Parental visitation rights are such a large issue in today's society due to the high rates of divorce, yet no one really seems to notice that parents are not the only ones going to court for visitation rights these days. I recently read an essay concerning rights of visitation by grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even non-related acquaintances that may be able to prove that they once had an impacting relationship with the child. The essay was written by Richard S. Victor, an attorney and founder of the Grandparents Rights Organization. Victor is a firm believer that "family" includes the grandparents and there should be absolutely no reason that they be denied to see their grandchildren after a divorce, remarriage, or death. He realizes that the reality of "family" has changed significantly over the recent decades and the traditional nuclear family has eroded but says that grandparent-visitation laws did not create this erosion. .
Instead, more complicated family structures have evolved due to divorce, single-parent families, blended families, parents who have given children up to caretakers, and parents being deemed unfit and the children getting taken away. Victor said it best with his last 3 sentences: "If death takes a grandparent away from a grandchild, then that is a tragedy. But if family bickering or vindictiveness denies a child the unconditional love of a grandparent, then that is a shame. The Supreme Court and the Constitution should not condone a shame." It would be wrong to deny to a child what family really is. A divorce or a death may cause a woman or man to not be related to their ex-spouse's family anymore, but that does not mean that the children that were bore through that woman and that man are not related to those family members at that point forward. Those children are connected to their grandparents through bloodline and heritage.
This issue reminds me of the poem written by Lydia Child about 150 years ago, "Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go; The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh; Through the white and drifted snow.
