What Are Good Grounds to Have a Father's Rights Taken Away

I am just speaking from personal experience and speaking with different attorneys. In FL they are not going to take a parents rights away easily. My ex had not been in contact with my children AT ALL for over 3 years had only paid about 6 mos of child support in that time. The only reason he paid that is because I have an IDO and they find him with his SS#. I was told that he would have to be served through constructive services. If that was negative then would have to do a diligent search and inquiry. Even with those things IF he still isn’t found they may remove his rights. BUT there must be another party such as a step parent willing to step up and adopt. It has to be ruled in the Childs best interest. I am not sure if this matches up with law books etc. I do know I spoke too two different attorneys and that is what I was told.

That's pretty much the bottom line in most states, Jess.

Mom, you made this man the father of your child. Unfortunately, he's allowed to come and go from his child's life as much as he wants (with court ordered visitation he doesn't have to visit...you have to make the child available, but he doesn't actually have to turn up) to a massive degree.

It takes a LOT for a court to strip a parent of their rights, and for good reason.

i understand with what a lot of you are saying, yes he is on the birth certificate i was never married to him (thank God) and there is no order and I already know that without an order I dont have to let him see her, and while that is not what I wanted to do I will not have her hurt by him being a part time dad. Though honestly I dont think that will be much of an issue since he hasnt wanted to see her too much this long. when she is older and if he decides he wants to contact her then i will leave that line of communication open and i will leave that up to her.

And in the meantime, he's free to go and file for visitation and there is, really, nothing you can do to prevent him from doing that.

If he's a part-time Dad, so be it.

Mae, your question was: Do you have good grounds to have his rights taken away.

The legally correct answer is, No, you not only do not have good grounds but you do not have ANY grounds, to have his rights taken away.

I hope that this is now clear to you.

I was more thinking on abandonment charges... but it doesnt really matter. like i stated above if he wants to see her (not like i think it is going to happen) he will have to get a court order since I have been trying to get him to see her for 5 yrs and he has refused to see her. now on the other hand if our child decides that she wants to see her father i would be more then happy to assist her in every way possible to make sure we do all we can to make sure she can see him... but that too is his decision.

Can I give you a bit of parenting advice?

Don't give your daughter that sort of power. It's natural that she might want to see her father - but neither she nor you can force the issue and it's best that she's not given the impression that it IS her decision. Quite honestly, what you might want to do is file for a visitation order anyway - even if he's not seeing her.

If you're serious about filing abandonment, go ahead and get a visitation order in place first. That's what many courts look at - that's when the clock starts ticking with regards to abandonment.