[영문]This article explores changes in state laws that allow a grandparent to petition a court for visits with a grandchild, permitting a court to order visits over the objection of a fit parent. Such changes are altering the century-old rule that fit parents have a right to control the upbringing of their children. The changes allow the state to intervene in family life when intervention is in a child’s best interest, and the state does not have to prove a parent unfit in order to make such an intervention. Also, this article briefly considers court decisions that allow a nonrelative to petition for visitation and custody. It concludes by examining the implications of these decisions for the meaning of family and for social policy