Unmarried Couples and Parenting: A look at the legal rights of parents and their children

My X and I were never married..my son is now 14 and his father has not made contact with him since 2005 and has always had our phone number where we were not given access to his number.I want to have his parental rights removed so my husband can legally adopt him. What do I do as my first step and is this a choice for us?

need information on getting my child support reduced in two different States MO & Ia.

my x and i were never married but were together for 3 year when he left he wanted nothing do to with our daughter. about a year later when he met his new wife he chanced his mind. after that they took her from me and kept her away for about 3 years or so but when she decided she wanted the child support they let me see her. well to make this long thing short he has custody and i have had her with me for 4 years now and he has not called or try to she her how can i get him for abandonment

My son's father and I were together for 3 years but never married. I left my X cause he was a cheater and abusive. He is now married and has a child with her. However, he has been filling her head with lies about me so now she is slandering me on a public website. She is also saying things like I stole our son when I moved out of state and so forth. Which is not true by any means. I am worried they will try and get joint or even full custody just because they know it will hurt me. My sons father hasn't seen him sense 2004. I have always given him my number and address everytime they have changed and he still didn't call or send cards or anything for our son. I don't recieve child support because I was on state assistance for day care and I really don't want his support I have gone so long with out it anyways. I just want to know what I can do to get all his rights taken away and pretty much be nonexistant. Any advise?

My son & daugter-in-law are giving us custody of our granddaughter. We would like to do the papers ourselves. Is there a way we can, to stop all the extra expense?
Everyone is agreeing to this. We really want it to go easy.

My ex-boyfriend and myself were never married and do not live together. We have a daughter together. My daughter lives with me. She can stay with her dad whenever she likes, we live near each other. Do we need any type of custody documents file with the courts. I was told since we was never married I have sole custody of my daughter. Is this true?

my boyfriend and i are getting married in 2 months and he would like to adopt my son. My son's biological father left 4 years ago when my son was 3 weeks old and i have no idea how to find him. Besides that problem my boyfriend is on parole so we dont even know if its possible for him to adopt since he is a fellon. Is it possible for him to adopt or are we wasting our time?

me and my ex were tigether for almost 5 yraers and we now have a 3 month old ive raised her since beith and my name is on the birth certifacacte d D N A has not been established yet my ex said she cheated on me so if i take my daughter from the day care with a police officer present and i keep her til DNA is proven shes not mine can i legaly do it or not

My ex-boyfriend of 10yrs and I have a 5yr, he has really never done anything for our son I have always done everything. He got someone else pregnant allegedly and now he doesn't want anything even more to do with my son so I want to file for full custody I'm in California so how do I go about doing so. I don't call him but he calls asking me for things not pertaining to my son he doesn't even come by to see my son and he lives 5 mins away, he at one point signed a note saying he would help me with childcare for my son but he never stuck to it. This new child is 7 months and he acts as if this child is his world so I have become fed up and I want to move on with the life of me and my son.

My ex-boyfriend and I were together for 2 years and 8 months. In December 2008 I got pregnant by a different guy. I did not know at the time, that my boyfriend was not the dad. So when our son was born, he signed the acknowledgment of paternity. We were not married. His name is on the Birth Certificate. We want to leave it that way, cause the real dad does not do much with the baby. Also the real grandparents are trying to take our rights to the baby. What can my ex-boyfriend do to stop this. He is still his legal father, and I want it that way. He was a good dad to our son, and I know he still would be. I need answers quick, the court date is in September. Please help me and my ex keep our baby.

My boyfriend and I have lived together for 15 years. We have a 9 year old son together. My name is not on the property. Do I have any rights to it? It is a working farm and I have always taken care of the books,officde stuff and finaces for 15 years, and our home. I have worked off and on outside the home but am currently unemployed. He got busted about 6 years ago and is now off of probation but I believe he has returned to his previous habits but I cannot find physical evidence to support my theory. I need to know what rights I have

ive been in my little girls life since she was born she is now 21 and now child support wants to make me pay .and her mom told her she had to file on me or get a warrent on her ,,and she told them she didnt want any money from me to drop it and they are trying to force her is there a document i can fill out or what can we do

my friend is having a baby and wants me to raise the baby. can we do this without involving the courts or a lawyer. i want to be legally protected in case she changes her mind at a later date. is there a document to terminate her parental rights. i live in Colorado.

i was in a relationship with a man for 2 years, we had
a wonderful baby girl. the father and i have been separated
for 18 months, and i want to develop some kind of custody
arrangement through court. do you have a custody document for the state of oklahoma.

