Comments on: Reporting for Doodie: A Grandma’s Tour of Duty http://gagasisterhood.com/reading/reporting-for-doodie-a-grandmas-tour-of-duty/ Sun, 05 Feb 2012 03:16:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Susan Adcoxhttp://gagasisterhood.com/reading/reporting-for-doodie-a-grandmas-tour-of-duty/#comment-335 Susan Adcox Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://gagasisterhood.com/?p=4152#comment-335 This sounds like a marvelous book, and Smith deserves kudos for stepping up to the challenge of filling in for deployed parents. Her situation is not usual, but deployment often presents grandparents with challenges.When a grandchild's parent is deployed, grandparents sometimes lose contact with that grandchild. When a child is a non-custodial parent, grandparents have access to their grandchildren through their child. That access can cease abruptly if the child is a soldier who is deployed.Some states have passed legislation allowing soldiers who are deployed to assign their visitation rights to another relative, but this isn't always the case. Grandparents may be able to use legal means to secure visitation rights, but it seems wrong for parents of soldiers to have to hire legal help to win their grandparents' rights.We need better, more consistent laws to assure grandparents of contact with their grandchildren in case of the deployment of a parent or parents. This sounds like a marvelous book, and Smith deserves kudos for stepping up to the challenge of filling in for deployed parents. Her situation is not usual, but deployment often presents grandparents with challenges.

When a grandchild’s parent is deployed, grandparents sometimes lose contact with that grandchild. When a child is a non-custodial parent, grandparents have access to their grandchildren through their child. That access can cease abruptly if the child is a soldier who is deployed.

Some states have passed legislation allowing soldiers who are deployed to assign their visitation rights to another relative, but this isn’t always the case. Grandparents may be able to use legal means to secure visitation rights, but it seems wrong for parents of soldiers to have to hire legal help to win their grandparents’ rights.

We need better, more consistent laws to assure grandparents of contact with their grandchildren in case of the deployment of a parent or parents.

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