revoking grandparents' rights

[jdmerriman]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio

My abusive mother was granted visitation rights in 2003 for my three children. About 3 years ago she moved to Pennsylvania to be with her boyfriend and hasn't practiced those rights at all. She comes to Ohio to visit maybe three times a year and then only spends time with my oldest child. She is and always has caused an uproar in my family's life. She is not abusive to my children just me. My husband and I would like to move to Texas and I am wondering if I have grounds to revoke her rights seeing how she doesn't practice them anyway. She also never calls. She basically just abandoned the children.

 

[Isis1]

She did not abandon the children. The children are with their parents.

Is there a court order requiring you to stay put in your state? If not, move. You don't need her permission.

When was the absolute last time she visited any of the children?

 

[Ohiogal]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio

My abusive mother was granted visitation rights in 2003 for my three children. About 3 years ago she moved to Pennsylvania to be with her boyfriend and hasn't practiced those rights at all. She comes to Ohio to visit maybe three times a year and then only spends time with my oldest child. She is and always has caused an uproar in my family's life. She is not abusive to my children just me. My husband and I would like to move to Texas and I am wondering if I have grounds to revoke her rights seeing how she doesn't practice them anyway. She also never calls. She basically just abandoned the children.

You cannot revoke her rights. You can petition the court to terminate her visitation. What type of visitation was she awarded? And why was she granted visitation seven years ago?

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio

My abusive mother was granted visitation rights in 2003 for my three children. About 3 years ago she moved to Pennsylvania to be with her boyfriend and hasn't practiced those rights at all. She comes to Ohio to visit maybe three times a year and then only spends time with my oldest child. She is and always has caused an uproar in my family's life. She is not abusive to my children just me. My husband and I would like to move to Texas and I am wondering if I have grounds to revoke her rights seeing how she doesn't practice them anyway. She also never calls. She basically just abandoned the children.

You are perfectly free to move anywhere that you like with your children (assuming that your husband is their father). You don't need grandma's or the court's permission to do so.

 

[Ohiogal]

You are perfectly free to move anywhere that you like with your children (assuming that your husband is their father). You don't need grandma's or the court's permission to do so.

QUIT saying that. You do NOT know that that is true. There may be reasons why she would need the court's permission. What if her court order states that a notice of relocation is necessary? This is OHIO and it is possible that she has to let grandma know of her move and be willing to work on a long distance plan if the current plan will not work.

 

[mistoffolees]

About 3 years ago she moved to Pennsylvania to be with her boyfriend and hasn't practiced those rights at all. She comes to Ohio to visit maybe three times a year and then only spends time with my oldest child.

It would really help if people would get their story straight. How do you expect people to give helpful advice when you're contradicting yourself so obviously right from the start?

You say that she's not using her visitation rights at all, and then you say she sees the older child three times a year.

Which is it?

 

[jdmerriman]

The court order states that her visitations are every wednesday and every other weekend. Obviously she is not practicing the visitation rights given to her. When she does come to Ohio she visits my grandmother and only sees the children because I go to her and then she only wants to see the oldest of my children. My mother constantly causes friction in my family, mainly with me but everyone else gets involved. When the visitation rights were given to her, she had a right to have them. (I wasn't the best person when they were granted) I always took care of my children but not myself. The visitations were set in 2002 or 2003, she hasn't practiced them since 2004 but wasn't out of their lives completly and then moved in 2006 to PA. I have since been a defferent person and have really changed my life, I'm older now and realized that some stuff was just dumb but she won't quit...ever! I do not want to necessarily take them away from her I just want to be able to move without confrontation from her.

 

[Proserpina]

The court order states that her visitations are every wednesday and every other weekend. Obviously she is not practicing the visitation rights given to her. When she does come to Ohio she visits my grandmother and only sees the children because I go to her and then she only wants to see the oldest of my children. My mother constantly causes friction in my family, mainly with me but everyone else gets involved. When the visitation rights were given to her, she had a right to have them. (I wasn't the best person when they were granted) I always took care of my children but not myself. The visitations were set in 2002 or 2003, she hasn't practiced them since 2004 but wasn't out of their lives completly and then moved in 2006 to PA. I have since been a defferent person and have really changed my life, I'm older now and realized that some stuff was just dumb but she won't quit...ever! I do not want to necessarily take them away from her I just want to be able to move without confrontation from her.

is your husband the father of the children?

 

[LdiJ]

QUIT saying that. You do NOT know that that is true. There may be reasons why she would need the court's permission. What if her court order states that a notice of relocation is necessary? This is OHIO and it is possible that she has to let grandma know of her move and be willing to work on a long distance plan if the current plan will not work.

I don't have to quit saying that. It doesn't matter what the court order says. It doesn't matter what state it is either. A third party cannot stop a parent with custody relocating to wherever they want to relocate with their child(ren).

Why?...because parent's have constitutional rights...and third parties do not. There can be all kinds of things included in a third party order that are unenforceable.

