Confirming Paternity On Your Own
Many children trying to put the pieces together to find out the answers to who their real father is can sometimes find it tough to get answers from the adults who have a vested interest in others not knowing the real truth such as a mother who may have cheated and doesn’t want to lose child support or break up a marriage or a family.
Other reasons could have been a situation like rape and the shame and legal consequences involved with telling others is too much and it is something never talked about or to admitted to.
Or it could be that the suspected father doesn’t want the financial or emotional responsibility of a child and has rejected paternity claims. There are a vast number of possible reasons why parents lie to their children about who their father is.
This is unfortunately why DNA testing has become such a necessity in this day and age. Most specific relationship DNA testing is either a form of direct or indirect infidelity testing. Situations like adoption, in vitro fertilization, immigration and IRS tax requirements to prove declared dependents are an exception.
Some of the things at stake for knowing the truth about your biological father are:
Estate, Inheritance and Probate Issues
Child Custody
Parental Rights
Child Support
Inherited Health Issues
Adoption (Legal Verification of Biological Parents)
Establishing Emotional Bonds with the Biological Father
So what is a child to do if none of the parental figures in their lives will tell them the truth? Well there are alternative methods children can take into their own hands. They may not be able to go to their suspected father and ask him to take a mouth swab but they can find items that might contain his DNA that they can secretly have tested. Things such as chewing gum, nail clippings, ear wax on Q-tips, pieces of hair left in a hairbrush (as long as the root bulbs are still attached), cigarette butts, worn unwashed underwear, blood on a Band-Aid, a tissue that was sneezed into and so on.
If they don’t have access to these items from inside the suspected fathers house, once trash has been taken out to the curb for pickup there is no expectation of privacy but they still might want to check with their local ordinances to see if there are any restrictions on going through someones trash left outside.
If the grandparents of a suspected father are willing to take a grandparent DNA test that can help confirm whether or not a suspected father is the biological father. Often grandparents are more willing to know the truth about biological relationships and if a child is their grandchild than their kids are so it is worth asking them if they would.
