My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Florida.
Good Morning, everyone.
I’m going to post my story, but I want to make clear that I understand that child support and custody are two separate issues.
My son turns 3 tomorrow. In March of 2017, I filed for child support.
My sons father had never met him. Our contact throughout his life up to the time that I filed had been minimal. He had dodged me, and refused to provide any time of contact information. We had roughly 2 conversations since my pregnancy.
Paternity has been established, and we are set to go to court in two weeks.
After paternity had been established, Dad met our son for the first time. We spent about 1 hour at the park.
Since then, I have offered two separate dates to meet with him so him and our son can spend time together. He ignored me.
Yesterday, I reached out to him to ask him if he would like to see his son on his birthday. This resulted in an argument, as I refused to let him take my son for the day without me.
I am (obviously) being represented by the State for child support, but I have an attorney on standby for custody.
Dad says he will get 50/50, and that I need to “get used to it”. I have never told him that he couldn’t see our son, but per the advice of the attorneys that I’ve spoken to, they’ve told me that it’s important not to set a precedent and allow him to take our son without me present. If he wants more, he needs to file.
My question is this: if he takes me to court for a 50/50 arrangement (overnights) to clearly lower his obligation in child support...is that likely?
Ideally, a temporary supervised visitation plan is what I want. I want them to actually get to know each other, and allow my son to recognize the difference between this man and a stranger at the grocery store. Is he blowing smoke? I’m sure he’s angry because I’m requesting retro, but this obviously scares me.
He has bragged about not being on his company’s payroll, and said that he “doesn’t care” about the legal issues that arise; he is not going to pay me more than he believes I deserve. He has not contributed one cent to our son, and feels justified in doing so.
Thank you for the advice.

