My brother has a three year old daughter that he is not aloud to see. Or let me rephrase that, the mother of the child does not allow him to see her. They have been to court numerous times about child support and visitation. Well now time has passed niether one of them is obeying the law. He doesn't pay child support because she will not allow him to see her, and she just doesn't want him to be part of her life. Well I spoke to him briefly today about relinquishing his rights, then he wouldn't be responsible for child support. But he said that he still would be. I don't understand that, would he be responsible for child support if he signed over all rights to her?

Absolutely. Signing over your rights is just that... signing away any right to make decisions in your child's life.

It does NOT mean you can get rid of your responsibilities.

He can either continue to fight to be a part of his child's life or he can give up... but either way, he's going to be paying child support.

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Originally Posted by rphotob

I don't understand that, would he be responsible for child support if he signed over all rights to her?

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Hello r:

Yup - he understands the law. Even though both parents are using the others non-compliance as a reason not to comply themselves, the courts don't tie them together at all - and they shouldn't.

Here's why. Parenting your children is a choice. Supporting your children is an obligation. If one parent decides that they don't want to be part of the child's life, that's one thing. However, that action, has noting to do with a parents OBLIGTION to support his/her child.

If he gives up his rights, he gains nothing and gives up everything. That's not a good deal in anybody's book.

excon

There are umpteen threads in this forum discussing this issue. For future reference, it pays to browse around a bit before posting. Often you will find the answer because someone had a similar problem.

As pointed out, a person's parental rights involve visits, contact, decisions about child rearing, etc. Right can be given up. But a parent has obligations to provide support for a child. Those obligations cannot be relinquished.

I'd say he should go back to court and have to judge force her to allow him to see his child - file charges against her for contempt of court or whatever.

I agree with mastone.

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Originally Posted by rphotob

My brother has a three year old daughter that he is not aloud to see. Or let me rephrase that, the mother of the child does not allow him to see her. They have been to court numerous times about child support and visitation. Well now time has passed niether one of them is obeying the law. He doesn't pay child support because she will not allow him to see her, and she just doesn't want him to be part of her life. Well I spoke to him briefly today about relinquishing his rights, then he wouldn't be responsible for child support. But he said that he still would be. I don't understand that, would he be responsible for child support if he signed over all rights to her?

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The problem is that child support and child custody are two completely separate issues... If a father doesn't pay child support he still has the right to see his child... If the mother does not allow the father to see the child he still has to pay child support... They are treated as two separate and distinct issues... Of course I believe that is part of the problem... I don't see a problem with forcing somebody to pay a reasonable amount of child support and if they don't want to see the baby then fine they still have responsibilities... the problem is when you do want to see your child and the mother absolutely refuses or decides to make your life a living hell in order to see your child... I don't see anything wrong with allowing a father to temporarily stop paying child support until the mother complies with her responsibilities... at the very least they should do the same thing they do to fathers... if you refuse to allow the father to see their child stick them in jail for contempt of court just like they put fathers in jail for not paying child support... hey she would have the keys to her jail cell... all she has to do is follow the law