My unmarried daughter has lived in Arizona with her 12 year old son for 3 years. What forms does she need to get child support from the father? A related question is this, he signed an agreement about 10 years ago to supply a specific child support of $300 a month, but has made onlyl a handful of payments; is there a form which will enable my daughter to to require the father to pay what he owes according to that previous agreement which was not a court order but a private agreement?

ineed papers for cusitdy

An additional fact re the question above: the father resides in California.

Why dose a father have to pay the court so much money to file papers on top of the amount of chidlesuport just to have the right to his son? In MI. it cost $150. dollers to to file papers just to get the the friend of the court to hear his case while the mother dose not have to pay a single cent to have the suport rased.?

grandma has custody we have a great relationship .She will gladly agree to make an ajustment to the order but she wants me to pay for it .Well I don;t know where to start could you please push me in the right direction.You know step 1 step 2 and so on.

Need a document for common law marriage. How can I obtain that? They mention it in the insurance policy but they don't tell how to obtain it. This would be in the state of Kansas

Thank you

My daughter was born in Tx and now we live in CA. I never added the fathers name on the birth certificate. However, he is now in my daughters life and he also lives in CA. I have two issues he wants to add her on his medical insurance through work however will we have problems adding her to his insurance through Kaiser. He is willing to do a paternity test to show proof he is the father.

Second question how do I go about adding his name to the birth certificate? Do I have to go through the state of Texas or CA to apply for affidavit Amend a Birth Record? Im getting a straight answers from either State agency.

thanks for any feedback

My friend's son lives in Florida with his girlfriend and their son (an infant). His name is on the birth certificate. I wondered if he also needs to go through a legitimization process to ensure that, if they were to break up, he would have full legal parental rights in regard to the child. I know you have no legitimization documents, I just need to know if that process is required in Florida. Thanks for your feedback.

I wanted to know where I can find documentation for termination of parental rights in the state of Texas. The father has agreed to sign these documents and there is no objection in his side. Thank you.

I wanted to know how I can get my three girls back. They were taken from me from and given to there dad by court. At the time I was not working or had transportation. In court he lied about everything but I did not have a lawyer like he did and they granted him my girls. When he took them away was not good. My girls were taken away from me since 2008. My girls have been want to come home they write letters to the judge so i can take but dont know what to do. My girls have been throught a lot with him. I have a picture my daughter sent to me that the step wife took of them naked. My daughters are not babies. My oldest 12, then 11, my youngest 9. He hurts them in ways that i dont think a father should do to children. I have video that my daughter took of the step mother hitting my middle child to wake up to go to school. I have had all this information for a long time. Till this day my daughters want to come home but are afraid to talk to a jugde about there dad cause they are scared. Please help me. I want my girls back. I have a job now, a place to live and transportation. My daughters mean the world to me and i want them back and they want to come back.
People have told me let my girls speak to a jugde but the live a bit away. That they are old enough to speak and tell a jugde where they want to stay is that true? can i get them back that way. please help anything will help me start.

My sons father and I were never married we have a son together. Recently I moved out of state and my sons father sued me for full custody, being that said his case was thrown out of court. Im now going back to south carolina were the father lives and i want my son to see his father. Is that a bad idea? Can he take him and not give him back?
What should I do. I cant afford an attorney?

My Girlfriend and i where together 3 years in Colorado, She is almost three months pregnant. She moved back to her home state of Iowa 3 weeks ago. I want Custody because she is not fit i.e. smokes while she is pregnant. I dont know if i need a CO. or IA. Lawyer? And what my first steps should be...please advise! Thank you!

My son dated this element and she made sure to get pregnant by him because she never had anything in her life and she thought he was rich only because he lived with me and I have a nice house, because I work hard, and she moved in right away, when I found out she was pregnant I was in a state of agony. This element is nothing but trouble & lazy.
I only met the baby after DNA was done because she told me that she was molested by 2 of her cousins that live in the same house she did from the age of 11 until 22.
When she told grandmother about the rape the grandmother told her she had to forgive these mf. Now this low life
piece of crap is my grandaughter's mother and she does not take good care of the child or herself(drugs) she only uses people. So I put her out of here. My son wants custody. The courts always favor the mother. What do I have to do next?

