We think that every grandchild should have the choice, opportunity or right to see their (safe) grandparents. It is well-proven that the grandchild-grandparent relationship brings security, wisdom, love and support. This choice or opportunity currently links to the Children Act 1989, part of which is where children and young people should be part of any decision-making processes for anything relating to them.

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We also believe that the grandchild’s choice to see their grandparent should always be accounted for before the parent’s right to deny any ongoing access to the grandparent. Our parents have the legal responsibility for exercising our rights for our benefit.  

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We believe that many grandchildren are not able to see their grandparents because of serious family fallouts and feuds etc. The parents in the situation often shut their child down whenever the grandparent is mentioned, or they want to talk about them. This can cause a thing called ambiguous grief.

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An example of this is that the grandchild will feel uncertain if their grandparent even cares to see them (because they are not allowed to be mentioned) and the grandchild becomes stuck on missing the grandparent. This can lead to serious emotional damage and can make the grandchild not able to move on. This can also lead the grandchild to experience complicated grief.

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The consequence for the grandchild will therefore be bottling up all of this profound emotion which could make the grandchild resort to acting out in the form of aggression or anxiety. This is an expected but difficult part of both ambiguous and complicated grief types. Complicated grief is also long-term with the grandchild having difficulty accepting the loss and then experiencing emotional numbness over a long time.

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We think all this because we know if we did not get to see our grandparents we would not be as happy.