Grandparents Visitation Rights in Michigan

[jcaisse]

I live in Michigan. My daughter died 1 1/2 years ago. Her "fiance" has custody of her daughter, my granddaughter. He was good about me seeing her once a month for up to a week at a time.

Well, he just had a new baby with his "new" fiance. All of a sudden I'm not getting my phone calls returned. When his new fiance went into labor he asked me to go get my granddaughter (last minute cos the person planned to watch her didn't show). I drove 2 hours to his house got my granddaughter and kept her for a week. Now, NO communication.

Do I have any rights?

 

[divona2000]

...Her "fiance" has custody of her daughter...

Is "fiance" the father of this daughter?
Then she is his daughter, correct?

 

[Proserpina]

I live in Michigan. My daughter died 1 1/2 years ago. Her "fiance" has custody of her daughter, my granddaughter. He was good about me seeing her once a month for up to a week at a time.

Well, he just had a new baby with his "new" fiance. All of a sudden I'm not getting my phone calls returned. When his new fiance went into labor he asked me to go get my granddaughter (last minute cos the person planned to watch her didn't show). I drove 2 hours to his house got my granddaughter and kept her for a week. Now, NO communication.

Do I have any rights?

Grandparents can sue for visitation in Michigan.

Whether or not you'll be successful depends on many things but generally, the grandparent with a deceased child stands a better chance than most other circumstances.

How old is your granddaughter? This may well be an important factor.

Either way, you really have two choices.

Be very, very nice to Dad or take him to court.

If you take him to court and lose, you'll pretty much guarantee that you'll never see your granddaughter again.

In all honesty if it were me, I'd give Dad some time - he will likely want his family to bond as a family with his new baby. Give him some space.

Give him the occasional phone call, express your congratulations and "Hope everything is fine and Granddaughter is doing well. Please give her hugs and kisses from me. If you ever need a babysitter, you know where I am".

That sort of thing.

 

[happybug]

I live in Michigan. My daughter died 1 1/2 years ago. Her "fiance" has custody of her daughter, my granddaughter. He was good about me seeing her once a month for up to a week at a time.

Well, he just had a new baby with his "new" fiance. All of a sudden I'm not getting my phone calls returned. When his new fiance went into labor he asked me to go get my granddaughter (last minute cos the person planned to watch her didn't show). I drove 2 hours to his house got my granddaughter and kept her for a week. Now, NO communication.

Do I have any rights?

Did dad ask you to keep his daughter for a week or did he just want you to watch her while they were in the hospital?

 

[ecmst12]

Cut dad some slack. I know it's been a while but an infant in the house tends to upset everyone's schedule. If you go running off to court, you're going to alienate yourself from dad and set up an adversarial relationship. Send him a message, voice mail, email, whatever works for you, offer to bring them dinner or help them out in some other small way, spend some time with your granddaughter AND her whole family, dad, stepmom, new sibling. But if you don't get an answer right away, RELAX and give it some time. Don't burn any bridges and I'm sure your visits will resume when the family gets its rhythm back.