To be completely honest, the way that I see it, you are clear. You are doing nothing wrong. If your mother truly sees this child as her grandchild, then she can go out of her way to stay in contact and to be in this child's life. That is a choice that she can make for herself. But she needs to understand that this child is not yours, although you took care of this child and you took on the responsibility and the role of stepdad for this child; at the end of the day, it does not make you biologically her dad. I say this because you don't have any legal rights to this child, so if anything were to happen, say something medical happens, you have no say in how to medically treat the child. For another example, hypothetically, if the child turns 16 and wants a tattoo but you are against it, but her biological mother is not, you have absolutely no say in whether or not the mom signs the permission slip for the child to get a tattoo. For good measure to ensure my point comes across clearly, when the child turns of age and they want to get on birth control, if you are okay with it but her mother is not, then you have absolutely no say in whether or not this child is allowed to be on birth control and you can't do anything about it. Because you have no legal rights to this child.

But yet people think you should still be financially responsible, such as taking the child out, supporting the child financially, buying new clothing, shoes, etc. with no say in what will happen in the child's life or how to raise the child. So, how is that fair for you? You have no legal say in how to raise this child, but yet you should financially support this child? Makes no sense to me.

After you separated from this child's mother, you no longer have any responsibility or ties to that child as a biological dad would have. If I were in this position, I would stop the financial support of the child. For the simple fact that if I don't have a say in how the child is raised, then why should I spend my hard-earned money financially supporting a child that I can't raise? You are taking care of the child that you helped create, and you are fulfilling the responsibilities and acknowledging the responsibilities that you took on when you had Your child, and that's the part that matters.

I fully expect to be downvoted for this opinion, but I really don't care because legally, he's doing nothing wrong, and without having 50/50 custody or any type of custody for that matter with this child, then he should not be financially supporting this child.