I was unfaithful to my wife and impregnated another woman who will soon be receiving child support. I agreed to take care of the child financially ONLY! Is it possible for me to terminate my parental rights as I did not want the child from the very start. What can I do to start the process?

I there a legal document for an agreed child support settlement without having to go to court and get lawyers?

I live in MO and my son and his ex girlfriend have a son they were together for a while after he was born. My son went to prison and she had a affair with his brother (my other son) and they broke it off. my son was released from prison and she let him see the baby one time and then that was it he gave her money on a continous bases and bought clothes for him then broke parole and is back in now. She refuses to let me or anyone else in his family see the baby and I woould like to know if you can give me any advice on Grandpartents rights and the forms I need to fill out for this. Will I have to go though a lawyer or is this something that I can do myself?

All I want is the legal documents to file for child abandonment on my sons mother whom he has not seen in over 2 years, and not even spoke him to for roughly the same. I am with in my rites to do so in the state of Tx. I just do not have the funds for a lawyer @ 5000.00 of cost to so. I wish to protect my son from the event that ;if anything happened to me my ex would have full parental rites , when the only reason she would want him ,is for the monitary value he would bring in ,so she could buy more drugs.

My Son and his ex girlfriend have a daughter. He wants to be very involved with his daughter and share custody. The mother calls all the shots, denies him visitation, has never let him go to a doctor visit or let his daughter spend the night with him. She is using the baby as a tool to hurt him. How can he get equal visitation rights and ensure that she can't control everything? The cost for him to file papers for joint custody is 450.00 Is ther something else he can also do? Is ther a legal document to file for visitation rights?

I need to have my name removed from a birth certificate of a child that is not mine. Im in NC. They said I need a court order. What do I need to do?

hi so my son is 10 months old me aND HIS DAD NEVER MARRIED been split up since our son was 6 weeks old has now decided he wants to play games and not let me have my son back we have been agreeing on seeing him back and fourth between our selfs and now the cops tell me theres nothing i can do besides it paper work field but with the my attorney and then the can enforce something but thats not true either because i have paper work with my oldest daughter and when i go to get her with the police they dont do anything besides say there gona write a report and send it the prosuters office and still dont get my kid? plZ help

I was dating with this guy for couple of months.
On end of January 2010, I found out i was pregnant. He did not want to do anything with me. I still have not contact with him, I dont even know where he is at... Now my son is 13 months old. What am i going to do? Filing him a child support with no visitations?

Young single parent of a 4 yr old , I am a fulltime student, I have not heard or seeing the father in about 3 years but recently I received a court order and I was curious, is there any way possible I could have full medical coverage for my son without any charges being pressed on the father? Like I said I do not work and we survive off unemployement and financial aid. ......i could careless if the father pays child support even though he never has ... But simply is there other options I could continue our medical insurance without involving him?

I was dating this guy for almost a year when I found out I was pregnant. Then he tells me that he is married. I honestly had no idea. We stayed together every night at his place but mostly mine. Now that I had my baby girl his wife found out and now they are trying to take me to court to get full costody of her. Are there any papers or something I can do so that they can't take my baby girl away from me?

My girlfriend gave birth to a beautiful baby girl nine months ago. We were broken up when she learned she was pregnant, six weeks into her pregnancy we got back together. Since then we have decided that we want to get married and our daughter is everything to us. We both believe that I am the bio father, yet there is a chance that I might not be. No one was listed as the father on the birth certificate. The other man that could possibly be the father is not involved in my girlfriend or our daughters life what so ever and he never knew of the pregnancy. There are no concerns that he would ever want to have anything to do with our daughter. We have not had a DNA test nor will there ever be one, she is my daughter either way. She was given her mothers last name at birth. Like I said we plan to be married but there is no rush. However, we do want to go ahead and change our daughters last name to mine. We are want to know what forms are required and what steps we need to take in the state of SC to do that. I have heard that here in SC we would have to have my name added to the birth certificate as the the father. I wanted to know if that was the case and if my girlfriend has to have some form of a living well?

My boyfriend and I had a baby 6 weeks ago - we are and and were never married - we do not live together but are still in a committed relationship we both take care of our daughter.

How do determine who Claims the baby on their Income Tax? Can we both claim her since we both care for her?

I was with my boyfriend for 2years and he ended up going to jail on drug charges, I knew that was my chance to leave and start over because he was very abusive. We have a 3yrs old together,but he hasn't seen him sence he was a year an ahalf,he also sighned his birth certificate..I don't understand what kind of rights he has,or if I have sole custody? Not sure where to start from there.

