This is from Belfast Trust – I don't recall seeing this before but I might have missed it. What is this nonsense about? I always assumed that as a father, I had inherent parental responsibility.

by gerard4156

6 comments

  1. This has been around for a couple of decades.

    It’s not nonsense. Without it any random man could claim to be a child’s father.

  2. The conditions seem to cover all scenarios for legitimate fathers so not sure what the problem is? As others have said it’s to stop randos from claiming to be the fathers of kids.

  3. You do, if you fall into one of the categories mentioned which probably most fathers do.

  4. If you think this is a problem, you’re being naive unfortunately. Centuries of mothers being the expected care giver while dad has a few kids from different families on the go has lead us here.

    That and obvs it’s always going to be easier to prove who is Mother (the one with the fetus in her womb) vs Father requires some testing. Steps have been made to improve this but those extra rules exist for good reasons

  5. It’s a strange rule they brought into play but has caused some problems. Say you aren’t married to your partner, and something happens during childbirth. The baby actually goes to the maternal grandparents until the birth certificate is sorted out. Without one of those four, the father doesn’t have a claim to the child legally

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