My question involves name change laws in the State of: Tennessee
I have two small children, and their father and I have not been together for over two years now. We broke up while I was still pregnant with my now two year old, and he has only seen him twice. In fact, my kids have not seen or heard from him in over a year, and he only lives about 35 minutes away. He is of course with someone else, but that has not been a issue for me, when we broke up, my only request was that he remain in our childrens lives. He has not done so, he starting breaking promises to pick them up and never showed and I told him he could not do that, he's either there or he's not. Well, it has now been well over a year. He has been ordered to pay child support, and he begged for their names to be his last name, but he has not done anything he is supposed to do. He paid child support for about 2 months since we split, and he hasn't had insurance or anything as ordered. He knows where we live and I have never stopped him from being in their lives. I even tried to make it easy for him by taking the kids to his moms house, who lives closer to him, and he would never show. Now even his mother and other family members have stopped communicating with my children, family is just not important to them. I am so fed up and just want to move on, my children deserve better, and I have raised them alone anyway, outside of my parents being there for us. I am considering getting a lawyer, I would like for him to sign over his rights, and I am most concerned about getting my childrens names back to my last name. I know this will be a fight simply because he doesn't face reality and the fact that he feels that when he sometimes pays child support, he is being a father. My kids and I just want to be done with this whole situation, my 6 yr old at such a young age has been having a really hard time dealing with the things she has been through with him, and it is time for a change. I am even willing to give up the order of child support, which he hardly pays anyway. Is there any advice anyone could give me, and do I have any grounds to take this step? I'm just not sure what I need to do.
please help......

