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Family relationships can be complicated. This is especially the case when those relationships cross generations. As older adults often have adult children of their own, there may be issues involving grandchildren. Modern families take on a variety of forms. In many cases, grandparents play a significant role in their grandchildren’s lives.
Grandparents can sometimes take issue with the parents of their grandchildren. There may be disputes about how the grandchildren are being raised or how and when visits take place. These issues are common and can sometimes be resolved like any other family dispute. Things like separation, divorce, neglect or abuse can make resolving the issue much more complicated.
Sometimes grandchildren’s visits to grandparents stop when their parents separate or divorce. Sometimes grandparents want more control over the way their grandchildren are being raised. In some cases, if the parties are unable to resolve their disagreements, they turn to the courts.
When it comes to the law, grandparents do not have any specified right to see their grandchildren. If the courts are asked to make a decision about parenting, they will only consider the best interests of the child. This means that the courts look at the issue from the perspective of the child, not the grandparent.
The courts have noted that there are benefits to a child in a positive relationship with grandparents. In general, however, the courts will consider the parents best placed to decide if and when the child visits their grandparents. The courts are generally reluctant to interfere with this.
Grandparents would need to prove to a court that visits with the child are in the child’s best interest. In considering this, the court will look at:
In the absence of any evidence that the parents are behaving in a way which demonstrates an inability to act in accordance with the best interests of their children, their right to make decisions and judgments on their children’s behalf should be respected, including decisions about whom they see, how often, and under what circumstances they see them. [The parents, not the grandparent], are responsible for the welfare of the children. They alone have this legal duty. [The grandparent] loves her grandchildren and, understandably, wants to maintain contact with them. Nonetheless, the right to decide the extent and nature of the contact is not hers and neither she nor a court should be permitted to impose their perception of the children’s best interests in circumstances such as these where the parents are so demonstrably attentive to the needs of their children.
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