I live in California, and I have a 2 year old daughter. Her father has legal custody of her, which was in her best interest at the time. A few months after we signed custody papers he came to me with one more piece of paper I had to sign. He made it seem like it was part of the custody paperwork and I signed my rights away without knowing what I was signing. Now he's coming to me and wants me to start paying child support, which is fine, but here's my question: if I start paying him child support don't I get visitation with my daughter and is it possible for me to get my rights reinvoked?

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Originally Posted by BABY_LUV

I live in California, and I have a 2 year old daughter. Her father has legal custody of her, which was in her best interest at the time. A few months after we signed custody papers he came to me with one more piece of paper I had to sign. He made it seem like it was part of the custody paperwork and I signed my rights away without knowing what I was signing. Now he's coming to me and wants me to start paying child support, which is fine, but here's my question: if I start paying him child support don't I get visitation with my daughter and is it possible for me to get my rights reinvoked?

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Child support and visitation are two different issues. One has no bearing on the other.

If you want visitation you will have to go to Court, explain the circumstances, see how the Judge decides.

Judy is right; child cupport does not equal visitation. A lot of people believe that it does and think they can keep the children away from the other parent because they haven't received any support.

I would definitely go back to court over this. If he intentionally misled you into relinquishing your rights as a parent, he could be in a lot of trouble; the hard part is going to be proving that he did so. For future reference, you should never ever sign anything without reading and understanding exactly what it is.

Yes, child support has nothing to do with visitation.
But again, there is no such thing as "signing away your righs" without going to court and having a judge rule on it.
Plus seldom will a judge even allow someone to sign over their rights unless it is for a step parent adoption.

Chuck has a good point. Your ex may just be telling you that you signed away your rights. The court may not have accepted the paper that you signed because there was no proof that you actually signed it.