I want my ex to sign over rights to our 6 month old son. My ex is rarely around, he's in and out of jail anyway. I dont want him to pop up years down the road and disrupt my sons life. I think he would agree to sign over his rights- but because of a court order we do not communicate. How do I go about initiating this process? Do I need to hire and attorney??
And if he does sign his rights away- can he still be responsible for child support? (not that I'll ever see any, he is 20K behind in his other childrens support)

excon

Hello Brittney:

You can't get him to sign over his rights. He cannot be forced to do so. You may not want him to be a part of your sons life, but your son may want a father. I wouldn't do that to my son. Hell, he may turn out to be a good guy with lots of money!!!

excon

J_9

If you have a court order preventing you from communication, you will need an attorney to handle this.

You can't just strip him of his rights, but he can voluntarily relinquish them. And, yes, he will still be responsible to pay support.

macksmom

It depends where you are located...In Ohio you cannot reliquish parental rights, even if both parties are in agreement, unless there is someone willing to adopt the child in the absent fathers place.

You will have to go through an attorney anyways since you both can't communicate, so I would ask an attorney at that time what the laws are where you live.

ScottGem

What you are concerned about is visitation and custody, not parental rights. Do you have FULL and SOLE Custody? Does he have any visitation rights?

If you have full and sole custody and he doesn't have visitation, then you have what you need. Terminating his rights will be an uphill battle that you probably won't win.

macksmom

Couldn't have said it better....

Although my daughter is seeing her bio father now (shes 5) she hasn't seen him in almost 4 years. In the beginning he just stopped coming, then I asked him to sign over his rights so in the future I could have someone adopt her. He always said no....well one day he said yes. I went to my attorney that day. The laws had recently been change the year prior stating a parent could not sign over rights even if both parties agree unless there was someone willing to adopt the child.

So I just dropped it....I mean he wasn't exercising his rights anyway so what was the point. If visitation isn't set it will be HIM that will have to go to court and get that set up. If he isn't doing anything to exercise his rights I would just let it ride. There will come a point your child will ask about their father...mine did about 1.5 years ago, prompted by going to preschool and seeing moms AND dads picking kids up. Then she used to have a imaginary friend she called her "pretend daddy".

You need to think past any anger or ill feelings you may have toward this man. Think about down the road whats best for your child.

My daughter is 5 and just started seeing her bio father again a few months ago, granted its been almost 4 years so at this time we do all visitation together until she is used to him and feels safe, but it hasn't disrupted her life in the least bit.