To what degree do grandparents have the right to visitation with their minor grandchildren? Should grandparents have the right to visit their grandchildren over the objections of the parents?
NO!
If Granparents are given “rights”, some puke lawyer will take it further: Uncle/Aunts rights, cousins rights, next door neighbors rights, distant relatives rights, liberal teacher who thinks he knows better than mom & dad rights, etc.
These old beezle necks who insist that they have rights to their childrens children are only on an extended power trip that they once exhalted over their own kids. They are trying to use their granchildren to control their own children.
No. Parents raise kids. It’s that simple. What could possibly motivate anybody to say that grandparents should have visitation rights?
While I agree that the idea of Grandparent’s having default “rights” to thier Grandchildren spells nothing but trouble, I am sympathetic to the idea that the courts ought to have the right to decide that visitation by someone other than the blood parents can be in the best interest of the child.
For instance, when you have 2 people married for 10 years, and there is a step-child involved, I believe that in some cases it can be in the best interest of the child to remain in contact with someone who is, for all intents nad purposes, thier parent. In the case of grandparents, I can see that if a grandpartent was the primary caretaker of a child for the first 12 years of a child’s life and then the parent wanted to cut off all contact, that would be against the best interests of a child.
I have proposed before the issue of “common-law adoption”–the idea that after being someone’s de facto parent for a certain amount of time one is entitled to some degree of parental rights. Of course, this raises the whole issue of support, and that quickly gets so complex that the whole idea may be unworkable.
It all depends. If parents don’t want the grandparents to have contact with the kids because the grandparents are abusive (physically, emotionally, or sexually) or allow the kids to do dangerous things, that’s one matter. If the parents are restricting visitation because of personal issues (between parent and grandparent) then that’s wrong. And to deny a child access to an ex’s parents is just wrong, unless, of course, the kid is in danger.
Of course, a simple way to circumvent the whole issue is for parents to move away, thereby separating grandchildren from grandparents by huge amounts of geography. That’s what my parents did with me and my sister… but they regret it now that they are geographically isolated from their OWN grandchildren. What goes around comes around, I say.
Generally, I don’t think grandparents should be able to force themselves on their adult children and their grandchildren. In an ideal world it wouldn’t be an issue - families would be harmonious units working for the common good of all members. The reality of individual selfishness, irresponsability, and all-around crappy attitudes toward relatives makes harmonious relations less than likely. Families should try to strike a balance between everyone’s interests and bad attitudes, and do it on their own.
If the only issue is “I don’t want mom and dad (or MIL, FIL) interfering in how I raise my kids”, and there are no questions of abuse, neglect, chemical irresponsability or other egregious dangers to the children, parents ought to suck it up a little and make nice a week or two a year. It’s in the best interest of all involved to know their families - grandchildren probably do benefit from knowing grandparents, and vice versa. Sure there will be occasional conflicts, but it shouldn’t have to be a matter for the courts to resolve.
No, although I’m given to understand that some lower courts in various states have ruled that they do have limited rights. I wish I had a cite for this but I haven’t heard much about this in the past year or so.
A child is the sole responsibility, legally, of the parents or legal guardians. If thoe guardians decide that the grandparents will provide a poor influence then they should remain free to exclude them from the lives of their children. Yes it is sad when good grandparents are excluded from their grandchildren’s life because of bitter rivalries but I don’t thinking giving them “rights” is the answer to the problem.
Marc
Grandma wants to be able to see little Billy, but little Billy’s psycho mom won’t let her near the poor child. Whatever is Grandma to do? I know, Grandma! Look in the Yellow Pages under “puke lawyers,” because that’s precisely the kind of low-life filth who would think it would be nice if you could see little Billy again. :rolleyes:
Seriously, though, this issue has already been largely taken care of by the U.S. Supreme Court: Troxel v. Granville (2000). In short, a court may not order a fit parent to allow visitation with a granparent, at least under Washington’s “breathtakingly broad” visitation statute. The Court did leave a little wiggle room, but not much.
Manda JO, many states do recognize “equitable adoption,” which is similar to your call for common law adoption. But it only works where the “equitable” parent has taken custody of the child with the promise to make it all legal, but then fails to do so for whatever reason. It acts as a bar against the equitable parent from denying certain rights against the adoptee, primarily the right to inherit through the putative parent.
we all would like to envision the kindly little old grandma who wants nothing more than to visit her grandson, and why, oh why would that be wrong.
Well, let’s wonder a moment why this is in court. See, I let my kid see his grandparents. Why? cause I think they’re reasonable people, and am not concerned over them harming him. But, you see, if I had cause for concern, I’d stop it in a heartbeat.
These cases get to court 'cause the parents, for whatever reason do not wish to extend visitation. Sometimes it’s for excellent reasons. While I may have sympathy for a particular situation (grandma smith who lost her only son in tragic accident wishes to see his biological children, but the mom, who has since moved on or whatever, is opposed), my sympathy for an individual circumstance would not lend me to believe that an entire shift in how we decide things should be made.
I am more concerned about the right of the parent to raise their child as they see fit, without the unwelcome intrusion of others (yes, even grandparents).