Separation; marriage breakdowns and parent-child breakdowns can directly affect the relationships grandparents have with their grandchildren. Parents often end up preventing the grandparents from having access to their grandchildren, when their relationship with their parents turns sour.
On average 15% of grandparents in the UK admitted that they have been restricted access to seeing their grandchildren. Nearly a quarter of grandparents believed the reason for this was divorce and separation.
The best course of action is to repair these relationships and that can create access to your grandchildren. Although, this is sometimes not an option for everyone.
It can then be difficult to determine what rights you have, if any, in relation to your grandchildren and the access you have to them. This can become an area of great concern and conflict.
What legal rights do grandparents have?
In the UK, the law does not give grandparents an automatic right of access to their grandchildren if the parent(s) stop you from seeing them. But this does not mean you have to give up all hope of seeing your grandchildren and having a relationship with them. There are still some steps you can take to gain access.
The first step to take
The first step would be to try and speak to the parents or even just a parent directly about how you feel. Family issues can be complicated, and it is best to resolve them by communicating your feelings. Understandably, this can be a delicate subject. Try to think from the view of the parents and any hesitations they may have, address those to show that it is in the best interests of your grandchildren to develop and maintain a relationship with you. For most children, the relationship they have with their grandparents is extremely valuable and so it is important to fight for this. Remind your children that you miss your grandchildren and possibly suggest the idea of asking your grandchild how they feel about having contact with you.
However, we understand that communicating with the parents can be difficult in certain circumstances and so it may be best to consider mediation. This is a less severe option to legal intervention and can get a conversation started between the family members.
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