parents divorce or separate.
Grandparents can provide a break from the drama at home and a safe place for children to process their feelings. Unfortunately, if the parents are not cooperative about continuing the grandparent’s relationship with the children, the children are the ones who suffer the most.
Grandparents can ask for court-ordered visitation access. The family courts may grant visitation rights to grandparents when there has been a disruption to the family unit and the grandparents have a pre-existing relationship with their grandchildren. So long as the grandparents can establish that their involvement with the children is in their best interest, the courts can award them regular visitation rights.
Showing that the grandparent has had a positive relationship with the grandchildren can help convince the courts that maintaining that bond is good for the children. Photos of holidays together, text messages with parents or grandchildren and even testimony from those familiar with the family can help build a grandparent visitation case.
Ideally, parents set aside their petty disputes and focus on their children. When they prove incapable of doing so, grandparents may need to take action. Even if parents initially dispute a grandparent’s right to visitation, they may eventually come to respect the dedication and love that inspired a grandparent to request visitation rights.
Taking timely action can help grandparents support their grandchildren during a difficult time. Those anticipating a family law conflict may need help learning about the law and asserting their rights, and that’s okay.