Grandparent Visitation

Re “High Court Limits Visitation Rights of Grandparents,” June 6.

Grandparent visitation is a multifaceted and complex issue.

In order to address serious issues such as child abuse and neglect, laws were quickly and often shoddily written. The intent was good, but the results could be disastrous if this Supreme Court decision affects the states’ laws.

There are cases where grandparents are merely trying to manipulate the parents because they don’t like or agree with the way the parents are raising the children.

That is not an issue for the courts and never should be. Issues of discipline, religious upbringing, diet, education or parenting strategies should never be addressed by anyone but the parents and grandparents.

But in instances where grandparents have been actively involved in the raising of the grandchild, or where the parents have been neglectful or abusive, or where one parent of the child is deceased, grandparent visitation is of the utmost importance.

This is not a matter of violating parental rights but of protecting the child’s rights: the right to a stable and loving environment, the right to a connection to his or her deceased parent’s family, the right to continued love and attachment to those who have served as a stable and loving connection in what might otherwise be a bleak and blighted life.

In cases of antagonistic divorce, our group TUGS [Together United Grandparents] encourages grandparents to visit the grandchild when that child is with his or her parent and not start a court action for visitation.

We encourage working to find a visitation method acceptable to all.

However, there are tragic cases where grandparents have been raising the grandchild and are then denied visitation, or where the grandparents have lost their own child and are denied visitation with their child’s child.

What needs to happen is a careful revision of state laws with all of the consequences in mind. Our Supreme Court justices need to realize that although they may have been correct in their view that the Washington state law is too broad, they were incorrect in their own sweeping statement about parental rights.

JAN RICHMAN

Oxnard