As a fit divorced parent of two young children, I am petitioning in hopes that the grandparent's visitation rights in Virginia be terminated or amended. I am hoping to reach as far as the Supreme Court but even to start with the Virginia State Senate and their representatives would be helpful for my personal case.

Grandparent's rights should be secondary to parental rights and parents should have the right to raise their own children and decide with whom the children will exercise visitation as long as there is at least one fit parent involved in the child's life. Currently, Virginia law states that grandparent's visitation cannot occur unless a judge determines that it would serve a child's best interests and certain factors are met. If both parents object to a grandparent visitation the actual harm standard is applied.I believe that if one parent has full legal and physical custody of the children that they should be the ones that make the decisions about third party non-parental visitation with their children. 

Grandparent's visitation is a privilege, not a right. And while I do believe that grandparents can have positive influence on children, I also believe that there are instances such as mine where they could have a severely negative influence on children. If grandparents wish to participate in their grandchildren's lives they need to respect the boundaries and wishes of the child's parent to earn that privilege. By no means should a grandparent drag a fit parent through a court battle to try to gain access to grandchildren especially when there are known safety issues present.

As for me personally, if the law was changed I would be able to raise my two children in a safe and loving environment without worry of forced exposure to codependent and addictive family dynamics and I would have the freedom to choose who my children will associate with. I wish to change the law to help others who may face a similar problem in the future so that they will not have to endure an extremely financially and emotionally draining battle to defend their parental rights. It not only takes a toll on the parent but in turn will be a financial hardship on the children as well.