I am trying to protect my 5 year old daughter from an abusive situation and the law won't let me. Grandparents in Ohio have automatic rights to their grandchild if the mother is unmarried at the time of their childs birth. My sister and I both went through a childhood of physical and mental abuse and are both still seeking counseling for it. I had my daughter while I was unmarried and lived with my parents for 2 and a half years so I could get on my feet. I hated every second of it. While living at home I worked almost full time and went to college full time, triple majoring. Eventually I moved out, and while my parents still watched my daughter every so often while I worked, I was working on cutting the abusive ties with them. One night I went to pick my daughter up from their house and they wouldn't give her back, for no reason, forcing me to call the police. From there we cut all ties with them and they filed for grandparents rights along with filing police reports against my daughter's father stating that he mentally, physically, and sexually abused her.  They had no evidence of any of this and were only doing it to try and make us look bad.  We went to court and solely because I was unmarried at the time of her being born, they got visitation. I was even granted an emergency Civil Protention order and  Restraining Order against both of my parents due to the extent of what they were trying to do to my daughters father and I to get visitation with her, and the courts didn't seem to care.

Since the ruling they have a) sent the police to our house to do welfare checks on our daughter (with no reasoning behind them), b) filed more police reports about alleged abuse from her dad, c) appeared at her sporting events causing her great stress by them being there. She has told me she doesn't want to go to their house anymore, and I respect that. She is a very bright child who knows who she is and isn't comfortable around. I will not break the trust with my daughter by making her go somewhere she isn't comfortable. No one knows my child more than her father and I and the courts are suggesting otherwise. If I was married when she was born the law wouldn't apply to me. The grandparents rights law suggests that if you're a single mother that you are inept at taking care of your child and that you shouldn't have a say in who sees and is around your little one. I am seeking legal ramifications for trying to protect my child from the same abuse my sister and I went through, and the law won't allow me to. A parent should have the right to keep their child away from someone, whether they're blood or not. Please help me in changing this law so that single moms have a say in who their child is around, just as much as a married mother.