My sons father has not seen him since 6 weeks. What are his legal rights if he were to ask for visitation?

My son and I live in NC. His father and I were never married and he wanted to place our son up for adoption. He has not seen him since he was 6 weeks old & he is now almost 5. I am wondering if he ever came back around, as he once said he would once he was at a "fun age," what visitation rights he would be given, if any. I am not married, have no other children and work very hard to provide my son a great life. He has a consistent, stable life and it upsets me a judge would rip him away from that and throw him into some overnight visitation with a stranger because he decides he wants to play "Daddy" and throw a baseball. I have heard horror stories, but I am wondering on average what would happen if he were to ask for contact. He is not on the birth certificate and he has NEVER paid child support although he has known about him since I was 3 weeks pregnant, as we were together. Is there anything I can do to protect my sons stable life in the event this ever happens?

He'd probably get equal visitation, like any child. He hasn't signed over his rights, so he'd likely get it. Of course he'd have to make support payments and an effort for back payments too.

The only way to stop it would be to get him to sign over all parental rights to you...and you wouldn't be able to collect any child support either.

First, he would have to petition the court for visitation, request a DNA test to establish paternity. That is going to take a while and you can stall. The judge won't just automaically let this stranger just walk into his life. He'll have to have monitored visits at first. Chances are, that's not "fun" and he probably won't want to have to invest a lot of money into it. It he tries to establish paternity, threaten to bag him for child support. That will make him think twice. You could move, remarry and have your new husband adopt your son. This will make it almost null and void as far as him having any rights. He was merely a donor, and your can't consider him a "dad." When your son gets older and asks questions, just be prepared ahead of time to what you will answer. The donor may pop in and out of his life at some point.

It really doesn't sound like he will show up. I think he would have to take you to court and prove paternity since he is not on the birth certificate.

BUT- just know that as you son gets older, he is going to ask and wonder about his dad.
Even if your ex is human scum, he is your son's dad. Eventually, they may get to know each other, and you don't want to come off as the wicked mom who tried to keep the son from the father. Just a word to think about....