Florida Grandparents Rights

[Tammy4191]

My question involves a child custody case from the State of:Flordia

OK so here is my question, My son and his ex-wife have shared custody of their son. My son and grandson and myself live in the same house, my son works full time I do not.
So i take care of my grandson during the week ( i wake up with him in the morning feed him breakfast,lunch dinner,watch nick jr all day with him, give him naps, bath him pretty much what a parent would do. He even comes to me when he is hurt or upset. I also lay down the rules and have to enforce them, I have been doing this for almost 3 years and he is 4. My concern is this my son will be joining the Navy soon and I am afraid that when he leaves the mother will not let me see him at all.
What if anything can i do for this not to happen? And no talking to the mother will not work, if its not her way or if you don't give her what see wants she throws a fit yes i said throws a fit. I will have my sons support on whatever i need to to do to make sure that I am still in my grandsons life when he goes to the navy.


Thank You

[Dogmatique]

I'm really sorry, but you have no chance whatsoever of obtaining grandparent visitation in the state of Florida.

You don't have standing to sue for custody either (and you'd have to sue both parents for custody - not just Mom).

[dwilliams309]

From what I have read, the custodial parent of the child is charged with providing care that provides for "the best interests of the child". I, as Tammy 4191 has done, have cared for my grandson since 4 mos. after he was born. My daughter and my grandson moved in with us. She re-married 30 days after her divorce, which we paid for. We also supported my daughter and grandson up until May 2012. I kept my grandson full time and then after a surgery I had, went to 2 days a week. At that point my daughter had remarried and decided that we couldn't keep our grandson except for the days I babysat for free for them. Therefore my husband and family couldn't see or spend any time with him because of working, school, etc. At this point, I made the decision not to keep him and see him on weekends, etc., so that the whole family could spend time with him.

The last time we saw our grandson, we were allowed to keep him 4 days to attend a college family weekend with our youngest daughter. That has been approx 1 month ago and now our daughter and son-in-law will not respond to repeated requests to see or visit with him on the phone, etc. We consulted with an attorney here in Fl who also said we had no Grandparents rights, but we could possibly "team up" with the ex who lives in Calif. and is not being allowed to see Aiden either because he is behind in his child support, so our daughter uses her son against all of us. All of this started about the time she re-married and we know that he is a jealous individual, so we suspect that he is the cause for this in order to keep peace in the house, but our daughter has broken off all communication with us, going so far as to hire an attorney to sue me for defamation and slander because she doesn't want me to talk about it to anyone. Could a case not be made for not providing to the best needs of the child? We played a parental role in this little boys life and now he is suddenly jerked out of our lives and us out of his. That cannot be good for him. When I have seen him after 2-3 weeks seperation, he just holds onto me and lays his head on my shoulder and hugs me non stop. We have to find a way to be in our grandsons life in Florida.

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Have you been able to come to any conclusion to protect your rights to see your grandchild?

[aaron]

If you have a question of your own, you should start your own thread.

[llworking]

You really do need to start your own thread...however, in FL the only way to guarantee that you see your grandchild is to make the parent(s) see you as a benefit to their family's life, rather than a detriment.