I am just wondering if a father can sign over his parental rights withought the mother knowing. A friend of mine had a child with someone (not married) and she wanted him to sign his rights over and he did it, but I was just curious as to if that could be done like I said without the mother knowing or needing her consent?

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Originally Posted by jenn8915

I am just wondering if a father can sign over his parental rights withought the mother knowing. A friend of mine had a child with someone (not married) and she wanted him to sign his rights over and he did it, but I was just curious as to if that could be done like I said without the mother knowing or needing her consent?

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Signing parental rights over only makes it so the parent has no rights/say in the child's life - does not end the obligation of child support... it's like giving sole custody to the other parent.

To terminate parental rights is a different thing all together, and that takes a bit more than just someone saying they don't want to have any parental rights to / for a child... a judge would have to be shown reason for terminating the rights and there needs to be someone willing to adopt the child in most cases.

Either way - I can't imagine the mother not being aware of the rights of the other parent, unless she doesn't have custody of the child either.