Being a single parent is hard enough. But what if you are an unmarried father who is being denied the chance to be a part of your child’s life? Indeed, you may feel as if you have rights that should be upheld. After all, you were there for the birth, you are on the birth certificate, and you are a reasonably responsible person.
Even with this, you still may have instances where you want to spend time with your child only to be met with a stern “sorry…we have plans today” answer. When this happens more often than not, there is a natural inclination to want to give up.
While we cannot give legal advice through blog posts, it may be a good idea to seek custody and parenting time instead of sulking and giving up. This may be a good move because as a matter of law, unmarried fathers must petition the court to have these rights. While this may seem like a double standard, but women are ostensibly given sole legal custody and physical custody because it is easy to tell who is the biological parent because the women gives birth to the child.
Regardless of whether you think this is fair or not, you can avoid being a statistic by consulting an experienced family law attorney to learn about your rights and options. Keep in mind that the longer you wait on initiating a custody and parenting time action, it may be more difficult than it really needs to be.
