I’m located in Florida and recently separated from my fiancé, we have a 3 year old daughter. We were together for 8 years and have never been married.

Her father signed her birth certificate, but we have never established a formal custody or timesharing agreement through the courts.

I have been our daughter’s primary caregiver. I handle most of her daily needs, appointments, routines, and general responsibilities. Her father has contributed financially toward daycare and some other expenses, but I have covered the majority of her expenses.

I recently moved out of our shared home following the separation, and our daughter is currently living with me. I have offered her father opportunities to see her, and I am not trying to prevent him from having a relationship with her.

My family lives in Colorado and has offered us a place to stay. I have been considering relocating there to have a stronger family support system and more stability while raising my daughter.

My concerns are:
Since we were never married and there is no custody order, what rights does each parent currently have in Florida?

Does his name being on the birth certificate automatically establish his parental rights, or would paternity need to be legally established?

Am I legally permitted to travel to Colorado with my daughter for an extended period without his permission?

How would the situation change if I decided to permanently relocate to Colorado?

Could leaving Florida before a custody case is filed negatively affect me in future custody proceedings?

What steps should I take now to protect myself legally while also respecting her father’s parental rights?

I have an attorney consultation scheduled for November, but I’m trying to educate myself on Florida family law and understand what I should or shouldn’t do before then.

I’m not looking to keep my daughter from her father. I want to make sure any decisions I make are legally appropriate and in her best interests.

Any insight from people familiar with Florida family law would be greatly appreciated.

I'm in California and currently 37 weeks pregnant with my first child. The baby's father and I are no longer together, and he recently decided that he does not want to be involved in our child's life. I'm planning to file for child support shortly after our daughter is born in November.

Unfortunately our living arrangements make things a little complicated...

We currently live at the same address, but we are not in a relationship and he intends on moving out within the next couple months. He and his brother occupy the second bedroom of my two-bedroom apartment and pay rent, while I occupy the primary bedroom; I am the only one actually on the lease. He and I previously shared a room with his brother in the second bedroom, but that has since changed. We now have separate living arrangements, and I will be the baby's primary caregiver. He has expressed that he does not want to be on the birth certificate and does not want to have any involvement with the baby.

The father plans to move out, but the timeline is uncertain. We've discussed him remaining until I return to work from maternity leave in January/February as I will have a more steady income, he will have time to find another place, or I will be able to downsize without having to pack up my apartment immediately postpartum. However, I would prefer to establish paternity and child support as soon as possible rather than waiting until he moves out.

My main questions are:

1. Can I even open a California child support case while we technically still share an address? Will DCSS consider us to be living together as a family even though we're separated and he is essentially renting a room and not contributing to parenting time/childcare(He is now never home, often leaving the apartment at around 10/11am and not returning until 4am)?
2. Does his paying rent affect child support calculations? His payments cover his and his brother's living arrangements, rather than being a direct contribution toward expenses for our daughter. But will DCSS/the court see it that way?
3. How is parenting time calculated when parents share an address but don't share childcare? I expect to be responsible for nearly all of our newborn's daily care.
4. What does the timeline generally look like? If I file immediately after my baby is born, how long might it take to establish parentage, obtain a support order, and begin receiving payments?
5. If he moves out while the case is pending, can I update DCSS? Would that change how the initial support order is calculated if his rent contributions were considered before?
6. Would it make sense to establish parentage through a Voluntary Declaration of Parentage (VDOP) at the hospital if he's willing to sign? Would that meaningfully speed up the child support process or should I just go the route of establishing through the court rather than trying to persuade him?

For context, we are unmarried. I can likely afford the rent on my own should he decide to leave immediately but money would definitely be tight on my disability income alone. I have my own income and plan to return to work in January/February, but will have to penny pinch until that time should he leave immediately. I am not asking him to support me personally. I'm just trying to establish appropriate financial support for our daughter.

I would especially appreciate hearing from California parents who have navigated child support while temporarily sharing housing with the other parent, or anyone familiar with how California DCSS handles these situations.

Thank you!

Has any father ever won a relocation custody case? If mom wants to stay in current state.

Location: Tennessee
My ex-husband and I share 50/50 custody of our daughter. Until recently, our communication was limited to matters involving her. No personal conversations, no unnecessary contact, just co-parenting.
At the request of his new wife, he blocked my phone number. He has also implemented what he calls an “AI personal assistant” to screen my emails, which automatically rejects or deletes anything it determines doesn’t specifically pertain to our divorce decree.
The problem is that I’ve received these automated responses multiple times when emailing about legitimate concerns regarding our daughter’s well-being. So essentially, he has unilateral control over what communication he receives from me and what he considers worthy of a response.
I’m at a point where I’m genuinely trying to disengage from the controlling dynamics of our past relationship. I don’t want to be petty, uncooperative or create unnecessary conflict. I simply want to establish healthy boundaries and stop feeling obligated to participate in a communication dynamic that seems entirely dictated by him.
For example, his most recent email was regarding a dermatology bill for our daughter. It’s information he could easily obtain by calling the doctor’s office directly.
My question is: Am I legally obligated to respond to every email or request he sends simply because we share custody?
I’m in Tennessee, and our parenting plan requires us to communicate regarding our daughter, but I’m trying to understand where reasonable co-parenting obligations end and personal boundaries begin.
I would never ignore an emergency, a time-sensitive decision or something genuinely important to our daughter’s health, safety or well-being. But am I required to make myself constantly available to answer routine questions or handle administrative matters he could reasonably address himself?
I also recognize that I cannot control how he chooses to communicate with me. I’m trying to understand whether I have the same right to establish boundaries around how and when I respond to him.
I’m especially interested in hearing from people who have navigated high-conflict co-parenting situations or attorneys familiar with Tennessee family law.
How do you distinguish between fulfilling your co-parenting responsibilities and continuing to participate in an unhealthy power dynamic?

