Baby's surname

[Katy_89]

Ooh I hadn't even thought about this. My OH and I aren't married but I definately want the baby to have his second name. We too plan to get married when we finally get the money together...baby gets financial priority right now! Also I have heard that the laws about parental responsibility are complicated for unmarried parents...is it true that my OH will have to adopt our baby in order to have parental responsibility???

No, he just has to go with you to register the birth and sign the birth certificate xx

 

[titch]

Ah thats straight forward enough! Then he will have full parental responsibility?

 

[Katy_89]

As far as I'm aware yes xx

ETA: From what I know this is the case anyway, my friends ex OH is named on the birth certificate and as such has parental responsibilty, and I've also heard other people advising people who have split up with the father not to put him on the birth cert so he can't have the parental responsibilty. So that's how I reached my conclusion xx

 

[titch]

Ah thanks for that katy. That seems very straight forward, he'd be coming with me anyway, he's so excited about the whole thing, when he got back from work yesterday he had been thinking of names (already - Im not due until July!) and he's had this idea that he's gonna give up alcohol and anything that Im not allowed to eat the whole way through cos he thinks it's unfair on me having to go through everything. I wonder whether he feels a little left out? Anyway it's so lovely how supportive he's being, I knew he would be, but it still makes me love him a little bit more!lol

 

[mistrey]

As long as he goes with you to register the birth, then he will have full parental responsibility (along with you) and the baby can be registered in his name. If you later marry, you can then change the birth certificate again, so that it reads Mrs xxx (mother) and Mr xxx (Father) instead of Miss YYYY (mother) and Mr xxx (father), so it looks like you were married when baby was born. i.e. all of you will have the same surname on the birth certificate.

Hope this helps, this is what my husband and I did when we got married. You do have to pay to reregister the birth though

 

[karen78]

im not a hundred percent on how it works but i know my brother is named on the childrens birth certificate they werent married and he still has to fight for residency if she gets taken off her then he cant get them unless he has this

 

[Rowesb]

and he's had this idea that he's gonna give up alcohol and anything that Im not allowed to eat the whole way through cos he thinks it's unfair on me having to go through everything.

I got laughed at when when I suggested that to DH...

 

[mistrey]

Parental responsibility is different to residency. Parental responsibility means that you have the right to give consent to medical treatment, choosing their schools, take them out of the country, or letting them emigrate etc.

From Direct.gov.uk :
Who has parental responsibility?

In England and Wales, if the parents of a child are married to each other at the time of the birth, or if they have jointly adopted a child, then they both have parental responsibility. Parents do not lose parental responsibility if they divorce, and this applies to both the resident and the non-resident parent.
This is not automatically the case for unmarried parents. According to current law, a mother always has parental responsibility for her child. A father, however, has this responsibility only if he is married to the mother when the child is born or has acquired legal responsibility for his child through one of these three routes:

• (from 1 December 2003) by jointly registering the birth of the child with the mother
• by a parental responsibility agreement with the mother
• by a parental responsibility order, made by a court

Living with the mother, even for a long time, does not give a father parental responsibility and if the parents are not married, parental responsibility does not always pass to the natural father if the mother dies.
All parents (including adoptive parents) have a legal duty to financially support their child, whether they have parental responsibility or not.

Residency is another Matter completely.