You seem to have a pretty good understanding of what it means for a child to be "legitimated" by the biological Father, and that without that being done, the Father has no rights to the child -- the only right he has is to pay child support. And, yes, that is a "right." He has no more right to see his child than a stranger on the street, and if he cared enough about the child, he'd be paying support on a regular basis and not exposing the child to emotionally traumatic situations like he is with his girlfriend.

I would suggest that you inform him that if he wishes to legitimate the child, he should seek legal counsel and in the meantime, he should think about supporting his child. Until he grows up and stops putting the child in emotionally (and perhaps physically) damaging situations, you do not have to let him take the child anywhere, nor do you have to let him see the child. If your son is now 8 years old, he probably knows his Father and he may even enjoy spending time with him, but it is a bad situation when your son sees how his Father behaves, and he may start to believe that this is how a Man and a Father are supposed to act. I would be curious to see if this man actually does anything to ensure his time with his son once you give him the ultimatum of taking the high road, take this to Court to secure his rights (and responsibilities) as a Father, and start paying support on a Court Ordered basis.

If you are curious what kind of support might be ordered, my website has a link on the page that deals with support to the Child Support Worksheets through the Department of Human Resources here in Georgia. You can select the type of worksheet you are comfortable using, such as the Step-by-Step one that actually asks questions that you answer, and it assists you in completing the worksheet. If he is not working, then you should "impute" minimum wage for him at $1,256.67 per month gross income.

Hope this helps.

Danielle D. D'Eor-Hynes, Family Law Center, LLC

www.hynesfamilylaw.com