Lady marries husband #1. They have a baby boy. The father turns out to be a major jerk-head and leaves the baby in custody of the mother, never visiting him (he sees him once in 5 years or so), and never pays child support (doesn’t have much money anyway so mother doesn’t bother persuing).
Now, mother marries husband #2, and here comes the question: if something should happen to the mother who gets the kid? Hudband #2 (who has raised the kid for many years and took care of him, or husband #1 who is actually not the least bit interested, but his family is all for taking the kid from husband #1?
First of all, I’m not a lawyer and am not trying to give legal advice. But it seems to me that the mother has a couple of options if she wants husband #2 to be in charge in case of a tragedy.
Husband #2 legally adopts the child.
Wife executes legal papers stating who is the guardian of the child if she dies while he is a minor. I think a will would cover that, but as I said IANAL and could be wrong as to what’s required.
For something that important, if it were me I would get legal advice if for some reason it was not possible for husband #2 to legally adopt.
Hmm, yes I was told that the second husband would have to adop the kid. And that was my real question. I thought since they were married, there was no need for the father to adopt.
As I understand it, the real father (husband #1) has to sign off in order for husband #2 to be able to adopt. Which can be a barrier depending on how much fo a jerk husband #1 is.