Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Re: Legally binding document

Attorney Preble is correct and I agree with his conclusions. There is no simple fix over the internet for this because children's and parental rights are very significant and cannot be dealt with in a manner as you have proposed.

Re: Legally binding document

The simple answer is no. You cannot ultimately exclude the state regarding the welfare of children. Nor can he terminate his parental rights without court involvement.

Moreover, if you receive any public assistance, the state will go after the father for support.

For strategy purposes, telling the father may cause him to want contact or even custody of the child.

However, I believe the better route is to tell him and go from there. It will be better for the child to know its father; though if you marry, your husband may wish adopt the child with the father's consent.

As a practical matter, the agreement you propose may work just fine if the state never gets involved. The more time that elapses, the less likely it would be that he could obtain custody. And if it finally went to court, a court might not require him to pay back support as a result of his agreement. If I were he, I would want an attorney to draft the agreement.