Yesterday Marc and I went to meet our new MP, we discussed the work done in Bristol Grandparents Support Group and what we have achieved in 11 years.
As there has been a government reshuffle it means that those Ministers who had given us their support have now moved departments and we are back to the beginning,
It does become somewhat tedious to keep going over and over old ground, it is one step forward and two steps back.
In the meantime the grandchildren are growing up and are no longer the little children they were when we first started to be a voice for them.
Once again I had to press the point that it is not about Grandparents Rights but the rights of the grandchildren, I feel like a lone voice more often than not.
When we had our meeting in November with the Minister of state for Justice, I felt positive and buoyed up, we asked all members of BGSG to write to their MPs as a result of the meeting. The more emails or letters MPs received about this issue the better, and is evidence of the thousands of people affected.
Sadly, as always, the response was negligible, thank you to those who did write, and it always the same people. For the social epidemic of estrangement/alienation to be taken seriously people do have to be proactive.
It isn’t about the responses it is the fact that MPs get inundated with correspondence on the subject.
As an organisation there is only so much we can do, we need others to help.
Changes, will not happen overnight or even quickly, they won’t help our own grandchildren, but change must happen to help the next generation coming through.
A cultural change, for healthy, loving relationships for the grandchildren, their right to an ongoing relationship with grandparents and extended family after family breakdown.
Jane