|
|
There is a sharp rise in the number of children who are being raised by someone other than their parents, mostly their grandparents. The main reasons for grand parents stepping in as parental role for children are substance abuse by parents, death of a parent, teenage pregnancy where parents are still not independent enough to look after a child, abandonment by parents, child neglect or abuse by parents, parents suffering from incurable diseases such as HIV/AIDS or are bedridden, parents who have been imprisoned for some offence, unemployment, poverty and lack of financial stability of parents, divorce of parents, family violence and mentally ill parents.
In such cases, grandparents often take on the role of parents to keep children out of the formal foster care system. However, there are many obstacles that they may face on the way. Some seniors find it difficult to find a proper housing facility within their income, where they can stay with their grandchildren. No one other than a parent can enroll a child in school in many countries or buy health insurance policies for them to secure their future. Thus, in such cases grandparents may have to go for adoption of their grandparents to get all legal parental rights with the options of legal custody or guardianship.
However, legally establishing a relationship with the grandchild may include lengthy legal proceedings against the parents including their own child and prove that they are not suitable to keep their kids. This can be emotionally difficult for the parents, grandparents and grandchildren. Only when the court ascertains that the parent is not ‘fit’ or the ‘interest of child’ is at stake, it will pass the right of parenting them to grandparents. At such a time, there can strains in family relationships too but everybody should keep the child's welfare as their primary concern and then make decisions.