I have a question concerning a parents rights in the state of Florida.
I have a 5 month old son with my ex-boyfriend. When my son was 3 months old I took him and moved out of my ex's house because my ex is an alcoholic who refuses to get help. In the last 2 months, my ex has seen his son about 5 times at my home (from 20 - 45 mintues each visit), and he has picked his son up for 5 or 6 hour stretches only twice (at my urging). He has not seen, nor attempted to see his son in over 2 weeks now even though I have made many, many attempts to try and get him to spend time with him.Yesterday my ex told me via text message that I won't ever be hearing from again. I sent one back letting him know to call me when he has come to his senses and that his son NEEDS him in his life! I know my ex, and I have no doubts that we will not hear from him for a very, very long time.
So my question is this: If he does in fact disappear from our lives now, how much time must go by before I can take legal steps to have my son considered "abandoned" by his father? The reason I want to do this is because I will not put my son thru the ups and downs of having a father who pops in and out of his life once every few years. And also because I don't want my ex to be able to one day try to enforce his legal rights, even though he hasn't been around for years. I have no other "man" in my life at this time, but one day if I do, I'd like for my son to be able to be adopted by any future husband I may have without me having to try and track down his bio and having to convince him to sign over his rights. Sorry, I'm making this longer than it probably needs to be. But I just want all the details in there. Oh, and my ex has given me a total of $60 in the past 2 months even though he makes about $1000-$3000 every 1-2 weeks, so there is zero financial support also.
Thanks for any answers you may have for me!

