I currently live in WA state with my boyfriend and my 6 year old son. My son's father lives in FL. This whole situation is a mess. My son's father owe's tons of back child support, can't keep a job, and when he's not working, his stepfather gives him work under the table. ::sigh:: I don't care about the child support anymore. While I was still living in Florida, I discovered just how neglected my son was being while spending time at his father's house over weekends and that sort of thing. The house was unbelievably FILTHY - you would not believe. Infested, little food in the house. My son would never come home with any of his clothes except the ones on his back and sometimes without socks and shoes. I finally convinced my ex's roommate (a good friend of mine as well) to let me in one day while my ex wasn't home so I could retrieve my son's clothes and I was in for quite a shock. My ex and my son shared a room there and not only was the place filthy but he'd left porn sitting out in plain view of our then three year old child! I'm sure you can understand my hesistation to ever let my child step foot in that house ever again. My ex's roommate made several valiant attempts to clean the place up so my son could visit with his father but it would never last and things would always end up a horrible, horrible mess and I can't stress enough how infested the whole place was. So... in addition to this bit of history, I'd like to add that we were never married, he did sign the birth certificate, we've never been to court to establish custody but he was ordered to pay me child support and is in constant violation of that order.
After all the history and my ex becoming more and more of a hopeless alcoholic and less and less of a responsible, reliable individual, I don't want him to have anything to do with our child. My boyfriend and my father (whose health insurance plan my son spent his first four years on!) have been better male influences on my son and have been more involved than my son's father ever has or seems to care to be. He doesn't even call or write even though I have gone out of my way to make sure he has contact information for his son. He doesn't even answer my calls anymore - probably because of all the back child support he owes. My son started school this year and my ex didn't so much as cough up a box of crayons, for crying outloud.
My ex's parents have not been very involved in my son's life but now that I'm in WA (I've been here for nearly a year and yes everyone was notified months before I moved here) - and only since Christmas, mind you - they suddenly want contact with their grandchild. My ex's stepmother is threatening to file for "grandparent's rights." I did some research and found that the Florida State Supreme Court overturned grandparents rights because they're a violation of the parents' constitutional rights. So that's some relief. I could give you a million reasons why my ex's parents would not be a good influence on my son, but this is already getting a bit long, so... moving on....
So, what I'd like to know is how hard would it be to get my ex stripped of his parental rights given his past neglect and recent disintrest? If I were to succeed in this, what, if any, rights would his parents have? I wouldn't want them poking around to pass information on to someone that I don't feel should be involved in my son's life any longer. Also, at what age could a child aid in this decision? My son is only six but since we've moved to Washington, he's never asked to even talk to his father or his paternal grandparents - the only people he seems to miss at all are my parents whom he gets to talk to pretty regularly and has seen twice since we moved. I just want my son to have something resembling a normal life (which he has with my boyfriend and I, even though we haven't broken down and tied the knot yet) without this constant cloud of confusion hanging around and the echo of threats and arguing in the background. By the way, my father isn't my biological dad. He's actually my stepdad and he adopted me when I was four. I'm living proof that it doesn't matter who's playing daddy... just that they do it and do it well with a loving and generous heart.
After all the history and my ex becoming more and more of a hopeless alcoholic and less and less of a responsible, reliable individual, I don't want him to have anything to do with our child. My boyfriend and my father (whose health insurance plan my son spent his first four years on!) have been better male influences on my son and have been more involved than my son's father ever has or seems to care to be. He doesn't even call or write even though I have gone out of my way to make sure he has contact information for his son. He doesn't even answer my calls anymore - probably because of all the back child support he owes. My son started school this year and my ex didn't so much as cough up a box of crayons, for crying outloud.
My ex's parents have not been very involved in my son's life but now that I'm in WA (I've been here for nearly a year and yes everyone was notified months before I moved here) - and only since Christmas, mind you - they suddenly want contact with their grandchild. My ex's stepmother is threatening to file for "grandparent's rights." I did some research and found that the Florida State Supreme Court overturned grandparents rights because they're a violation of the parents' constitutional rights. So that's some relief. I could give you a million reasons why my ex's parents would not be a good influence on my son, but this is already getting a bit long, so... moving on....
So, what I'd like to know is how hard would it be to get my ex stripped of his parental rights given his past neglect and recent disintrest? If I were to succeed in this, what, if any, rights would his parents have? I wouldn't want them poking around to pass information on to someone that I don't feel should be involved in my son's life any longer. Also, at what age could a child aid in this decision? My son is only six but since we've moved to Washington, he's never asked to even talk to his father or his paternal grandparents - the only people he seems to miss at all are my parents whom he gets to talk to pretty regularly and has seen twice since we moved. I just want my son to have something resembling a normal life (which he has with my boyfriend and I, even though we haven't broken down and tied the knot yet) without this constant cloud of confusion hanging around and the echo of threats and arguing in the background. By the way, my father isn't my biological dad. He's actually my stepdad and he adopted me when I was four. I'm living proof that it doesn't matter who's playing daddy... just that they do it and do it well with a loving and generous heart.