Except in situations where the family members themselves bring the matter before the court, or when the police respond to situations where children are in immediate danger, the court does not interfere in people’s familial relationships. Families decide for themselves how frequently to interact with extended family members, among many other parenting decisions. Each family has its own routines surrounding holidays and family gatherings. When the parents of a minor child file for divorce, the court issues a parenting plan that determines which parent will spend which nights per year with the children, including holidays and school breaks. In most parenting plans, the mother and father are the only family members to whom the court awards parenting time. In some cases, though, grandparents may request and receive parenting time. For help ensuring that you can remain a constant presence in your grandchildren’s lives, contact a Mesa child custody lawyer.
Most Grandparenting Time Occurs During the Middle Generation’s Parenting Time
Family lawyers will tell you that the more detailed your parenting plan is, the better. It is worth spending additional time in mediation to fine-tune aspects of your parenting plan in order to avoid conflict and confusion. It is not nitpicking if your parenting plan indicates that the children will spend Black Friday with Mom in odd-numbered years and with Dad in even-numbered years; it is a matter of conflict management. Once the judge signs off on the parenting plan, making it an official court order, the court does not micromanage.
This means that the kids can follow a vegan diet at Mom’s house and eat bacon for breakfast every day at Dad’s house. It also means that, during your parenting time, you can enlist the help of almost anyone you choose in caring for your children. This can include members of your family of origin. It can also include your new spouse and his or her relatives, as well as your friends, neighbors, or paid caregivers. Somewhere, there are families in Arizona where the grandparents spend as much time with the children during each parent’s parenting time as the respective parents do.
Grandparenting time is easy and natural in multigenerational households and where extended family members live near each other, even if not in the same house. Even when the grandparents are not within commuting distance, it is possible to set up your parenting time to enable visits with the grandparents every year. For example, if your parenting plan says that the children will spend Christmas with you every odd-numbered year and Thanksgiving with you every even-numbered year, you can arrange your visits to your parents, or their visits to you, to reflect this.
How to Request a Court Order for Grandparent Visitation
The situations where grandparents request visitation for themselves, rather than simply spending time with them during their child’s parenting time, usually involve situations more complex than simply the children’s parents getting divorced. These requests usually occur when the parent does not have parenting time because he or she has died or terminated parental rights, or because he or she is incarcerated. In these situations, the grandparents can request, on their own behalf, that the court order visitation for the grandparents independently if the parent who connects them to the grandchildren.
The courts of Arizona use the term grandparent visitation rather than grandparent parenting time, because court-ordered parenting time is about more than just an adult family member and a child spending time together. Court-ordered parenting time is also a factor in the statewide formula for calculating child support. Although the courts assume that grandparents will pay for the children’s food and other expenses when the children are with them, grandparent visitation does not carry the expectation that the grandparents’ contributions to the children’s financial support will be proportional to the number of days per year that the children spend living in the grandparents’ house.
When grandparents ask for court-ordered visitation, it is usually because they are at risk of losing contact with their grandchildren. For example, the children’s father may never have been consistently involved in the children’s lives, and the children’s stepfather may even want to legally adopt the children. Requesting court-ordered visitation time could be the easiest way for the grandparents to ensure that they remain a presence in their grandchildren’s lives. In some families, grandparents are able to stay involved despite all the troubles the family lives through, but former in-laws do not always make this easy.
Can a Grandparent Become a Primary Residential Parent?
Grandparents playing a primary parental role in their grandchildren’s lives is a reality for many families in Arizona. For example, the foster care system prioritizes placing children with members of their extended family when the parents are unable to care for them. If the grandparents legally adopt their grandchildren, they have the same legal rights, parenting time, child support, and all, as any other biological or adoptive parents do.
If your children are struggling to care for your grandchildren, it is your choice whether to simply be more involved on an unofficial basis or to involve the court system. Most of the time, grandparents and other extended family members do not ask for legal custody of their grandchildren or for court-ordered visitation unless things have gotten so serious that there is already a court case involving the grandchildren or their parents.
If the grandparents legally adopt the grandchildren, and they later get divorced, they are entitled to a parenting plan that will remain in force until the children reach adulthood, just like any other legal parents of a child would be. This means that the court will issue a child support order. If the grandparents are retired and drawing Social Security, the child support amounts will be less, but the obligations to support the grandchildren financially remain.
Contact Modern Law About Emergency Grandparent Visitation Petitions
A family law attorney can help you request court-ordered visitation with your grandchildren. Contact Modern Law in Mesa, Arizona, to discuss your case.
