Grandparents' Rights

The United States Supreme Court’s 2000 decision in Troxel v. Granville limited the rights that grandparents and other relatives have to see grandchildren and other extended family members. The Court’s reasoning was that the primary decision-makers for children should be their parents, and that the parents have the right to include or exclude whomever they want.

In a divorce, however, the issue of grandparents’ rights and in-laws’ rights can become a thorny topic that can lead to manipulation and bad faith. A spiteful parent may yank a child away from the relatives he or she has always known, just to get back at the other parent. To do so breaks the cardinal rule of post-divorce parenting: do not hold your children responsible for choices you made.

It is best to place into a mediated agreement the terms of the visitation with both family members so that nothing gets reversed later in the heat of spite. At the very least, an affirmation of the existing routines with each family member or, even more simply, a verification of the extended family members with whom the children spend time, should be placed in the agreement.