I have read on different legal sites about parental abandonment and extreme parental disinterest.

Can someone explain the difference? More especially, in the state of South Carolina.

Take a look: Grounds for Termination of Parental Rights South Carolina - (http://library.adoption.com/termination-of-parental-rights/grounds-for-termination-of-parental-rights-south-carolina/article/8658/1.html)
Also: State Links for Termination of Parental Rights (http://www.ncsconline.org/WC/CourTopics/StateLinks.asp?id=83&topic=TermPr)

Thank you. I was looking at that site earlier and I guess I missed the bottom portion that explained what it was.

Just post any questions about what you have read.

Ok, so here is a little back story to why I am asking this.

My husband has custody of his son, I will call him A. For 3 months or so after their divorce she was getting A from daycare on a regular basis (all different times, nothing consistent), sometimes she would forget to pick him up like she said and my husband would get calls from daycare. When she would get him he came home at late times. When A started kindergarten my husband had his ex start utilizing her weekend visitation so that it wouldn't interfere with school. She is not allowed to pick him up from school because of her timing issues at daycare. According to their papers she gets him every other weekend from Fri-Sun and 2 weeks in the summer and alternating holidays. She would only pick A up on Saturday afternoon and then bring him back late on Sunday. My husband started calling her on her weekend to remind her and she started getting him on Fridays.

What would have been her visitation (2 weeks ago - it is actually her weekend this weekend) my husband decided that he is fed up with having to remind her that it is her weekend so he never called her. SHE NEVER SHOWED UP. She didn't even call. A has not seen or spoken to his mom in over a month! A has called her about 5 times in the past 2 weeks and she hasn't even called him back. We know that she is fine because I have to drive past her job to run some of my errands (unless I want to drive all through town and waste gas to get there) and I have seen her car there, on 2 different occasions parked in different spots so it is not like she had car issues.

She didn't start paying support until February '06 and then it was only half because my husband was trying to help her out. She also has another son who is one month younger than our youngest son. And her child support payments stopped prior to her having her son. That was Sept. '06.

My husband is trying to figure out what he can do to stop this. He is not necessarily wanting to take her rights away but this is not fair to his son at all.

Is taking away her rights the only option here?

Ok, so here is a little back story to why I am asking this.

My husband has custody of his son, I will call him A. For 3 months or so after their divorce she was getting A from daycare on a regular basis (all different times, nothing consistent), sometimes she would forget to pick him up like she said and my husband would get calls from daycare. When she would get him he came home at late times. When A started kindergarten my husband had his ex start utilizing her weekend visitation so that it wouldn't interfere with school. She is not allowed to pick him up from school because of her timing issues at daycare. According to their papers she gets him every other weekend from Fri-Sun and 2 weeks in the summer and alternating holidays. She would only pick A up on Saturday afternoon and then bring him back late on Sunday. My husband started calling her on her weekend to remind her and she started getting him on Fridays.

What would have been her visitation (2 weeks ago - it is actually her weekend this weekend) my husband decided that he is fed up with having to remind her that it is her weekend so he never called her. SHE NEVER SHOWED UP. She didn't even call. A has not seen or spoken to his mom in over a month! A has called her about 5 times in the past 2 weeks and she hasn't even called him back. We know that she is fine because I have to drive past her job to run some of my errands (unless I want to drive all through town and waste gas to get there) and I have seen her car there, on 2 different occasions parked in different spots so it is not like she had car issues.

She didn't start paying support until February '06 and then it was only half because my husband was trying to help her out. She also has another son who is one month younger than our youngest son. And her child support payments stopped prior to her having her son. That was Sept. '06.

My husband is trying to figure out what he can do to stop this. He is not necessarily wanting to take her rights away but this is not fair to his son at all.

Is taking away her rights the only option here?


I don't see any grounds to terminate her rights - she might be neglectful but she is not abusive (and, yes, I agree it's emotionally abusive to a child but this is not what I've seen the Courts decide is a dangerous level of abuse). You cannot force anyone to call and/or visit her child.

As far as support - certainly, take her in (or back in) and get child support started and enforced.

My only other thought is sometimes doing nothing and hoping she simply loses interest and goes away, keeping records the whole time, is not a bad idea. You never know if you drag her back in what she's going to request from the Court - not saying she's going to win but you could open up a can of worms.

One of those what to do situations -

Gina writes: "Is taking away her rights the only option here?" No and I don't think a judge would consider that option based upon these facts. The beauty of a family counselor or social worker is that it is a third party, a neutral person. Your husband needs to find someone to act in that capacity. Or, perhaps a mediator; that is a topic that is popular today. But find someone like that to listen and make recommendations. I think it would be best for the child as well.

George_1950, Thank you for your assistance. My husband is just trying to figure out what the next step should be and that was one he threw out there. So I have been trying to research it all. Unfortunately, a lot of the sites I have come across don't give a lot of information on this. He said he was going to contact his attorney so we will just have to wait it out and see what he says.

Thank you again.