#ChildSupport #CustodyRights #SingleParenting #CoParenting #DeadbeatDad #LegalAdvice
👶🏻 Baby’s dad threatened to sign his rights away to avoid paying child support? Dealing with unexpected pregnancy and navigating the legal and financial aspects of co-parenting can be overwhelming. If you’re unsure whether you should file for child support or not, the following information might help you make a well-informed decision.
## The Importance of Child Support
First and foremost, it’s important to understand the significance of child support. Child support is designed to ensure that both parents are financially responsible for the well-being of their child. It’s not about punishing the other parent, but rather about providing for the child’s needs, including food, clothing, shelter, and education.
### Legal Rights and Responsibilities
When considering whether to pursue child support, it’s essential to know your legal rights and responsibilities as a parent. Here are a few key points to consider:
1. **Parental Rights:** As the mother, you have the right to seek child support from the father of your child. This is true regardless of whether you were married to the father or not.
2. **Child’s Best Interest:** The court will always prioritize the best interest of the child when making decisions about custody and support.
3. **Financial Stability:** If you are financially unable to provide for your child’s needs on your own, seeking child support can help ensure that your child’s financial needs are met.
Given these factors, it appears that seeking child support may be in the best interest of your child, especially if you are concerned about your financial stability as an elementary teacher.
## Co-Parenting and Visitation Rights
Another common concern when it comes to child support is whether it automatically grants the other parent visitation rights. It’s important to note that child support and visitation rights are typically considered separate legal matters. Here’s what you should know:
1. **Custody and Visitation:** Filing for child support does not automatically grant visitation rights to the other parent. Visitation and custody arrangements are typically determined separately, and the court will consider the best interest of the child when making these decisions.
2. **Distance and Visitation:** Given that the father lives in Arkansas and you live in Texas, it’s understandable that you may have concerns about the distance and the impact on visitation. However, it’s possible to negotiate a visitation schedule that takes into account the distance and allows for meaningful time with both parents.
## Financial Considerations and Future Planning
As you mentioned, your ex-partner is currently pursuing a real estate license and stands to inherit a family business. It’s important to consider the financial implications for your child’s future. Here are some points to consider:
1. **Financial Stability:** If the father is entering a field with the potential for significant income, seeking child support can help provide financial stability for your child’s future.
2. **College Fund:** Any financial support you receive from the father can be allocated towards your child’s future, including a college fund. This can help secure your child’s education and future prospects.
## Seeking Legal Counsel
Given the complex nature of co-parenting, child support, and visitation rights, it’s advisable to seek legal counsel to assess your options and rights. A family law attorney can provide expert advice and guidance, helping you navigate the legal process and make informed decisions.
In conclusion, filing for child support is a decision that should be made with careful consideration of your child’s best interest and your own financial stability. While it may seem daunting, seeking child support can provide the necessary financial support for your child’s well-being and future. Understanding your rights, seeking legal counsel, and prioritizing the best interest of your child are crucial steps in this process.
Remember that you are not alone in this journey. Seeking support from legal professionals, family, and friends can help you navigate this challenging time and make the best decisions for your child’s future.
You can’t just sign away your rights as a parent, otherwise everyone would do it.
Baby’s dad is an idiot. There’s no “signing rights away” when it comes to child support.
Child support is for the wellbeing of the child, it’s not an admission charge to an amusement park.
You should absolutely request child support.
Child support does not give automatic visitation
BabyDaddy’s right to choose whether or not HE would have a baby ended when he left his sperm behind. He absolutely should be on the hook for however much child support the courts say he has to pay.
Ummm. Just because you sign your rights away doesn’t mean you won’t be responsible for child support. That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works!
Signing your rights away means you can’t make any medical or educational decisions for the child and that you have no right to visitation or custody. You are still financially responsible for the child you created.
If it was that easy to get out of child support, every deadbeat dad would have signed their rights away.
Edited to add file for child support. If you get medicaid (which if you haven’t applied yet, DO IT ASAP) they make you write the absent parents information down and you are required to file child support.
It’s his responsibility. If he didn’t want to make a baby he should have taken steps to prevent that.
Owning his own business might not work out well. I’ve known people who hid money through their business so they could pay less in child support. It can be a sad fact. Best of luck to you and your child. Go after what you can for their benefit.
File for child support tomorrow. There should be an agency that will help you with the forms.
If you are low income you could just apply for temporary assistance. If approved the state will then typically go after the father for child support for you, to get you off assistance and to get them to pay it back
There really isn’t any reason to deal with him directly. He has already shown his cards that he isn’t interested in doing what’s in the child’s best interest. Your only option now is to file and make the courts force his hand.
They can’t just get out of child support by signing their rights away. They’re still the biological father. If anything, you will have to take him to court, prove paternity, sign away his rights and he would still be responsible for child support. (In my state anyway).
He doesn’t have to see baby or have visitiation. Visitation and child support are separate issues.
Check your state, but most states require another person willing to adopt the child before the bio parent can sign away their rights.
He doesn’t have to sign the birth certificate. When you file for child support they have to legally establish the father through DNA. Were you married? If yes, check your state on assumed fatherhood or however it’s spelled. Many states assume that your husband is the father of any babies you create.
In short, call his bluff and file for child support. He’ll get shut down really quickly if he acts this way in front of a judge. Also, try and get a family lawyer. He’s already proved that he’s willing to be an AH to get what he wants. Have that lawyer get you what you need.
Not how it works. You can certainly sign your parental rights away, but the court can still levy child support against you, but you no longer have any rights to visitation or parental input.
It might help the case against it, but as long as the court rules child support be paid they can’t get out of it without a new court order.
See an attorney. It sucks for him that he has to be financially responsible for a child he doesn’t want – but that’s the way it is. It will suck even more for the child if something happens to you that puts him in his bitter, resentful, angry father’s custody. See an attorney. Make arrangements for child support, yes, but also for your son’s future in a worst case scenario.
Former hearing officer, not your jurisdiction. Wouldn’t hire an attorney right away, process should be handled by child support enforcement agency. Check with them first. File after birth. In my jurisdiction, the agency cannot award back support. You have to go to juvenile court for that. Federal law requires you to file if receiving snap benefits.
Ironically, him giving you full custody makes it even more likely that he’ll owe child support.
There are very few ways to get out of paying child support. One is allowing the child to be adopted by someone else (e.g., if you married someone else and they adopted your child as their own). Others may include going to jail or becoming unemployed.
DON’T hire an attorney. Contact your local child support enforcement office, in TX it looks like it’s the AG’s (Attorney General’s) Office.
https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/child-support
They should also establish paternity if needed, get a child support order for you, even if the guy lives out of state, and they will work to get that order enforced. It won’t cost you money.
It may be helpful for you to know that state agencies like this exist—and courts don’t allow a father to just “give away rights.” The state and court wants what is best for the CHILD, which is a legal father contributing to the support of the child.
Okay…so there’s a ton of just weird advice in her. Some is correct. Some is wrong. Some is wild.
Signing your rights away isn’t a thing. The only way that could happen is if you have someone willing to adopt the child. Almost always a spouse.
Child support has nothing to do with visitation or custody. At all. You can be granted child support and never go to court over custody/visitation.
You likely won’t need an attorney for this. But it can be different for every county so I would stop by or call the domestic relations office in the county you live. They will likely have resources available to you and/or will help you with the filing.
Good luck with him trying that. Once the state gets involved, he’ll play with fire trying to avoid child support. He doesn’t stand a chance