A third party order can state that a parent must notify the third party of a relocation and go to mediation to arrange a long distance schedule. However, its unenforceable.

 

[jdmerriman]

No, my husband is not the father of my children. Their father was recently incarcerated and will be there for 5 years. I know that I need to make sure it is okay with him and advise the court of the move. My problem is my mother always wants to take someones children away, mine, my sisters, my aunts, even my step-daughters who she has no rights to, and other peoples. She is just court happy. So everytime her and I disagree she wants to take me to court and take my kids away thus I want to first talk with the court about suspending her rights or whatever it's called just to make the process a little easier. Even if they do suspend the court ordered visitations, the moment I move, she will threaten to take my kids away.

 

[LdiJ]

No, my husband is not the father of my children. Their father was recently incarcerated and will be there for 5 years. I know that I need to make sure it is okay with him and advise the court of the move. My problem is my mother always wants to take someones children away, mine, my sisters, my aunts, even my step-daughters who she has no rights to, and other peoples. She is just court happy. So everytime her and I disagree she wants to take me to court and take my kids away thus I want to first talk with the court about suspending her rights or whatever it's called just to make the process a little easier. Even if they do suspend the court ordered visitations, the moment I move, she will threaten to take my kids away.

I am truly sorry that you have to deal with a parent like that. The term that you want to use is that you want to get her visitation order vacated. You would file a motion to vacate the order.

However, to be honest, if she managed to get a visitation order in the first place, its unlikely that the court will vacate the order now. She absolutely cannot stop you from moving, but its more likely that the court will modify the order to a long distance plan, than to vacate it.

There is however one possible exception to that. Third party visitation really IS all about the children and their wishes have to be taken much more seriously than in a parent vs parent case. Therefore, once children get to be old enough to really have an opinion about visitation with grandparents, if they don't want that visitation, or they don't want it scheduled/court ordered, the courts generally won't force it.

You also really don't need their father's permission in this instance either. You do have to go through the motions, but since he is not available to take custody, he cannot prevent you from relocating either.

 

[Ohiogal]

I don't have to quit saying that. It doesn't matter what the court order says. It doesn't matter what state it is either. A third party cannot stop a parent with custody relocating to wherever they want to relocate with their child(ren).

Why?...because parent's have constitutional rights...and third parties do not. There can be all kinds of things included in a third party order that are unenforceable.

A third party order can state that a parent must notify the third party of a relocation and go to mediation to arrange a long distance schedule. However, its unenforceable.

Yes you do have to quit saying that. Because a court order is an order and disobeying a court order can have consequences. If the court chooses to enforce its order (even if unenforceable) this OP could lose her children until she appeals and wins at the appeals level. So knock it off. You could cause this person (and many others) a lot of grief by saying such things.

 

[liandrajade]

Yes you do have to quit saying that. Because a court order is an order and disobeying a court order can have consequences. If the court chooses to enforce its order (even if unenforceable) this OP could lose her children until she appeals and wins at the appeals level. So knock it off. You could cause this person (and many others) a lot of grief by saying such things.

Ld, I have to agree with OG on this one, technically if our rights as parents were so unencroachable, then we would never have GPV in the first place. I can totally see the GP in this case making a federal case out of her moving{no pun intended}.

Unfortunately, we have NO clue on how a judge would rule in the first place and considering that they ordered the amount of visitation the did in the first place, I can see how a contempt order can be brought against mom and the argument would be that mom is attempting to violate the court order.

Mom unfortunately would be the one to prove she is not violating the order, which to prove you are NOT doing something is sometimes harder than proving you are.

I would like to say that the GP has no standing to sue for custody BUT then again, we do not know the whole history.

OP, how old are the kids, when was the last time they had any contact with grandma? When did the GP move to PA?{which is another horrible state for parents too, ugh}

Now with all the conflict in the family, would any of these people testify on your behalf? That might help IF the GP does take you back to court.

Does the GP have visitation only or were there allegations and any type of custody or guardianship issues ever brought up? This is really important.

 

[jdmerriman]

My children are 11, 9, and 8. My oldest really loves her nana and I would never take that away from her just because I don't get along with my mother. I would be willing to work with her on visistations from a distance. This woman has actually tried to kill me and has always brought me down. My family on her side is the same so I can honestly say that they would all be against, I do however have my father and brother and sister. I simply just do not want her to have any control over me and my decisions as far as my life and my childrens lives are concerned.

 

[LdiJ]

Yes you do have to quit saying that. Because a court order is an order and disobeying a court order can have consequences. If the court chooses to enforce its order (even if unenforceable) this OP could lose her children until she appeals and wins at the appeals level. So knock it off. You could cause this person (and many others) a lot of grief by saying such things.

Cite one case, in any state where a fit parent has lost custody to a grandparent, even temporarily, when the grandparent had a simple grandparent visitation order and the parent chose to relocate.