WHAT ARE MY RIGHTS AS A FATHER?

Learn How to Get Your Father’s Rights!

Father’s rights come up in a variety of situations, whether you are divorcing/divorced or were never married, you have rights to your children and you need to know what they are and how to fight for them. Obviously, hiring an attorney skilled in Father’s Rights is of utmost importance, but if you don’t do the right thing, you will be hurting your chances even with a father’s rights attorney on your side.

The main issues that you, as a father, will be presented with are: Child Custody, Child Visitation, and Child Support. Knowing how they work together is essential to knowing how to obtain your father’s rights the correct way.

Child Custody Rights for Fathers

Gone are the days where mom always wins custody of the kids—courts are now (finally) beginning to turn the corner and realize that a good parent does not always need to be a woman. With most of the workforce now being comprised of both men and women, it is no longer the case that a stay at home mom is needed to properly rear a child, and the courts have come out of the dark ages and realized this too, granting custody to men all the time.

Fathers have the same right to physical custody as a mother does, and the case needs to be made to the court properly to show that custody with you is in the “best interests of the child.” This is the main threshold that most states require a showing of in order to award physical custody of a child to a parent. This means having a stable, clean home environment and avoid the pitfalls that have destroyed many men’s custody battles.

Child Visitation Rights for Fathers

Visitation, also known as parenting time, is time when your kids spend time with the non-custodial parent (the parent that is not the every-day parent). Fathers can pursue this right and ask for the court to make visitation as little or as much as possible if the battle for physical custody has been lost. Unless there is some type of physical endangerment to the child, courts will allow “liberal visitation rights” in most states, because they realize that a father’s involvement in their children’s lives are important to their overall growth. Showing that you have proper sleeping arrangements, a clean home, and free time to spend with your kids is essential to making the argument for your rights to visitation time.

Child Support Rights as a Father

Child support is paid to the parent that is the full-time parent (the custodial parent). If this is a father, then the mother must pay child support since the kids are living with dad. Many people think that fathers do not get the right to ask for child support, but this is not true. If the kids live with you, you should be getting money from the mother of those children.

If you are the father and you are not the custodial or residential parent, than you must pay child support based on either a percentage of your income or based on the needs of the child. This varies from state to state, so an expert attorney must be consulted to understand these intricacies. Many fathers do not realize that they can fight to lower the amount of support they pay or that they can fight some back child support that is owed, saving them thousands of dollars!

How the Children Are Raised and Father’s Rights

Father’s, even if not the custodial parent, deserve to have a say in how the child is raised. This involves big things like the health care of the children and what school they will attend. It also involves other things, such as extracurricular activities or summer camp. If the mother will not let you be involved in your child’s life for these things, you must go to court and ask for the judge to force her to do so. Hiring an attorney to draft a proper Parenting Agreement is important as it will lay out the necessary details of how the kids are raised and who has what responsibilities.

Don’t wait until it’s too late to fight for your rights as a father. Avoid making the common mistakes that so many fathers make as outlined in this article and others linked within this article and your chances at a positive result will be greatly increased.  Get started today and fight for your father’s rights. Your family deserves it.