Parenting styles vary from household to household, and sometimes the older generation does not approve of the way their children are handling the day to day challenges of parenting. They may object strongly about everything from what the grandchildren eat to how they are disciplined. There is rarely anything they can do about it however, because removing children from the parental home is something social services and courts try to avoid.
Grandparents may be able to seek legal rights to grandchildren if there is drug abuse or illegal drug activity in the home. Not all states recognize abuse of illegal substances sufficient grounds for removing the child from the parental home however. You may have to prove parents actually gave drugs to the children. In some states ingesting drugs during pregnancy is considered child abuse, but not in all.
Commonly parents with substance abuse and other serious problems end up abandoning their children to the grandparents. This can happen suddenly or over time. A parent may drop children off at the grandparents for the day and never show back up. In other circumstances, children spend more and more time with the grandparents until they are there all the time.
It may be that the parent is forced out their children's lives because of death or incarceration. If this happens, the grandparents can seek formal guardianship or remain as the primary caregivers through an informal arrangement. There will have to be some papers and forms filled out and filed though to make sure the adults can make educational and medical decisions for the minors.
When seniors decide to fight for custodial rights in the courts, they often face difficult challenges. If the minors are already in their care, it is usually easier to convince the legal system to make the relationship formal. Parents who are have been sentenced to long prison terms, have been convicted of child abuse, or have abandoned their children are most at risk of losing legal guardianship.
A lot of times grandparents who have won custodial rights mistakenly think they have as many rights as adoptive parents. This is not correct. If parents want their children back, the court is inclined to allow it as long as they are convinced it would be in the children's best interest. If this happens, the grandparents automatically lose their guardianship status and may risk losing visitation privileges.
Tensions can run high when it comes to how children are being raised and what constitutes a loving and stable home. Grandparents are important to their grandchildren, but they are seldom able to replace parents.
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