Should stepfathers and boyfriends that aren't the father be required to pay support?

[Lynda/WA]

As I've said before, I listen to alot of talk radio during the day. One day the topic was mothers that have multiple children with multiple fathers so they can live off of the child support. That's not what I wanted to debate. I just brought that up because one of the callers talked about how much his ex-wife was receiving (they had signed the papers that week) from her children's fathers. He was the stepfather for a year. The host pointed out to him that Washington state allowed judges to assign child support payments to anyone they felt had *bonded* with the child. As a stepfather he could have court demanded child support payments to an ex-wife for a child that wasn't even his. My understanding is that a boyfriend who isn't the father of a child could also be made to pay child support payments. Do you think this is alright?

[Linda/NE]

No, I don't think it is. I've never heard of deciding support based on 'bonding.' I do know in Nebraska (probably about 12-15 years ago) a paternity case was not considered a case where the defendant (father) could have a court appointed attorney if he couldn't afford an attorney on his own. The only source of information if he couldn't afford an attorney was from the county attorney handling the case for the child/mother. I know one case where the father was told by the CA that if he couldn't afford to pay for blood tests up front, he had no choice but to sign the paper stating that he is the father. Later this father found out that the CA was supposed to give him a number for free information and that information would have told him that he wouldn't have to pay for the blood tests if it turned out that he was NOT the father. Since he signed the paper it's virtually impossible to overturn.

This father you mentioned--he didn't adopt the child did he? I know that if the step father adopts the child then he is responsible for support.

Sad situation! :(

[Lynda/WA]

No - the stepfathers/ non-paternal boyfriends and others do not have to adopt in order to be assigned child support. In fact my understanding is they don't have any say in the matter. The court decides if they have *bonded* or not. The talk show didn't cite specific examples in this case. It came up under the other topic when a divorced stepfather called in.
Most of the calls were from women that were freely admitting they became pregnant in order to get child support. In fact the whole topic began because of a guy writing in about a conversation he had heard. He was eating next to a table with a couple of women. One of the women was pregnant. her friends were asking her if she planned to go back to work. She started laughing and told them that was why she had gotten pregnant in the first place. This was her 4th child and each had a different father. She told her friends not to have a second child with the same father since there is a limit to how much support you can get out of one guy and you get more per child with only one child per father. Something about only being able to get 1/3 of his pay? She said she wouldn't let a guy she was dating know she already had children until after she got pregnant. Of course this was in Seattle. From what I understand Seattle has one of the highest illegitimacy rates in the US if not the highest.

[kathleen]

How sad for those children to have that woman raising them. What kind of role model can she be?