Topic : 12/25 Parent Trap

I am so totally irritated with Gloria Allred.  Yes, we should get the "dead beat" dads, but don't take this out on men like Enrique.  He was lied to by Maria.  Yes, the way he told Selina is deplorable - but - he should not have to pay for Maria's lies.  Maria did a lot of laughing and smiling for such a serious matter.  I really wanted someone to wipe the smiles off of her face.  I do feel bad for Selina - she is in the middle and is just a child.  Mom should be hanging her head in shame and not trying to get money from Enrique since she lied to him for nine years.  SHAME ON HER!!!!  I am a mother of 4, grandmother of 12, great-grandmother of 2 and I think Maria is a disgrace to the all women.    I hope the gentleman who paid for 11 years, fought his ex-girlfriend and won will help Enrique.  HOORAY for him.  I think he could give Gloria a run for her money on this subject.  She is obnoxious. 

I am appalled by the woman's actions of hiding the truth of the paternity from her husband, now ex husband.  I don't think Enrique should be financially responsible at all but he should be allowed to continue a relationship with Selena.  Perhaps Selena's mother could not tell Enrique the truth because perhaps she had various partners outside of the marriage and could not determine who the real father was.  Regardless, how would she feel if she had to pay back all the financial support Enrigue provided before he became aware Selena was not really his??  I'm sure she would put up a fight about that for sure. 

She is not being held accountable for her actions of fraud and should be.  As someone stated on the show, she should step up to the plate, and pursue support from the real father and leave Enrique out of it. 

She owes him that much for lying to him for so many years.

Dr. Phil as I watched your show today I find it sad that men don't seem to have very many rights when it comes to potentially being the father of a child. Yes of course the child should definitely be protected, I'm not trying to say anything against that, but I truly believe that the child would be much better off know at the age of 10 that who they thought was the father is not really their father by blood.  And for the courts to continue making the guy who is not the father pay child support is absurd. I have a similar case in my family where my mom didn't tell one of my sisters that she had a different dad from the rest of us, now while in her forties she found out from another older aunt and she was more hurt I believe because now she has gone all her life not knowing. Nor did the biological man know, now he's dead and she feels she missed something that could have been. She also had a illness that we now think was probably hereditary and we couldn't understand it because the parents she thought was hers didn't have this history. The TRUTH is always best in my opinion, because it's going to cause more hurt later. As a man I don't think I should pay for something I didn't do. The guy who won his case in court was very articulate and made great points, Ms Gloria comes across as nothing more than a woman who hates men period. When ever she is on television it's trying to bash men. I don't think she cares about the kids at all as long as men pay!!

So...the girl has become attached to her stepfather now...if he and the mother break up (before adoption), but  the girl and the stepdad wanted to continue a reltionship, he would have to pay child support?! Just a question.

Yes, the "father" should have  been a LOT more gentle with the daughter, it should have happened as the female lawyer said BUT...

I don't see why he should have to pay any more and why he should not be able to sue the mother. Maybe he could leave that part alone, anyway, but for her to expect any more from him when she knew she lied...that just makes no sense whatsoever.

The poor schmuck rejected the daughter out of shock, probably. But it took three years to regret it? Hmm.

I think it is very easy for people like Dr. Phil and Gloria Ulrich to say that the children should come first and the money secondary. While I do believe the children should come first, this should not obligate a man who is NOT the father to pay child support. Very few people have the income that Dr. Phil and Gloria have. They can easily afford to support a child that isn't theirs. The vast majority of people are living paycheck to paycheck. While I THOROUGHLY support biological fathers at the very least paying child support, I also support men who have been tricked into believing they are fathers to be entitled to some sort of recourse. In my opinion, at the very LEAST they should be paid their money back. In my opinion the mother should at least have to pay interest on it. At the same time, I think a man who has been the father in a child's life should stay active in their life. Why do they have to pay child support to the mother in order to do this? They can remain active in the child's life and not pay support. Then the child IS coming first, but the man at least isn't getting screwed over by the mother. If the woman on today's show was truly concerned about her daughter first, she would have dropped the child support issue and paid the man back the child support he had paid, and simply been asking him to stay in her daughter's life. It is obvious she only cared about the money.

This is something that has happened to a man I know well, my husband.  I think this woman should be ashamed of herself, but she seemed to blame her ex-husband and only admitted guilt when pressed by Dr. Phil.  What is wrong with her?  This man did the right thing.  My husband has always known that one of his daughters was not his but never said anything.  His daughter is in her late 30's and still doesn't know.  I have never said anything, but I feel she should know who her biological father is, but it is not my place.  I ask him one time what he would say if she ever ask him and he said he would tell her to ask her mother.  I thought that was a good answer.  She has often made comments that she doesn't look like anyone in the family, was she adopted?  I think she suspects something, but because no one ever told her, she doesn't want to think it could be possible.  Hopefully, this girl will find out who her biological father is and she can realize that this man was not at fault, but her mother was and should not have ever started this mess.  Maria should repay him for every penny he paid in child support.

 Hi I don't think a man should have to pay child support when his ex wife lied about paternit no matter how old the child was. He should be careful about the child's emotions and the way they find out. She admitted she lied and was just to smug for what she did which I think was wrong and no excuse for her lying.