Q: What are the Fathers visitation and custody rights to a child born out a wedlock with him being on the birth certificate
I am a teenage mother my child was born out of wedlock me the mother and the father are on the child’s birth certificate.
Me and the father are no longer in a relationship. I want to know what rights does the father have as far as visitation and custody to my newborn? With me being the legal Guardian if I were to send my child to the fathers home for the weekend do I have the right to know who is around my child and what his location is at all times while being with his father ? Do I have the legal right to withhold someone from the fathers side from seeing my child? Do I have a say so in where my child will be when he is with his father.
A:
Absent a court order that prohibits who can be around the child, or where the father can go with the child, you don't really have any say in what the father does with the child. And without a court order, either parent can deny access/visitation to the child.
The best practice of a parent is to be open and honest with the other parent about who is around their child, the child's schedule, the child's activities, etc., but in reality that doesn't happen very often. What happens at moms house often stays at mom's house, and what happens at dads house often stays at dad's house. And that is generally what should happen most of the time, because the non-custodial parent shouldn't have the right/ability to micromanage what the other parent is doing.
If you are worried about who dad is bringing to the house or where dad is going, you need to file for custody and attempt to get a court order that puts in place these boundaries.
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