Grandparent Visitation-tx

Location: Texas

Hi there,
I will start this by saying we have an attorney and we are located in Texas. I more so am posting for secondary advice or clarity of grandparents visitation.

In February of 2026 my step-son’s mother passed away. We already had him in our custody as she passed during our scheduled weekend to have him. Without delving too much into the details of her death, I will just say, her death involved her other child (not ours) and he made some pretty serious abuse allegations. Given the fact she passed and the allegations we immediately got my step-son into therapy. His maternal grandparents (mom’s mom and mom’s step-dad) have been quite difficult to deal with. We took my step-son to be with his mom’s family the day we found out (which was the day AFTER she passed I should add) and we stayed for the entire day. Sun up until sun down. We have two other children who were with relatives while we took my step-son to be with his mom’s family. We obviously had to get back to them and allow my step-son, as well as, our other children time to digest and re-group. Prior to my step-son’s mom passing we had already planned and paid for a week long vacation. So, given the fact her death was all over local news we decided the vacation was needed even more so. While on vacation the maternal grandparents reached out wanting to see my step-son. We let them know we were out of state and left it at that. We get back and a month later the grandparents reached out again asking to see my step-son. It was the weekend of our youngest daughter’s birthday party and obviously we wanted him with us so we again explained we were busy. Another month goes by (by this point we already had an attorney that way we could get my husband sole custody and stop child support payments) the grandparents reached out again to see my step-son. However, the day before they reached out the maternal step-father called my husband’s boss trying to fish information out of him about my husband’s whereabouts, schedule, etc. this left a bad taste in our mouths and we decided we did not want further contact at the time. We had a neutral relative of ours reach out to them and explain we felt extremely uncomfortable with the fact they were reaching out to my husband’s boss. The neutral relative asked if they’d be willing to give us a copy of the death certificate to which the maternal step-father said “unless they allow us to see (my step-son) then we will not provide a death certificate.” Again, left a bad taste in our mouths as it’s clear they were using our child as a bargaining chip to get their way. Not to mention, neither of them have asked a single time in the now almost four months how our child is doing, if he’s okay, if he’s struggling, etc.

In April, after months of just ignoring their drama and schemes we get notified the maternal grandmother has intervened on our custody case. Luckily, we had already documented the situation with the maternal step-father reaching out to my husband’s boss, the denial of the death certificate, and some other concerns we had. Flash forward to May, we have our court date the judge explains the intervention is not allowed at a prove up hearing and tells the maternal grandmother she can intervene at a later time if needed.

We are now a month away from our final orders court date and were notified the maternal grandmother has now filed an affidavit in Support of Petition for Possession of or Access to a Grandchild. Given that my step-son’s mother has passed away I know she has legal standing to file, but we strongly feel given the abuse allegations, their behavior towards us, and the disregard for my step-son that it is not in his best interest to be around them. Prior to his mother passing they encouraged my step-son to refer to another man as his father, withheld my step-son from my husband, and were either participants or complacent in the neglect of my step-son.

My question is, how likely is it we will be forced to allow them to have visitation? Is the law truly protective of parental rights over grandparents rights in this situation? The judge has expressed to us that he believes grandparents should be involved (this was a generalized statement and he has not been presented with any evidence or documentation about WHY we have chosen to not allow visitation at this time)
I should also add, prior to the maternal grandparents behavior we told them that we wanted to get my step-son into therapy and get him adjusted to living with us full-time before allowing him to be bounced back and forth. They said they respected that decision at the time. Only to now be behaving as I’ve outlined above. The abuse allegations against my step-son’s mother by his older brother and the manner in which my step-son’s mother passed away are horrific. And are reason enough for us to be concerned for what my step-son and his brother endured. Given those facts we already had worries about how involved the grandparents were or how complacent they were given that they claimed to have both of these boys with them every weekend (every weekend we didn’t have my step-son, his brother was not as fortunate to have an escape every other weekend)

Sorry this is so long winded, I am just wondering from a legal standpoint what sort of things would be considered evidence for the grandparents to be granted visitation?

TLDR: Maternal grandparents fighting for visitation rights after the passing of their daughter. Numerous reasons why we feel it’s not in best interest of the child for them to have access. How likely is it they will succeed?