My child has died, and I believe my grandchildren would be better off living with me than with the surviving parent. Missouri courts view parents as the natural guardians of their children. They have the primary right to custody. This right can only be taken away in a legal proceeding where it is shown that the parent is unfit, unsuitable or unable to care for the child or that the welfare of the child demands that custody of the child be awarded to a person other than a parent. A parent's right to custody exists even when the grandparents actually have physical custody of the children.
Grandparents can obtain custody of grandchildren if the parent voluntarily allows it.
Otherwise, to gain custody, grandparents will have to take the parent to court. As in all decisions involving children, the court will consider the welfare of the children to be the most important thing. Neither of the parents is contributing. If grandparents furnish the support, they may go to court to try to make the parents pay back the funds. To recover the money, however, it must be clear the grandparents did not intend the support to be in the nature of a gift.