bonus father

Noun

bonus father (plural bonus fathers)

1. A man who serves in a fatherly role to a child who has a different biological father, with or without formally marrying the child’s other parent and becoming a stepfather or going through the formal process of adoption.
   • Melin talks about his own biological father becoming a fine grandfather, and his “bonus father” functioning as a role model for his own parenting but also establishes that the “bonus father” can never take the place of the “real father”…[2016 January 13, Helena Walström Henriksson, “I: Pappahandbooks: Guidebooks for Dads in Twenty-First Century Sweden”, in Andrea Doucet, editor, Pops in Pop Culture:Fatherhood, Masculinity, and the...
   • Establish clear and open communication with both your child’s biological father and any bonus father figures in your life.2025 April 4, Shanice Nicole Robinson, “Chapter 4: Prison to Parenthood: Raising Kids Behind Bars”, in The Gangsters Scholar: Love Behind Bars, page 124

   Synonyms:

   bonus dad