Aunt Bee as Mom, Stepmom, or Grandmom?

The longrunning, and often most-watched, 1960s television program, The Andy Griffith Show, featured Sheriff Andy, his son Opie and his Aunt Bee who lived with and cared for them. During the show, neither Andy nor Bee were married, nor were they intimate with each other. Opie had no mother, nor any man or woman beside Bee who regularly aided Andy in his upbringing.If Andy and Bee had a falling out in the 1960s, Opie would live with Andy and see Bee only as Andy determined. As a nonparent, Bee typically would have had no standing to seek court-ordered childcare, as might a stepparent or a grandparent. Andy had superior parental rights even if Bee could provide Opie with a much better home or much needed guidance.Today, while there are still few special American state childcare statutes for aunts, there are emerging both statutes and common law rulings recognizing childcare opportunities for de facto parents and for childcare-favored nonparents who are neither biological nor adoptive parents, and who often include former stepparents and grandparents.The benefits of expanded parentage and nonparent childcare orders over parental objection are clear – Opies need Aunt Bees (and Aunt Bees need Opies). While perhaps unhappy, Andy did invite Bee to help rear Opie. Any newfound displeasure by Andy with Bee may have nothing to do with Bee’s care for, or love of, Opie. Allowing courts to order continuing contact between Bee and Opie on Bee’s request and over Andy’s objection in order to serve Opie’s interests seems quite sensible. Absolute parental veto power over second parents and nonparents who seek childcare orders often is not what is best for children. Kids today live in a society where, as Justice Kennedy observed in Troxel v. Granville, “the conventional nuclear family ... is simply not the structure or prevailing condition in many households.”American state lawmakers now regularly debate the merits of absolute parental veto power and the circumstances for new parent and nonparent childcare standing. The trend clearly favors recognizing more new parents and more new childcare-favored nonparents. Yet there are limits as superior parental rights have federal constitutional protection. The extent of such protection, however, remains unclear, leaving state lawmakers with broad discretion. Many state lawmakers have exercised this discretion by deeming that parental consent to or allowance of nonparent childcare over some significant time constitutes a waiver of superior parental rights.The breadth of legal options available to state lawmakers on both new parents and nonparents who can seek childcare orders over parental objections are demonstrated herein by a review of recent and proposed laws addressing such matters as de facto parent and legal custodian. These developments raise questions about how to treat Aunt Bee today. Might she be designated a de facto parent? If not, does she merit nonparent visitation opportunities, via special statutes, as with grandparents and stepparents? Bee lived with Andy and Opie while acting in many ways as Opie’s mom. After a break with Andy, Bee would remain a family member, unlike a former stepparent who sometimes has childcare standing today. Bee always acted with Andy’s consent, which today can constitute a waiver of Andy’s superior parental rights. Why not treat Aunt Bee like a mom with no biological or adoptive ties, or like a stepmom or a grandmom with childcare standing? Should Andy always be able to negate any future relationship between Opie and Aunt Bee?