Before my husband and i met he had a child with his ex wife. The baby boy was only 1 month old when my husband left for boot camp. After 4 months of being gone he went home and found that his wife had been cheating on him so he left her. Shortly after we met and started dating. We moved in together before the divorce was done. I was at home one day and I got served his divorce papers. We did not know that he could represent himself in court so he didn't fight the papers and got nailed with 698.00 per month child support and supervised visitation. He has not seen his son but a handful of times in the last 2 years. His son calls another man "daddy" and his ex wife will not let us see his son except maybe once every 2 months. She won't give us her address so we can't go see him, send birthday cards or christmas presents. Now my husband just wants to give up his rights. The child doesn't call him dad and he never gets to see him long enough for them to get to know each other. We are not sure how Idaho Laws work. Can he give up his rights without someone adopting the child or would it be better just to try to get the child support lowered and fight for visitation.


confused in Idaho

that depends on whether he really wants to be a part of his child's life. IF he just doesn't want to pay the money, then maybe that poor child's stepparent will want to adopt. There needs to be an adoption for a termination (in most cases) to happen. The ex is required to follow the court order- she cannot forbid him contact, etc if it is in the court order. He needs to file for contempt (if it is in there) or file to modify. Ask for specified visitation dates, times, phone visitations. He should always have contact info for the child and it should be written into the papers that she has to supply it. An atty is the best bet, but you can go it alone. But, no, you can't just sign over rights to keep from paying for a child.