Are grandparents legally obliged to take care of their grandchildren?
Legal analysis
According to relevant laws and regulations, parents who are dead or unable to support them need to be raised by grandparents. Parents have the obligation to raise and educate their children, and children have the obligation to support and assist their parents. Generally speaking, the legal guardians of minors are their parents. Under special circumstances, grandparents, brothers and sisters and other related parties can act as guardians. Grandparents with financial means have the obligation to support their minor grandchildren whose parents have died or whose parents are unable to support them. Grandchildren and grandchildren who can afford it have the obligation to support their grandparents whose children are dead or unable to support them. Minors or children who cannot live independently have the right to ask their parents to pay alimony when their parents fail to perform their alimony obligations. To sum up, grandparents have no obligation to support their grandchildren if their parents have guardianship ability and have not been disqualified from guardianship, but once they become the legal guardians of their grandchildren, they have certain obligations to support them according to relevant laws and regulations.
legal ground
People's Republic of China (PRC) Civil Code
Article 27 Parents are guardians of minor children. If the parents of minors are dead or have no guardianship, the following persons with guardianship shall serve as guardians in turn: (1) grandparents; (2) brothers and sisters; (three) other individuals or organizations are willing to act as guardians, but with the consent of the residents' committee, villagers' committee or civil affairs department of the minor's domicile.
Article 1084 The relationship between parents and children shall not be destroyed by the divorce of parents. After the divorce, the child is still the child of both parents, whether or not the parents directly raise him. After divorce, parents still have the right and obligation to raise, educate and protect their children. After divorce, children under two years old are directly raised by their mothers. For a child who has reached the age of two, if both parents fail to reach an agreement on the issue of support, the people's court shall make a judgment based on the specific circumstances of both parties and the principle of being most beneficial to the minor children. Children over the age of eight should respect their true wishes.