Grandparents often fulfill an important role in the lives of their grandchildren. They may provide child care services, spending the day with their grandchildren when the parents are at work. They might even live with their grandchildren, along with their parents.
Even without a caregiving role or cohabitation, grandparents can be an important source of familial love and support for children. Your grandchildren likely care about you and depend on you to give them emotional support and maybe advice. Your role in their lives can be quite important.
Unfortunately, if parents divorce, grandparents sometimes suffer as a result. Do you have the right to ask for visitation as a grandparent in South Carolina?
Visitation rights often depend on the parents
If your child’s ex has sole custody and doesn’t want you around the kids, they can refuse to allow you access during their parenting time. In other words, your time with the grandchildren largely depends on your child having partial custody.
In scenarios where you cannot gain access through your child’s parenting time, you may potentially have the right to ask for visitation in court. However, it can be an uphill battle to demonstrate to the court that their intervention is necessary. You will typically need to prove that court-ordered visitation with you would be in the best interests of the children. Evidence of your pre-existing relationship with the children is crucial if you hope to build a case for grandparent visitation against parental wishes.
Learning more about the rights grandparents have in South Carolina can empower you to protect your most important relationships.
