Legal Question in Family Law in Rhode Island

giving up parental rights

my daughter is 3 years old and her father has been absent from her life since she was 9 months old, even then he barely ever came around. I was getting state benefits until recently the state found him and ordered for him to pay child support. i'm affraid he is going to file for custody because he has to pay child support now. in the mean time i met a really good guy who i've been with for 2 years and who has been supporting my daughter and is awsome to her, she started calling him daddy on her own. I can't bare to put my daughter through that, her life is so perfect right now. The absent father hasn't contacted me until now. when he decided to not come around anymore i gave him the option to either be in her life or not, and he never contacted me after that until now. I want him to give up his parental rights, i don't feel as my daughter should be put through all this, she is so innocent. what can i do?


Asked on 4/05/09, 7:38 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Christopher Pearsall Law Office of Christopher A. Pearsall, Esquire

Re: giving up parental rights

As difficult as it may be, you can weather the storm. A father has a right to be in his daughter's life. It is not a mother's determination to make that the child would be better with a man who would be a better replacement for the child's father. Child support does not entitle a father to custody or visitation. It is a determination that the child needs support.

What can you do? It is a broad question and it depends upon what the father of the child does and what you truly believe is in the child's best interests. Ultimately there are too many factors that could occur here. Given the lack of the father's involvement I would not expect you to lose placement or your custodial rights but it would be unrealistic to expect that the court will not allow an opportunity for a father to be reunified with his child. Life is filled with circumstances and people do change. What you can do is dependent upon the circumstances that arise.

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Answered on 4/05/09, 8:24 pm


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