Discuss the pros and cons of regulated and enforced grandparent visitation rights.

Background Information: Rights of Grandparents
As family structures have changed due to increases in divorce and single parenting, the role of grandparents has also changed. As a result, more decisions about grandparents’ visitation rights are being made by courts and state legislatures. Since the mid-1970s, all 50 states have passed laws granting grandparents the right to petition the courts for legally enforced visitation privileges. Before this time period, grandparents had no rights to their grandchildren except by consent of the children’s parents.
Early court decisions (e.g., Odell v. Lutz, 1947) emphasized parental autonomy and ruled that grandparent visitation rights would undermine parental authority. In fact, it was stated that grandparent visitation rights could subject children to intergenerational conflict (e.g., Noll v. Noll, 1950). These rulings also went along with the long tradition that the legal system should only intervene in the family in extreme circumstances. Early granting of grandparent visitation rights (e.g., Benner v. Benner, 1952) came in cases in which the grandchildren had lived with the grandparents for extended periods, or in cases in which the parents were deemed “unfit,” and the grandparents were given custody.
Consider the landmark case of Troxel v. Granville (2000). In 2000, based on this case, the United States Supreme Court placed limits on the grandparent visitation laws. The court concluded that parents who provide adequate care for their children must be able to decide with whom their children will associate. To leave such decisions up to a judge, in the view of the Supreme Court, would conflict with parents’ basic constitutional rights.
Discussion Question:
Discuss the pros and cons of regulated and enforced grandparent visitation rights. Part of your answer and discussion should involve the roles that grandparents play in grandchildren’s lives (e.g., alternative caregivers, playmates, family historians and transmitters of family values and traditions, advice-givers to parents). Also consider how to resolve intergenerational conflict, how to determine the “children’s best interests,” the consequences of grandparent visitation rights on family functioning, and how to resolve the grandparent policy.
Sources to help you think about this question:
website: http://www.aarp.org/relationships/grandparenting/info-05-2009/goyer_grandparent_visitation.html
website: http://family.findlaw.com/child-custody/grandparent-visitation-rights.html
Thompson, R. A., Tinsley, B. R., Scalora, M. J., & Parke, R. D. (1989). Grandparents’ visitation rights: Legalizing the ties that bind. American Psychologist, 44, 1217–1222.

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