My spouse doesn't really want the kids but my spouse's parents are pushing him or her to press for more visitation. What can I do?

Until very recently, grandparents in Texas had very limited rights. They rarely, if ever, had standing to contest conservatorship on their own. This caused many grandparents to force their children who were ambivalent to fight ever more hard for custody. However, recent changes to the Family Code have given grandparents standing to sue for visitation in specific circumstances, and to occasionally intervene and try to seek custody on their own. The state's policy is generally to discourage grandparents from trying to take kids from a nuclear family but the "gray panthers" are a strong political body and we anticipate that grandparents will be given more and more rights in coming years.

We document almost daily the visiting parent who picks up a child for weekend visitation and drives to the grandparent's home, drops the kid off for a weekend visitation with grandparents and goes out and parties on the weekend and spends virtually no real time with the child. This is particular true when very young children are involved and the visiting parent is a male. Documenting this "child abandonment" over an extended period can demonstrate to the court the visiting parent's lack of real desire and his or her role as a proxy for an invisible grandparent. Our experience is that when thoroughly documented, the courts will often deal harshly with the trouble-causing parent who only wants the child to satisfy his own inheritance wishes.