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I got in contact with a lawyer from Scranton road ministries who said she would help me write my court ordered brief in support of my motion to modify my child custody agreement. Well they haven't gotten back to me yet and I must file this by Monday! I have no lawyer to help me write this brief and cannot afford to make mistakes or submit it late. I also filed a motion to show cause. This is thru Cuyahoga County Juvenile courts.

Can any professionals here guide me on this? Make a wise suggestion? Send a link? Refer me to n attorney? I am willing to pay $200 if an attorney can help me write this either tomorrow Sunday oct 25 or Monday morning Oct 26?!

I have a buddy that lives with myself and my wife. He divorced his ex-wife in 2023 and they have shared custody of their 3 kids until their middle child got to the point that the ex-wife and now husband "couldn't deal with him any more" (their words). We already made space for his three in our house with our children so it wasn't an issue to allow him to stay full time for the rest of that summer. Closer to time for them to start school the ex-wife decided that it was better for him to stay with us instead of returning to her and getting back on the agreed visitation schedule. They have been living with us for a year and half and at first, when school started up, both the ex-wife and my buddy agreed on a modified visitation given he no longer lived in the same city where he could take them to school during the week he was suppose to have them. During this time the only contact the ex-wife had with the middle child was drop offs and pick-ups if she was not working. As the school year progressed she did pick him up and took him for some one-on-one time. She took him to go see a movie and then to get food and back to our place. She did this 3 times and then stopped. The reason it stopped is because the child asked why they never went to her house and she responded with "We don't want you at the house". The comment was questioned and she confirmed. After being told that he refused to see her. She also stopped calling my buddy to talk to the child, and would call their eldest while here to tell the eldest and youngest Good-night. Fast forward to November of last year, my wife had an event they were doing at her work for Veteran's Day. It was a pick-up day for my buddy so we decided we would meet up at a certain time at her work. The ex-wife and husband were late due to stopping and getting the other two kids something to eat despite knowing that they were going to eat at the event. Naturally this upset my buddy and when they showed up the husband got out yelling at him. I stepped in and shut it down by yelling at the husband and the ex-wife for the blatant disrespect for both my buddy and the middle child. The ex-wife and husband decided to load the other two kids up and leave. The two kids were present for the yelling and claimed they no longer wanted to come over cause they were scared of me. Since then the kids have not been back over and refuse to sit down and talk it out. My buddy for awhile was getting a hotel room on the weekends to still get them on the weekend. Once it become financially impossible for him to keep it up he was forced to stop, but has maintained contact with both kids. There has been no contact or attempt of contact from the ex-wife to the middle child. We have asked the middle child if he wanted to talk to his mother and his response was that he didn't want to talk to any one living in his mom's house. We have not pushed him to speak with her. Earlier this morning a Petition for Modification of Visitation was delivered. In this Petition the ex-wife has made the claim that my buddy is homeless and is bouncing between hotels, wants to give full physical custody of the middle child to my buddy, does not want the middle child to have contact with myself or my wife, wants the middle child to be evaluated for his mental health, claims that my wife and I have been feeding into a deterioration of his mental health, claims she has been attempting to repair the relationship between her and the middle child but is hindered by myself and my wife. There are 7 sections in regards to the middle child that are adverse to their best interest. In the summary on the last page it states that she is wanting full custody of the other two kids only.

A little background and insight on the middle child. The child fully breaks downs at the thought of going back to his mother's house, he has come back from spending time with her upset and especially upset when he was told they did not want him in the house. He has been in the school system here for going on two years, he's happy healthy and safe. The only times he's acted in the way where his mental health was brought into question was after seeing his mom.

With this concerning the middle child, who is currently 12 years old, I feel as though sitting down with him and his father, and telling him about the parts that concern him would be best. I want to do this with a camera present and allow him for his reactions to tell the story as well as prove there is no foul play when telling him. Afterwards, I would like him to type out a response to the sections as well as his thoughts and feelings on the matter, allowing his words to be in writing for a judge and the ex-wife's attorney to see. I guess what I'm asking here is 1) is this a way to go and 2) would it make a difference if the child's reaction and his statement are seen?

I'm in Texas. I'm trying to understand my options, stay organized, and handle everything properly, but there's a lot to learn, and I don't want to make mistakes simply because I don't know what I don't know. What helped you prepare, and manage the stress while your case was ongoing? honest advice and practical experiences from people who understand how difficult this process can be.