Hello,
I reside in Iowa with my 3 1/2 year old daughter. I was never married to the father of my child and we never lived together and were together only for a few months. The father of my daughter is on the birth certificate and we just finished a 3 year legal battle to determine custody and visitation. We share legal custody but I am the primary custodial parent. His approach in this matter is treating her like territory and he confuses her about her surname and states her real last name is his even though on all legal documents including her social security and birth certificate lists my last name as her legal name. My question is can he petition the court to get her last name changed? He is confusing her and now she doesn't know what her last name is, as before she was proud to state her entire name and had confidence in stating it. What does Iowa law state for legal name change? Again, I was never married and intend to keep my last name for her benefit and less confusion for her.

I live in Missouri Can my girlfriend move our daughter out of state legally without my consent??

My boyfriend, and his ex girlfriend have a baby together. Now she refused to put his name on the birth certificate, and he's seen his son for about 10 hours in the total of his 2 year old life. I need to know how to help him fix this. I've always known he's wanted to be apart of his sons life but I don't know how to help. Can anyone tell me what kind of rights he has. We live in Illinois. But his child is in Indiana. About an hour away.

Hello,
I am a CT resident and so was my girlfriend for 10 years. We have been together since the first day of college and have been together for 15 years now. We have a 17 month old beautiful baby girl together. My girlfriend is from MN and most of her family lives in WI. For holidays we would drive to WI to visit but this past Thanksgiving (2010) we got into an argument about a time she cheated on me with my best friend, so I told her I was not going to go out of anger. I was still planning on going as I did not want her to be alone with our child as I was a stay at home dad who took full care of her and freelanced for my old company. She made a flight behind my back and told my family she would be returning the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. At first she would talk to me every other day, but it has been 2 1/2 months and I have not spoke to her in 2 weeks. She only allowed me to talk to me daughter twice and I skyped with her once, where she was so happy to see me. I do have court papers and am going to file soon, I am taking a parenting class to deal with these hardships, but I cannot afford a lawyer at this time. She has moved into her parents house where her mother abused my girlfriend when she was younger and I am so scared and nervous because she will not answer any of my daily calls. Any advice would be greatly appreciated and help me get through the hardest time in my life.

Thank You.

Hi i shared a life with a man for eight years,trusted him completely we had a child that is now 4.He turned my sons& my world upside down when he left without.He was are whole life.I coulnt get intouch with him i finly went to see him were i thought he was.when arrived he had someone else.My son and i were treated my his motherenlaw cruely he wouldnt see either of us.sence then i have found out disturbing thing,i done eveything i could do to let him visit with his son but he only wanted me to let him take him not knowig were or what was going on in his life.he would not talk ton me or work with me in anyway.now i have been served with papers need legal help.and my concernes have only been have i been doing right thing for my son.My son has been 100% better kid sence his father has been gone

if i get a civil protection order for myself, my boy friend and for my 2 boys, on my younger sons father can he still get rights.him and i were never married. he told me that he wished our son wasnt here. this is in ohio

I have two friends who are not married and they been togeter on and off for 3 yrs They recently broke up and during their split up she got pregnant and told my friend he is the dad he has txt messages from her saying he is and Facebook messages saying he is .. He is excited and told her he is willing to be there for the baby .. She in the mean while decided to do drugs while pregnant and when she gave birth she did not tell him she gave the baby up for adoption and the baby had heroin in his system ... The the guy she has been telling he is the father and him telling her the whole time she is pregnant he is willing to care for and will do anything for the baby and after the baby was born he still wanted the baby stated to her and many others.. Since she gave the baby up for adoption and signed her rights away how can he go about to get his child back and what trouble can she be in since the potential father was lied to and she lied to the adoption agency about him not knowing and wanting to be apart of the childs life He is looking for a lawyer but was curious if he will ever get his son back .. plz help and this is in MO

my boyfriend & i have been together for 10 years and we have a 4 year old son. When i had my son he father was at work and was not able to sign the bithcertificate. how can i get him on it. what do we need to do?

My girlfriend and I split up about six months ago and we have a 14 month old daughter together. My name is on the birth certificate and she has my last name. Since our split up, my ex told me that I would have our daughter every Thursday through Sunday, and she has her Monday through Wednesday. We all see how convenient it is for her because she likes to go to bars and drink with her friends. She already is living with another man and my family and I can see problems because she is threatening me almost every week that she will never let me see our daughter again. What can I legally do as a single father ? We live in Arizona and I am not familiar with the laws.

