Welcome.


Hi everyone and welcome to Bristol Grandparents Support Group blog. Although we are Bristol based we have grandparents from all over the UK and beyond as members.

It is estimated that over one million children in the UK are denied contact with their grandparents due to family breakdown which may have been caused by divorce/separation, alcohol/drug dependency,domestic violence,bereavement or family feud.
Every child has the right to have contact with their grandparents
if they wish and unless proven unsafe for them to do so. To deny contact from a parent or grandparent has to become as socially unacceptable as drink driving.
I hope to keep you up to date with what is going on in BGSG and I shall continue to campaign for the rights of children to have a loving and meaningful relationship with both parents and their extended family. So please join in as good to hear your views, not just mine!
I also will support via Skype.
There is no membership fee to be part of Bristol Grandparents Support Group.
Esther Rantzen says, " To every grandparent, links of love can never be broken in our hearts."

Please contact during office hours.
07773258270


Tuesday, 29 April 2014

Destructive criticism.

If you search the internet you can find literally hundreds if not thousands of self help, support groups, charities, therapy centres, forums, on the subject of denied contact, Parental Alienation, family breakdown all giving help and advice.
Or are they?
Since 2007 I have read, listened and spoken to many different people, all who are either experiencing or are trying to help those who are going through the devastation of being apart from a child or grandchild.
People look to these organisations for answers when they are at their lowest ebb.
Some people will find different organisations/groups helpful to them, what is absolutely not helpful is the way that the people who are in 'control' (horrible word) continually seem to take these organisations/groups to task.
They will do their best to undermine others, by discrediting them publicly. Criticising them ect.
To the people who are looking for help and support, they don't care about the internal make-up of these organisations/groups, they just want to have somewhere and someone to talk to, now this moment.
The whole issue of family breakdown and the needs of children is massive, it is a global problem.
This is the time when everyone should be coming together, working together being constructive not destructive.
Looking in from the outside, all that can be seen is people who are supposed to be there to help  constantly involved in almost play ground behaviour of in fighting.
Yet again a perfect example to me that being independent apparently is the only way to be.
The really sad thing about this is that, we all find ourselves in being denied contact of a child/grandchild because someone wanted to be in control, and actually these spats that occur are also about someone wanting to be in control.
Having said all of that, the people who make a real difference every single day are the volunteers who run local branches and support groups, they are there for people just when they need them most. Selfless people with nothing to gain but to be  safe in the knowledge that they have put a smile back on someones face they have given someone hope and they have given the most precious thing of all their time.
Thank you to you all.
Jane
www.bristolgrandparentssupportgroup.co.uk



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