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You REALLY need to go to court and have custody, visitation, and child support worked out. Here is why.
Until you have established paternity & custody/visitation you are NOT the child's [legal]
father. You have ZERO rights. God forbid if your child was in an emergency situation, if her mother passed away, if her mother decided to give her up for adoption. or move out of the country there would be little you could do with out establishing yourself as a legal father of the child.
The mother can withold visitation from you at her whim. She is not legally required to provide visitation(even if you are on the birth cert.) until the court has ordered a visitation schedule. The mother can legally have you charged with "kidnapping" at anytime in which you have your daughter in your custody, if you bring her home from your visits late, or if you take her out of state exc ...because you are a legal stranger...even if the child is biologically yours.....until you establish paternity.
That 500 dollars you are providing every month is NOT child support. This is considered as a "gift" by the courts. If this agreement lasts until the child is 18....and at that time the mother decides to take you to court...you will be ordered to pay 18 years & thousands of dollars in back child support....despite your {non-legal} child support payments over the years. Those payments are not child support and you will be legally required to pay back child support if...with in anytime...in the next 18 years....the mother decided to take you to court. Do you really trust her enough to ensure that over the next 18 years(a very long time) your relationship will stay the same and she will not legally come after you and sue you for more money?
PLEASE...for your own protection spend the extra time & money going through the court system to ensure that your, the mother's, and the child's best intrests are protected.
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