I live with my boyfriend. i have 2 kids. can their fathers get my kids taken from me because my boyfriend lives with me?

I am going to have a baby soon and I want someone who is not related to the child to be able to have the same rights of a parent as i do, I guess you would call it joint custody or adoption. This way if something happens to me, that is who the child will be with. Do you have any documents for that? Or can you point me in the right direction of someone who does?

I need a form that will release my husband from any financial obligation to a child of mine that is not biologically his. I am pregnant through embryo donation and he has decided he does not want to participate in the raising of this child and we are separating. Is there a form that is specific to non biological children in a marriage?

At the time of my son's brith his father and I were living together (unmarried)but shortly after my son turned 2mos old we split. My son is now 14mos old and his father has little to no contact and has put all financial responsibility on me, my son was given his fathers last name but I'm considering changing it. Can I do this without having to get permision from my ex?

my son and his girlfrend have been together for a year i have met her dad and we get on if me and my partner got marryed were would my son and his girlfrend stand if thay wanted to get marryed we are not related in any way

how can my boyfriend an i go about him legally adopt her??? how long after we have been living with my boyfriend can he adopt her without her biological father contesting it??? her biological father has had no contact with her an has not seen her an wants nothing to do with her an she is now a year old...

My ex girlfriend and I has a 5 year old and we have joint custody and she has visitation rights of every other Saturday and alternating holidays only. She is very neglectful and I have documentation proving such. in the past she neglected to take him to have surgery he really needed and has refused to get him help he need for his speech and developmental delay. She also has 3 other children all by different men and she has no idea who their fathers are. But that is irrelevant I mentioned her other children to say she took pictures of her 6 months old playing with an electric plug and posted it online. There have been other instances but we would be here all day. Well here is the point my son told me he was molested and some man played with his rear end and his male organ . I immediately got him to a doctor, and contacted cps. They ran an investigation and it was dropped because he didn’t know the guys name as she has several strange men that she meets on the internet in and out of her house. A few days later he touched my youngest daughter in her private area by him I mean my son because he was copying what happened to him. CPS then opened a case against me but it was thrown out bc they are children. I don’t blame her for the actual act but my son adamantly states he told her about it and her reply was i will never let anything like that happen again. She refused to contact the authorities and she denies it ever happens to everyone else. As a result i got a lawyer and I am suing for sole custody with supervised visits. I’ve been told by several people because she is his mother im wasting my time. Does anyone think i have a case and that this thing will really be in the best interest of my child by never being put in this situation again?

My sister has been going to court for over a year now against her Ex for visitation of my niece. It was an abusive relationship that has only gotten worse. His mother has since added my niece to her insurance using false information without my sisters consent. My sister is the primary guardian and her father only has custody when she is in his care. As a result my sister has been unable to use her own insurance to cover my niece. My question is can my sister legally do anything to get my niece off of her grandmothers insurance since 1. she (the grandmother) lied to her employer to get my niece on, 2. my sister never gave consent and 3. my sister has her own insurance and her father does not? We live in CA, any advice would be great!

My son is 3months old i am not married the father said he wanted to be a father but he has since changed his mind and is leaving my son and I. I wish to remove his middle and last name from my sons name is this still possible without a lot of hassle?? and how do i go about doing this?? can you help me?

my son is almost 1 year old. I had him while dating a marred man for 7 years. He told me all the lies and lets sa was stupid enough to believe them. His wife threaten my life as well as my son if we do not leave him alone. So I do not want my son around her or at her home. I am a full time student and now my parents are helping me to take care of this child while he's taking care of her 3 kids. His sister advised me to apply for child support because I will need help and cannot rely on my parents for everything. I am just afraid that he will try to fight me for custoy of my son who he claims he wants a DNA test on and only saw for 3 hours out of the 2-3weeks he was in the hospital (he was premature). Should I proceed with my child support claim and medical claim for my son?

Me and my boyfriend haven't been having a great relationship lately and he tells me if I leave him them he will take me to court and take the baby away from me. Can he get full custody? And if I give the baby his last name will that make it harder for me to get him?

the mother of my child has died and now her husband says he will not let my child live with me i dont want my child to see police or a drawn out court battle what should i do