From Wikipedia.com: De facto is a Latin expression that means "by [the] fact". In law, it is meant to mean "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but without being officially established".

Got all that? It is not a legal term and there is no such thing as a defacto parent. A person who is acting like a parent, perhaps a aunt without custody, would be considered a "defacto parent" because she is doing all the things a parent would do but has no legal standing to do so. She's a volunteer.

You can be a defacto pilot by stealing an aircraft and flying it. That is until you crash it.

*********************

100 years from now it won't matter if you were successful in business, church or your social circle. But it will matter if you were important in the life of a child.

**SingleMotherOf2GreatKids**
Bendetti21...I have been researching this exact term. And it is in fact a real legal term. It is also know as "psychological parent". There are a few states across the US that do recognize that biological parents are not always in the best interest of the child or that sometimes, as in the case or homosexual couples who adopt or have a donor, that there is not or only 1 biological parent but who is to say that they have more rights to the child then the other. Washington state is one of the states that has an established de fatco parentis doctrine. And there are documented cases the have gone through and won in the supreme court in many states where this exact fact was the main issue under discussion. Keep researching and you will find more information specific to your state.