My niece has a 3 year old son. His father died shortly after she found out that she was pregnant. They were not married. The paternal grandmother was very clingy with this child, understandable since he is the only ties left to her deceased son, however, it has gotten significantly worse as time went on. This woman had regular visitation a few hours each week with the child in her home as well as stopping by the mother's home to visit. While the random visits when ever she felt like popping in were annoying at times, the mother obliged out of respect for the grandmother. As time went by it became apparent that this grandmother was not mentally/emotionally balanced. She would make references to the child as if he were her deceased son. Ex: One day she was holding him and she made the comment, "It is such a relief to feel him breathing again." She began drinking more and more, and eventually ended up divorcing her husband. She then ended up in a mental facility as well as in a drug/alcohol rehab. Neither helped since she is still drinking and is definitely still mentally unbananced. Her ex boyfriend also has a PFA order against her. My niece found out that she had been drinking during her visitations and on one occasion even took him in the car, while intoxicated, to the liquor store. She then stopped visitation and out of fear for her child's safety told her she could only have supervised visitation. This woman has since been making my niece's life miserable. She stalks her, she has called the police on her numerous times for random stupid things, most of which she made up in her own head. She has called DCFS on my niece 3 times in the past several months. All of the reports end up being false. It is to the point that the authorities are convinced she is nuts as well but they can't/won't do anything until they actually catch this woman in the act of doing these things i.e.. Stalking, harassing, etc. She has made numerous threats to other people about my niece, but has never made them directly to her so they will not do anything. She is now threatening to take custody of the child. My niece is worried. I know there is no chance that she can get custody, especially with the way she has been acting, but my niece fears that the court will give her unsupervised visitation. She has no qualms about her son seeing his grandparents, the child's paternal grandfather and his wife have vistation every other weekend and have been doing so all the child's life so it is not an issue of wanting to keep the paternal family from the child. This woman is unstable and my niece fears for her child's physical safety as well as emotional/mental safety. She doesn't want to rip his grandmother out of his life, however she refuses to subject him to the risks that being alone with this woman may present. Is there a chance that she could get unsupervised visitation considering all of her 'issues'?

There is always a chance that she could get unsupervised visitation. I don't see it if your niece can prove her allegations but nothing in Court is 100% guaranteed.

The Law in PA is:

"Currently, Pennsylvania recognizes the rights of grandparents to seek visitation, partial physical custody, or primary physical custody of their minor grandchildren. The grandparents must prove that the requested custody would be in the best interests of the minor child or children and would not interfere with the relationship between the parent and child.
One of the most recent cases involving grandparents' rights evolved through the Armstrong County courts. In the case of K.B., II, K.B. and B.B. v. C.B.F., the Armstrong County trial court judge awarded primary physical custody of a minor child to his paternal grandparents even though the trial judge found the child's mother to be fit. Attorney Vari was hired to represent the mother to file an appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court. In the Superior Court, Attorney Vari argued that only if a parent is declared unfit should grandparents have the right to seek primary physical custody of their minor grandchildren. While Attorney Vari was successful in having the minor child returned to the custody of his mother, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania held that grandparents have the right to sue parents for primary physical custody of their grandchildren even if the parents are deemed to be fit parents. On January 2, 2004, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to review the Superior Court's ruling on the K.B., II, K.B. and B.B. v. C.B.F. case.
After the United States Supreme Court case of Troxel v. Granville was decided, some parents have argued that it is unconstitutional for a state court to award even partial custody or visitation to grandparents if the parent disagrees with the grandparents' request for partial custody or visitation. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has not yet decided whether Pennsylvania's grandparent visitation statutes are constitutional in light of the Troxel case although there are recent Superior Court opinions finding the statutes constitutional."

There is always a chance that she could get unsupervised visitation. I don't see it if your niece can prove her allegations but nothing in Court is 100% guaranteed.


Thank you for replying. My niece had her hearing Monday. The grandmother got supervised visitation at the discretion of my niece.

Thank you for replying. My niece had her hearing Monday. The grandmother got supervised visitation at the discretion of my niece.



Thank you for coming back and letting us know how things worked out - sounds like they worked out well and very much in the best interest of the child!