Create Stability and Consistency When Disciplining Children
Video Transcribed: Should grandparents discipline their grandchildren? Hi, I’m Tulsa Grandparents Rights Attorney, Justin Mosteller and I’m going to spend a few minutes today talking to you about this topic.
Now it’s important to remember that a grandparent is not the parent, so any discipline that a grandparent does, even in the context of there being a grandparent visitation order, should be undertaken with the parent’s consent, and really it should be consistent with the discipline that the child receives in their own home.
It’s important to create stability and consistency when disciplining children, so if the parents have a rule about how they would like discipline to be done, it’s important that you follow that rule.
It’s also important that if you do have a situation where a child acts out, speak up. You can talk to the child. Obviously, that’s something that every grandparent has done and I know my grandparents certainly did.
But don’t talk about it in front of the child if you’re going to talk to the parents about the behavior. You don’t want to undermine the parent’s authority in any way. That relationship obviously is more important than the long run.
Grandparent visitation cases, unless we’re talking adoption and that’s a very specific circumstance, those parents are going to be the primary caretakers of these children. So make for sure that you are in lockstep with the parents as it concerns discipline and if you have issues about how the parent might be disciplining the child, bring that up alone with the parent. Make sure the child is not there when you do it.
Hopefully, this answers some of those questions. If you have any more questions, feel free to seek counsel from our office to speak with an Oklahoma Grandparents Rights Attorney, we’d be happy to help.