Co-parenting, platonic parenting, or shared parenting, refers to an arrangement that involves two or more people who have kids together and continue to parent as a team amicably. These new parenting styles are contributing to the growing number of family representations. Since the disappearance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s laws disadvantaging children born outside of marriage, policy-makers have struggled to find a way to encourage stable parental relationships for children. While teenage pregnancy has declined, non-marital births are soaring, especially among women in their twenties.

Your best course of action for the long-term is probably to have your name legally changed and then update your birth certificate. In order to legally change your name, you must file a Request for Name Change along with a few accompanying documents with the clerk of the circuit court in the county in which you reside. This process will require you to publish notice in a local newspaper and attend a court hearing.

In order for a court to enter a binding order in a paternity case, it must have both subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction. The case must also be filed in the proper venue, meaning the correct county court within the state. Subject matter jurisdiction, is the court’s ability to hear the particular type of case at hand. In Illinois the state circuit courts have subject matter jurisdiction over paternity cases. This means that paternity cases should be filed in state court rather than federal court.