Grandparent Legal Rights - When Did THEY Become Necessary?

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Angela_Montgomery]Angela Montgomery
The past century has seen tremendous changes in the structure of the family in the United States. The fact of the matter is that it's a very different world for grandparents today than it was 100, 50, or even 25 years ago. The "Waltons" way of life - where grandparents & parents loved and raised the next generation together and without question - has long since passed us by. The legal rights of grandparents are no longer a given; they are, in fact, tenuous at best.
Consider the following:
Today, more than a third of all adults have never been married. That represents an historic high.
Married households only make up just over half of all households. In 1960, that number was closer to 75 percent.
Births outside of marriage were fewer than one in 10 prior to 1980. Today, more than 25 percent of children are born to single-parent households.
More and more older folks are living alone. In 1910, just 10 percent of widows lived alone; today, it's over 70 percent.
Clearly, as children are increasingly isolated and left without a sense of history and tradition, these changes present the need to closely examine grandparent legal rights. These rights are rarely cut and dried. There have been federal court cases, such as the Supreme Court decision in Troxel v. Granville, that have caused devastating consequences for grandparent legal rights. Though a loving, healthy and long-term relationship was proven to have existed between grandparent & grandchild, the decision in that case came down squarely in favor of parents' rights to determine who can and can't have visitation with a child - including grandparents.
Further complicating the matter is the fact that each of the individual states deals with the issues of grandparent legal rights on their own. Some states automatically favor the decisions of the parents, even when grandparents can show proof of love and demonstrate that visitation is in the child's best interests. Other states allow more latitude, but all have to come down within the framework of the court decisions.
If both parents in an intact family don't want you to have visitation rights, you're almost always going to be out of luck. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of states won't even consider awarding visitation if the family is intact. In some states, a court won't look at visitation rights unless one of the parents is deceased.
As baby boomers have begun to experience - in vastly increasing numbers - the heart-wrenching agony of lost grandchildren, each brings a voice to this tragic cause. Now, more than ever, we need to be out there advocating for grandparent legal rights...for the legacy that is our grandchild's birthright.
It's an uphill battle to be sure, and most of what's gone on in the past thirty years or so doesn't help. Still, by advocating for change, choosing the right politicians for office, and making sure that others are aware of the issues, we can turn shine a bright light on the tragedy of children without a voice.
Angela Montgomery is Chief Editor for GrandparentsRights911.com. She is a leading authority on grandparents rights, and tirelessly advocates for laws granting the rights of children to have a loving relationship with their grandparents. For more information, resources & support on [http://www.grandparentsrights911.com/do-grandparents-have-rights/]grandparent legal rights visit the site at [http://www.grandparentsrights911.com/]http://www.grandparentsrights911.com
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Grandparent-Legal-Rights---When-Did-THEY-Become-Necessary?&id=6422057] Grandparent Legal Rights - When Did THEY Become Necessary?