[meitadhill]

My sons father and I have been on again and off again living together between states. I moved to Rhode Island to be with his family to back to virginia and from virginia to Texas to live with him and his family all in which my son was always in my custody. Now I want to move out for good and want to know how do I go about filing for sole custody of my son? Do I have to let him know or can I keep it a secret? We have never been married but have only dated on and off and I was always the one to take care of my son as far as bathing him feeding changing etc etc. what do I do?

[JudyKayTee]

He's the father - no, you can't keep your application for sole custody secret. It's a legal procedure.

Bathing, feeding, changing your son doesn't give you any more rights than the father has.

You would file for sole custody in your State of residence. He will undoubtedly respond with a request for visitation. If you can prove he is unfit to parent the child, then he will probably not receive visitation rights.

You will also need to file for child support.

DNA testing may be required.

[meitadhill]

He's the father - no, you can't keep your application for sole custody secret. It's a legal procedure.

Bathing, feeding, changing your son doesn't give you any more rights than the father has.

You would file for sole custody in your State of residence. He will undoubtedly respond with a request for visitation. If you can prove he is unfit to parent the child, then he will probably not receive visitation rights.

You will also need to file for child support.

DNA testing may be required.

We are not on bad terms or anything and he is not unfit to be a parent like he provides for my son by getting him things he needs and so forth but his family is kind of sneaky I just and I don't want my son taken from me. I just want to know like as far as the judges decision to grant me sole custody I heard that they take into account who provides most of the primary care..

[JudyKayTee]

If you are asking about joint custody with you being the custodial parent (the parent the child lives with), yes, that happens all the time.