Paternal grandparents try to get custody of their 2-year-old granddaughter after her mother refuses to let her travel by herself to spend Christmas with them: ‘Now Clara is bigger and can travel without [her mom]’

There’s something suspicious about grandparents who act like they’re the child’s parents. Obviously, that’s normal if a grandparent is acting as a primary caretaker, but when the parents or parent of the child is fully competent and caring, it can get a little strange. If you’ve seen any posts from the Grandparents Rights movement, you know the kind of people I’m talking about. They believe that grandparents should have a legal right to be in their grandchildren’s lives, whether the parents want that or not. It’s often a movement populated by grandparents who weren’t good parents to their children or extremely politically radical parents who can’t set that aside and prioritize their relationship with their family. 

The grandparents in this story don’t really fall under either of those categories. Their son, the father, passed during the mother’s pregnancy, and over time, they’ve gotten more and more possessive over their 2-year-old granddaughter.