as far as one parent making a better living then the other. well, everyone in this world has an opportunity to raise their own standard of living and comparing yours to others is never a positive situation. if your ex has a better more lucrative life style i am sure he or she is working to make it that way. i work hard for what i have and my ex never wanted to work that hard. he was easily satisfied and intern he has a different life style than i do. we both recognize that and he does not come after me for money just because i have more. that makes no sense trying to equalize families of divorce. if you put someone through school maybe you should have thought twice about what the very possible future of divorce. 60% of all marriages end in divorce, those are not very good betting odds if you are counting on that person to support you for the rest of your life.

pcnightmare Writes:
If you do the math that $840 is per year. Cause $840 a month for a year is already over $8k and if that continued for 17yrs the figure for raising a child in 17years would be closer to $130,000.

If there is some trick to raising my kids on $840/year each for the next 17 years, will you please let me know what it is? Heh.

To all of you Keep fighting, keep praying and never give up, it will eventually pay off. Good Luck to you all!

Jose’s wife

Specifically, I think you missed the phrase “a year” in “raising a single child for 17 years will cost about $10,125 a year.”

$10,125 divided by 12 months = $843.75 a month.

“Again, the federal government compiles some good statistics on this (pdf link). For a single parent with an income of about $17,500, raising a single child for 17 years will cost about $10,125 a year, or $840 a month.”

If you do the math that $840 is per year. Cause $840 a month for a year is already over $8k and if that continued for 17yrs the figure for raising a child in 17years would be closer to $130,000.

Just thought I would point that out.

I agree, though, women who exploit their children for money…that’s shameful.

In what way is tyranny evident: In the way that innocent peole are being criminalized for the mere fact that they are poor. As stated clearly and eloquently above by Nick. Most CSO are paid via income deduction. What happens when an NCP loses a job? In Florida, where I live, I think the courts have been very sensible. In other states, most notably California, The system is broken. I read the stat that 95% of modification attemps in CA fail and that the fallacy of imputed income reigns supreme.

My story as NCP: I was employed was on income deduction of 600/mo for 1 child and Health insurance and 50K life insurance. The health and life were paid by my employer. Meaning over the previoous 8 years I paid ~50K myself for the upkeep of my child. I was arrested charged with a felony and convicted. Consequently, I lost my job. I was able to make 2 subsequent payments then my saving ran out and I was still unable to find a job. I spoke with my ex and she was sympathetic. She said “it wasn’t your fault and people make mistake and the have to learn from them. File for a mod and I won’t object. When you find another job, I file for a mod”

It took 4 months to get a hearing and I was attempted to be railroaded into the imputed income trap by a very nasty special master. The first action was to set the arrears at 2350$. As I learned the action was from the state, not my ex. All these things were thrown at me by CSE. Towards the end of the hearing they let my ex speak and she informed them the she was able to put the child on her family policy at no extra cost. The master argued with her that the entire cost of the policy should be divided by her total # of kids with 1/4 charged to me.

I could go on about the proceeding, but I won’t. What is my point? My point is that the interaction between to well meaning adults should not be interfered with. Absolute power corrupts absolutely and we are nearing the point where constitutional issues (Debtor’s prison) will cause the system to collapse under it’s own bloated weight. Attorney’s, Private collection schemes, imputed income are all combining to subvert the meaning and practice of it all.

If a person can’t find a job then how are they supposed to pay. It’s as simple as that. Of course kids need to be supported. I supported myself well and my children also. I never felt as if I was being taken advatage of or that the amount was unfair. Until I lost my job. I have done much reading on the subject and have reached the opinion that the intentions are noble but the practice has become corrupt.

Don’t know how many cases are out there like this, but my ex earns more in interest than he pays in child support. (Yes, I do have copy of his tax returns.) He also gives more to his church than he does to support his kids. This wouldn’t be significant, but for the first decade of our marriage, I worked to put him through all kinds of degrees while he concentrated on school. There is no compensation for women and their children for that sort of lost investment.

$238.00 per month for childcare
$160.00 per month for Lunch money, 2 children
$167.00 per month for Car insurance, 16 yr old driver, Liability only
$200.00 Food
$100.00 Clothing/Shoes
$100.00 Misc/Pictures/Field Trips/Sch Suppl/Church Trips/Sch Activities
$ 20.00 Cell Phone for 16 yr old Driver
$100.00 Medications/Toiletries/Haircuts
____________
$1085.00 divided by 2 = $542.50

(And we both have health insurance on the children — they are double insured… which helps out alot, since we don’t have to pay co-pays and deductibles, etc…)

I am paid $698.00 per month in child support, the difference would be the difference in our incomes. I hope this shows that there are mothers out there that are working hard to take care of their children and that we are not all just waiting for a check to come every month. Actually, there is so much more that could be listed… this is actually just an abbreviated version… everyone knows how much it costs to raise a child.

