I am a little confused. Are you a biological parent of the child? Are you sharing custody? Paying child support? Utilizing visitations? Without knowing the circumstances, to my knowledge, parental rights can be taken away by the courts and signed away by the parent. I believe that a parent who has no contact or gives any support for a child can be petitioned through the court by the other parent to agree to terminate but I’m not a lawyer. Search through the forums here for Parental Rights termination.
Sorry to be confusing, I
You dont pay child support, and havent seen you children in a year??? There are so many fathers out there that are much more than 4 hrs away and stay an active part of their childrens lives. Children NEED both parents!!Regardless of how hard it is to get along with her you should have never let it get this far to begin with…these are your children !!! Never once in your first post did I see …How can I stop this from being done?? You thought it was more important to ask “Exactly what would it mean if she goes through with this?” and “I just want this to end” Well, I am sure you will be happy to hear that if this goes through your responsibilities and financial obligations as a parent will be terminated forever. If that is what you want, then no, you dont even need to show up in court.
But I will also tell you, that it is VERY hard for any parent to terminate another parents rights if that parent wants to be in his/her childrens lives. I COULD NOT imagine going over a year without contact with my children just the thought puts my stomach in knots. As I said before CHILDREN NEED BOTH PARENTS, and it is not too late, but if you continue to neglect the children it will be!!!
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Then YES! Go to court. Do not let her take away what is rightfully yours. Go to court. Fight for your children. You may be able to explain away the last year of no contact to a judge but you may never be able to explain it to your children. From the way it sounds, their mother is not the more stable parent and they need you. Yes, there may be trouble from the ex with you and the new wife, aren’t your children worth it? I’ve had my car keyed, high speed car chases TO the police station so I could be cussed with an audiance, and been verbally threatened and abused more times than you can imagine since I met my husband by his ex. A lot of it happened in front of the children. His children have seen that I haven’t done anything to deserve it and now they fuss at her when she starts cursing me. This has been going on for two years now. I don’t see it stopping any time soon but you have to be strong for your children and you have to be there for your children. If it’s their mother that is hurting them then hopefully they will eventually see that, but you have to show them that their mother is wrong about you.
Her Government Assistance shouldn’t stop because she gets child support. Child support is for the children. My husband’s ex has Medicaid and gets food stamps, and he pays her $500/month for joint custody 50/50. If she told you that then she’s setting you up. She wants to be able to say that you haven’t paid her and since she won’t let you talk to the kids or visit, you’re neglecting your parental responsibilities and therefore should have no rights. You are going to get hit with back child support, but you will get visitations and if your lawyer is very good, you may be able to get more. Best of luck!
It was court ordered in Feb. that do not pay support. She was there and told the Judge that she did not want it. I’ve never in my life heard of such and would not have believed it if I had not been there. She recently re-married and I feel that you are right, I am being set up for something. Not certain if in fact she will attempt to have my rights taking or if she will go back and demand support again. She is never thinking clearly and can not be trusted. My wife was nice enough to give out her work number so that I could be notified if anything was to happen to my children and instand of being nice and letting my children call or check in to say how they are doing, my wife goes to work to get a message about I’m not their father and she (the ex) needs an address for me.
If in fact she has an attorney then why can her attorney not find and address for me with her calling? They found me in Kentucky to have me served with papers to appear in Feb. So, what is the problem now? I’m just sick of all the games and drama all the time. I would get phone calls at work to the point that my boss wrote letters to a judge asking that I be granted a 50-B. I’m tried of changing jobs because it’s more than an employer can handle. If she can’t get in touch with me then she would call my mother in Florida and threaten to put the children in a home or call my job and get someone there to call me at home and relay a message. My wife has children of her own that live with us and I do not want to put the through anymore either. We never know what to expect. It’s been fairly calm because the ex does not have a home phone number, that was the way I wanted it. However, I feel things are going to start at my wife’s work because she has that number. My wife said that she would be fine, she has caller ID and does not have to answer and she can keep a log of the calls in case we go to court.
You need to call your kids. Call every day at least once. Make every attempt to contact them even if you don’t get to actually talk to them. If you left almost 8 years ago and had the children for a year, then they are certainly old enough to understand what is going on. Don’t they want to see you or talk to you?
You say she told the judge that she did not need child support and you were court ordered not to pay??? Was there no custody and vistation order? You still should have visitations, even limited. Visitation and child support are two separate issues to the courts. Keep records of everything. Every phone call, every court document, every time you have tried to contact or see your children. Give her the home number but record the conversations! Radio Shack carries a nifty little device that works very well and as long as one of the parties in the conversation knows it is being recorded it can be used in court. Call your kids and record those conversations as well. They may be able to shed some light on this. If she recently got remarried, maybe her new husband wants to adopt the children. He can’t do that unless your parental rights are terminated.
She has the right to have an address and a phone number for you if there are visitations. But there is a difference in having a phone number for contact and harrasment. Keep a log and record it but do it from HOME. Make sure your step-children understand what is going on and ask them to not answer the phone when it is her calling. If she continues to call and harrass don’t answer the phone, or if she attempts to come to your house to cause problems, call the police. I understand the desire not to let your ex have a home number. We did not want my husband’s ex to know where we lived, due to prior problems of harrassment. She found out anyway, but she has only been there twice. Once before we moved in (the kids showed her where the house was)to curse him for not giving her more money since he could afford to move into a new house that wasn’t even finished being built yet. The second time, before we were married, I had just left and she got an earful from him and the kids because she had no right to come to his house, ever, for any reason and he would call the police the next time it happened. She hasn’t been back, though sometimes I wish she would[}:)]
Bottom line, do you want to be involved in your children’s lives in any way shape or form? If yes, then go to court. I do not believe that a judge will just strip you of parental rights without hearing your side of this. You may have the opportunity to explain what she has said and done in the past to keep you from your children. You may have a chance to tell about the harrassment, but make sure you can prove it. Sworn affidavt by your mother about the threats to put the children in a home. The letter from your boss to the judge. Any thing you have, use it! Call, record, document. Before everything, decide what YOU want.
How can an ex have my Parental Rights terminated? My wife just rec