Some aspects of the child support program intended to increase paternity establishment have been very successful. Therefore, these programs should be encouraged. However, because trying to collect cash child support from poor fathers is largely unsuccessful on its own terms and undermines the relationships between the fathers and their children, these efforts should be curtailed. Instead, the child support program should encourage absent father's efforts to provide for their children voluntarily, both by paying money and by giving noncash assistance. Part I of this article lays the foundation for this argument by describing in detail the economic position of the poorest of parents, who are mostly young and uneducated. Part II examines the great success of the formal child-support enforcement program at establishing paternity of children born outside of marriage and its lack of success at raising children out of poverty. Part III reviews the Fragile Families research about the close relationships that most poor, unmarried fathers have to their mates and children at birth.