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bradorna
05-07-2010, 06:19 PM
If there are any grandparents on here, then I could sure use some help.
My heart is breaking right now because I am not sure if I will ever be able to see my 4 1/2 yr. old twin grandsons anymore. My son and their mother have been separated for a couple of years now and she met a new guy last summer and are now living together and are getting married in August. Since they have started living together early winter things starting being odd. Their mother has now conveniently started forgetting to bring them to me or is always refusing to let me have them for one reason or another. They have moved and will not even give me their address so I can pick them up. Now I do not even know where my own grandchildren live.

After today in a phone conversation with the new soon to be step father I finally realized he is behind it all. He made false accusations and said some really hurtful things to me. For 4 yrs. I was allowed to see them all the time (and only had to refuse twice), if their mother needed me to keep them. They were here every weekend at least one day and I loved it.

Now he has gone to the extent of turning their mother against me and their father (that is currently working in Fort McMurray). This is absolutely killing me and I expect they will try to keep them away from my son also when he does come home.

My question is this ...Do I have any legal rights as their grandmother? If so can I go to court to get visitation rights if they continue to refuse to let me see them?

A very sad Nanny

coffeegal
05-07-2010, 06:35 PM
That is one of the saddest stories I have ever heard and my heart breaks for you. Contact a lawyer, I always was under the assumption that grandparents do have rights. Good luck to you and God Bless!

donteatrawpotatoes
05-07-2010, 06:49 PM
Things like this infuriate me!! I am in the opposite boat, none of my kids grandparents want anything to do with them whatsoever. My heart breaks for you. So unfair. I know if it were me, you'd be welcome any day you wanted to see them! I hope that she can see you love them and whatever is causing her to change her mind stops :( -hug-
I don't know what you have for legal rights, but I hope you have some kind of visitation allowed to you.

heres2u
05-11-2010, 09:21 AM
This really is sad. If I were you I would call up the mother and ask to meet her somewhere that you could discuss this. Unfortunately some women are selfish and are only thinking of themselves and not what is best for their children. If she is unreasonable then you should get a lawyer. You do have rights and the quicker you do this the better your chance of winning. If you wait to long and there is too long a gap between seeing your grandchildren they could make it look like you never had any interest in them and could hurt your chances. First things first though is to call her and see if she will let you see them without going that route. Of course you don't want to threaten her, that will only worsen your chances of reasoning with her, but for sure, let her know that you miss them and want to see them and maybe ask about things that are being said if you know for sure what it is. Here is a site I found online
http://family.jrank.org/pages/734/Grandparents-Rights-Grandparent-Visitation-Rights-in-Canada.html
Again the sooner you do this the better your chances. Good luck!!

bradorna
05-23-2010, 11:12 AM
Heres2u I did read the link you sent, thank you. Does anyone know if I need to hire a lawyer when this goes to court? I know it is only $6 for the papers and then $75 to file (if I do it myself) and get a court date. Today was the last straw when I ended up being told to go to h*** and how dare I expect to have them on a Sunday of a long weekend. Apparently asking a day in advance was not long enough notice, so I asked for July 1st fireworks,and the Balloon Fiesta since I took them last year and they loved both. Was refused so it has nothing to do with how much notice I give.

I didn't want to go this route, but I feel she has left me no choice now. I have given her every chance to bring them here, since I am no longer allowed to know where they live.

My heart is so broken by all this that its killing me. My world revolves around these twins and I miss them so.

Any advice anyone else has would be great.

livkat
05-24-2010, 12:28 AM
I have no advice as of now, but sending BIG HUGS your way Bradorna!!

bradorna
05-24-2010, 05:53 PM
Thank You so much to all of you. It does help a bit to even know people can understand how much this is hurting me. I'm not giving up and still ask for them and still get refused. I will give it one more week and then I will take the next step....

sanne
05-24-2010, 09:24 PM
(((hugs)))

bradorna
05-24-2010, 11:11 PM
Thx sanne

nanny
05-26-2010, 01:40 PM
Wow! I'm a Nanny too and i would feel the same way. If i were you the first thing i would do is call a lawyer. As grandparents we DO HAVE LEGAL RIGHTS for visitation. I had family members that went through it, went to court and won the right to visitation. I actually have a sister and brother-in law that won custody of, not one, but two of their granddaughters. One was blood related and her sister had a different father. They fought for a long time, lost everything they had, but it paid off. It didn't take very long and they got right back on their feet. The grandfather that adopted those girls wasn't even related to either girl, just a very kind, good and loving person. He was declared the first and only non related grandfather to win custody in Canada. Something to be proud of ha! Good luck and i will be following your story.

bradorna
05-26-2010, 05:50 PM
I went to a lawyer today, I had everything ready, app. 30 pics printed off as proof of a relationship between them and myself, as well as their great grandparents. I had also copied, pasted and printed off every bit of FB messages they sent me. Took me hours and hours to do all this work and have it ready for him today only to have him refuse to look at anything until I passed him over a $2000 retainer with the expectency of app. another $2000 more by the time we finished in court.

I was stunned, I figured there would be a retainer but was very naive, I guess, to think it would not be that high. Sad to say I do not have this kind of money available to me all within 6 weeks.

Does anyone know if this is the norm? I even went so far as to call Legal Aid to see if they could help me in any way, only to be told ..."due to budget cuts we no longer help with cases involving grandparents wanting access to their grandchildren". I guess that means grandparents are low on the totem pole.

At this point if I knew where they lived I would go and get on my knees and beg.

Next step....I just don't know...........