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Growing up, my grandparents played an integral role in my life. They were at every sporting event and award ceremony, and they always carried the exact change (in both cash and actual change) for a McDonald’s happy meal. Their home was the epicenter of our family gatherings and random karaoke nights. From 4 to 7 years old my family and I lived with my grandparents in their home. Needless to say, they were the go-to babysitters for my parents. Even after we moved out of their home, my grandparents continued their de facto parenting duties.
If your family is similar to mine in this way, you may wonder: What visitation rights, if any, do grandparents have in seeing their grandchildren?
Short answer: California does recognize grandparent visitation rights in specific circumstances.
Longer answer: It’s a complicated legal issue that will require going to court and meeting a high burden of proof.
When determining whether to grant grandparents court ordered visitation with their grandchild, the California family court must consider:
Grandparents must successfully demonstrate a preexisting relationship with their grandchild which has fostered a close bond between the two. In a trial of mine in which I represented Grandparents, my clients dedicated a room in their home to their grandchild filled with toys and clothes, attended their grandchild’s school functions, and facilitated their grandchild’s tutoring and other extracurricular activities. There was even a 2-year period where their grandchild lived with them. For all intents and purposes, Grandparents were a second pair of parents to their grandchild.
It’s important to understand that parents have a fundamental right to exercise parental authority over their child, unless a court finds that a parent has abused such authority and the parent is deemed unfit or harmful to the child. If a parent is not deemed unfit or harmful to the child, then that parent’s fundamental right to exercise parental authority over their child remains intact, and the court must ensure that any grandparent visitation granted will not infringe on the parent’s rights.
If a parent is unwilling to facilitate a relationship between the child and the grandparents, that is a parent’s prerogative. Though it may create conflict in a family, or be viewed as unfair and distasteful, there is no legal obligation for a parent to facilitate such a relationship. There also may be good reasons for a parent to not encourage such a relationship. For example, if there are concerns about mistreatment by a grandparent, or concerns about the grandparents’ ability to properly care for the child, those would be valid reasons to limit or restrict grandparent visitation. Because a parent is presumed to be a fit parent, and because parents have a fundamental right to raise their children in ways they deem appropriate, it is a high burden of proof to meet in order to convince a court to grant grandparent visitation rights over a parent’s objection.
Most importantly, the court will always consider what is in the best interest of the child.
Though my clients were unsuccessful in obtaining court ordered visitation with their grandchild, the court did allow either parent to encourage and facilitate a relationship with Grandparents, and did allow Grandparents to serve as the first-choice childcare providers for the grandchild.
Here, the court acknowledged that Grandparents had a preexisting relationship with their grandchild and a close bond. The court found both parents to be fit, and therefore had to protect their fundamental rights to parent their child. The court determined that awarding court ordered grandparent visitation would infringe on the parents’ rights. And finally, the court found that it was in the child’s best interest to have a continuing relationship with Grandparents, thereby allowing the Grandparents to serve as the first-choice childcare providers and allowing either parent to facilitate visits with Grandparents without requiring consent from the other parent.
All of us at Bloom Family Law understand that families can be complicated. Our goal is to provide you with all the necessary legal information for you to make the best decision for yours. If you have questions regarding grandparent visitation rights, please schedule a consultation with our team to further discuss your case!