My daughter's real father has never been around much. When ever he would take her as a baby or toddler he would leave her with his family members after 30 minutes of seeing her. He is not on her birth certificate and has never paid child support. He has not seen her since last July. He began harassing me about our daughter around November of last year, so I changed my number. I had filed for child support with the attorney general after getting advice from a lawyer to do so. I realized that I no longer want to go through with this. Is there a way to drop the case? Can I file child abandonment? My daughter doesn't even know him or his family anymore.

First, ANY question on law needs to include your general locale as laws vary by area.

Second, how can you think of abandonment, you are preventing the father from contact. There is no abandonment here. And if you are thinking of getting his rights terminated, that's not likely to happen.

The lawyer was right, you owe it to your daughter to file for child support. Whether you file or not is not going to prevent him from exercising his parental rights should he choose to do so. And his not being on the birth certificate may backfire on you. If you remarry and want your husband to adopt, his not being the legal father will cause you greater problems.

I understand what you are saying, however, by my changing my phone number does that mean he can not come to my house? I have not moved or anything and he realizes this, and has not made the effort to even attempt this. Also, he was not there during her birth and that is why he is not on the certificate.

Oh and we both live in Texas.

And honestly, the reason I'm asking all this is because my daughter doesn't know him. I guess if it came down to it supervised visits would be okay, but it would be hard to make my child go with a person that she knows nothing about.

You might find this helpful https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/family-law/child-abandonment-read-first-364259.html

You don't say how old your daughter is. While it may require supervised visits at first, your daughter can get to know that part of her family.

Thank you f

She is 4 years old.

Thank you for the information, and help! It's not exactly what I wanted to hear, however it's probably what I needed to hear. Thanks again!

Remember also, that, at some point, your daughter will want to know about her father. If she finds that you interfered with her relationship with her father it may backfire on your.

First of all,why are you trying to file for child abandonment unless you are going for custody.Just know that courts don't look as child abandonment in that way.More than likely if you did file for that they'd still give him supervised visits or every other weekend if he took you to court for it.The only way he can't get any custody is if you can prove that he is a danger to your child.If he is not on your child's birth certificate then he basically has no right what so ever to your child.This means you can move any where,in or out of the country,that you want.If (you) sue for custody then he will probably get some kind of visitation right then and there.If you sue for c/s his name will be added to your child's because,which will make it easier for him to sue you if he wanted.Either way I say go for c/s.He might be rich right now for all you know and you might be able to get a lot of money for your daughter's college tuition.If you really don't want c/s then call them and tell them that.Just know that you can get any government assistance ever without it ex food stams,Medicaid etc.Is it really worth it?

Not being listed on the birth certificate a father's rights. It just means the father needs to go to court to establish their rights.

Abandonment is also not something someone files for. It may be used as grounds for filing for something else though.