The Idea For A Grandparent Visitation Order Is To Maintain Contact And Maintain The Preexisting Relationship
Video Transcribed: Oklahoma Grandparents Rights attorney Justin Mosteller with the Wirth Law Office, and I’m going to discuss how much time a grandparent can reasonably expect to receive from a court when they’re seeking grandparent visitation.
Now, in other videos, we’ve discussed how a grandparent might qualify to seek a visitation order in Oklahoma, but this is going to focus on a question that many of my clients who are in that situation ask, and that is, “How much time can I get?”
A grandparent should never expect to receive as much visitation with the child as a noncustodial parent would. If you’re going into the case expecting to get every other weekend visitation or week on, week off visitation, that’s not realistic.
What is realistic is expecting something along the lines of one weekend a month and a share of holiday time. The idea for a grandparent visitation order is to maintain contact and maintain the preexisting relationship between the grandparent and the grandchild. Typically that’s around the amount of time that courts will order in those scenarios.
Now, one thing to consider is that the visitation cannot overly interfere with the child’s ability to participate in other facets of life, such as extracurricular activities or time with other family members. The visitation with grandparents needs to be narrowly tailored and focused on maintaining that relationship and giving the grandparent a continuing role in the child’s life. We all know how important that role can be. Grandparents are incredibly important to the development of children. Study after study has shown that children who have good relationships with grandparents on both sides of the family tend to do better in adulthood. It’s really important. Let’s get that order entered by the court and let’s get that visitation going.
If you’ve been denied contact with your grandchild, contact our office at (918) 932-2800.