Grandparenting, A Labor of Love
Loving grandparents. We all carry the image of a loving grandma and grandpa in our mind’s eye. We can see them taking their grandkids out to the park or on a family vacation.
Grandparents get attached to their grandchildren, but distance, incarceration of a parent, or a troubled relationship with your child all can have an adverse effect on your relationship with your grandchild. If this happens to you, you may wonder what you can do. A Tulsa grandparents rights attorney can provide advice and legal representation to help you protect your relationship with your grandchildren.
For a no-cost, confidential consultation with a Tulsa Oklahoma grandparents rights attorney, call the Divorce of Tulsa Law Office today for a initial consultation at (918) 924-5526.
What Rights Does a Grandparent Have Under Oklahoma Law?
It may surprise you to know that under Oklahoma law, you do not have an automatic right to visit your grandchildren. Instead, Oklahoma law presumes that a parent has the right to make decisions regarding how to raise their children, including whether to allow the grandparents to visit and spend time with their grandchildren.
There are situations in which a grandparent can request the court to mandate visitation rights, but those situations are almost always because something negative has occurred to the grandchild’s nuclear family. And though you may want to see and be with your grandchild, wishing these situations upon your child is never desired.
Here are the situations in which Oklahoma law allows a grandparent to seek mandated visitation with a grandchild:
- It must be in the child’s best interests, and
- either there is a showing that the parent is unfit or the grandparent can show that the child would be harmed by not granting visitation, and
- the nuclear (or birth) family has been disputed.
The nuclear family can be disrupted in a number of ways: divorce, the death of the grandparent’s child (the parent of the grandchild), the child no longer lives with the parents or is the legal custody of another, a parent has been convicted of a felony or is being incarcerated, the parental rights have been terminated of one or both parents, or the parents were never married and no longer live together.
In some of these scenarios it is required that the grandparent have a strong and continuous relationship with the grandchild before the nuclear family is disrupted.
When both parents are unable to care for their child, you might presume that the grandparents would become the presumptive caregiver for the grandchild, but this is not so unless both parents consent to this. It is unfortunate when both parents are unable to care for the child, but this sometimes occurs with substance abuse or incarceration.
In that case, the grandparent may petition for the child to be placed in their temporary care if they qualify until the parents are released from jail or have attained sobriety. This can seem a daunting task, but your Tulsa grandparents rights attorney can help.
Forming Strong Emotional Bonds With Your Grandchildren Helps
In almost all cases, it is best for you and for your grandchild to form strong emotional bonds early. Not only is it best for you and for your grandchildren, but if you need to ask for visitation down the road, your continuing involvement in their lives will show a judge that continuing that relationship with you may be in the child’s best interests.
It is instinctive, but all those overnight visits, attendance at school plays and sporting events in which your grandchildren participate, family vacations, and even your financial support all help prove that continued involvement with you is in the child’s best interests.
A Tulsa grandparents rights attorney can counsel you in how to best document your role in your grandchild’s life, and provide legal representation when you need to show a court how you care for your grandchild.
Low-cost Initial Consultation: Tulsa Grandparents Rights Attorney
Bring your questions and concerns and let’s work together to help you and your grandchildren. Call the Divorce of Tulsa Law Office today for a initial consultation at (918) 924-5526.