Challenges You May Face If You Don't Get Legal Custody Of Your Live-In Grandkids

If your grandkids currently live with you because their parents are not taking care of them properly, it might be wise to talk to a family lawyer about obtaining legal guardianship of these kids. Without this legal title, you may encounter a variety of different challenges, including the following three.

Health care

Even if your grandkids have health insurance, you may not be able to utilize it to the fullest. While their doctor might treat them for normal issues, you will not have the right or legal ability to make any medical decisions on their own. This could pose huge issues if there is an emergency that needs immediate medical attention and decisions, or if you would like the doctor to answer questions you may have about the kids.

In addition, if the kids do not have health insurance, you may have trouble adding them to your policy if you do not have guardianship rights for them.

Psychiatric care

When kids must move into a home other than the one they are used to, they can develop problems. They can have trouble adjusting to a new home and new life, and they often have a lot of anger built up inside. Because of this, many children in this situation will require some type of counseling service.

If you take them to a counselor, the counselor might have the ability to talk to the kids. Unfortunately, you would not have the legal right to be involved. The counselor would not have the authorization to give you details about the visits or recommendations for the child. This is something counselors can only do with a minor's legal guardian.

Visitation rights

One other thing to consider with this issue is visitation. If you do not have legal guardianship, it will be hard to stop the parents from showing up whenever they want to or taking the kids with them if they feel like it. Not only can this be confusing to the kids, but it can be hard for you as well.

With legal guardianship, you can set up a visitation schedule. This will put boundaries in place for the parents, yet it will give them the opportunity to spend time with their kids at certain times or days.

If you want to avoid these issues and feel like this is a long-term problem, seeking legal guardianship rights might be a good step to take. To learn more, contact a family lawyer, like one from Spillman and Partners, today.