$400/mo childcare
$20/mo pullups for at night
$100/mo food
$200/YEAR for Christmas divided by 12 is $8.33/mo
$400/year clothing and shoes which breaks down to $33/mo
$100/year birthday gifts

Thats breaks down to the above $309.33/mo I would be left paying (50%) if my husband and I were to get a divorce, I would be awared approximately $700/mo in child support on top of my husband continuing to carry medical insurance (which in my state, I would not be required as a mother to contribute towards)

So what exactly would I be doing with the additional $400/mo that he would be required to pay based up the 17% income guidelines.

It’s unreasonable for me to expect my husband to provide a BETTER lifestyle for our child if we were to divorce, instead of being intact (and by no means is our child lacking anything) As a mother, am I entitled legally to be paid for my “services” as a mother such as doing laundry, feeding and caring for my child as a mother should? I hardly think that’s fair to my husband. The “system” does not account nor expect mothers to provide any financial support to their own children. It’s totally “out there” for mothers to not work, live off of government subsidies and have the non custodial fathers contribute financially to the child, and medical coverages, while a mother is free to not work or contribute but just continue to have more children

In my state, if you are not married and received medicaide/soonercare (state paid insurance) for the child’s birth, the state goes after the father for the FULL bill for the birth. Why isn’t the mother equally as responsible for that? Does she bear no responsibility in the creation of the child? Where in our world did we go completely wrong that the mothers responsibility ends at caretaking, would it be the same to say that a mans responsibility as a father ends at a check at the end of the month?

III. CHILD SUPPORT OBLIGATION SCHEDULE

A. BASIC ORDER

The basic child support obligation, based upon the income of the non-custodial parent is as follows:

GROSS WEEKLY INCOME NUMBER OF CHILDREN
1 2 3

——————————————————————————–

$0-$100 Discretion of the court, but not less than $80 per month

$101-$280 21% 24% 27%

$281-$750 $59 + 23% $67 + 28% $76 + 31%

(% refers to all dollars over $280)
$751-max $167 + 25% $199 + 30% $222 + 33%

(% refers to all dollars over $750)

For children in excess of 3 covered by the order, the support shall be no less than that for 3 children; should a judge order support at the 3 child level, written findings shall describe the circumstances of the particular case which warrant the minimum order.

Within the discretion of the court, and in consideration of the totality of the circumstances of the parties, the Basic Order may be either increased or decreased by 2%. An adjustment of 2% shall not be considered a deviation.

Now when i took my sons father to court for child support he did not show up so the court based my support order on someone working 40 hours per week making minimum wage. My sons father was ordered to pay $61.00 per week (he only pays this after the court freezes his account which does not happen until he hits $1000 in arrears and then all he has to do is make the minimum payment, taking him to court would cost me and be financially costly to my child. So women have plenty to be outraged about

Your’s Truley
The Best Dad Ever.

My husband’s son has been out of his Mother’s house since he was 18 years old and my husband still sent child support. Once the Child support agency ASUME went online, we noticed my husband was only credited for support payments from 2005 thru current. Everything before that date was considered as back support. My husband pleaded with his ex wife to take care of the matter since we live in Ohio and she refused. We sent her copies and mailed the agency check copies and money orders made out to his ex wife totaling thousands of dollars that were never credited. Since his ex wife did not dispute the amount owed, we were told by the agency that there had to be an investigation. We have been back and forth with this for years, pleading for help through phone calls, letters, emails and going there in person. No help was given to us. We finally hired an attorney in February who keeps telling us that it’s almost done, but when we call him he avoids us like the agency.

It’s a real shame that these child support laws were made to protect children and people, but all I’ve seen is how it’s used to protect someone who has taken advantage of the system with no help for responsible people like my husband and myself. My husband is a hard worker and has recently received a promotion and must leave the country for training. Since nothing has been cleared up we took out a loan and double paid his ex wife just so he doesn’t lose his job while our so called lawyer resolves the crediting of his case. Now that his balance is hardly anything, we still can’t get his passport. Puerto Rico blames Washington and Washington blames Puerto Rico while my husband’s job hangs in the balance and our lives further destroyed over such an injustice.

Is this a private blogg and are the rules of your page? I thought this was a page to encourage talk of a variety of views, grips, and bitches, be it male or female. Surely, if one who believes in opposing views, wants real comments, you can take the bad with the good, or have I been in the wrong blog to begin with.

If I have a blog, and envoke my own rules, that is fair, Just call a spade a spade, that no other views but yours should be allowed. Just don’t open the door up and then tell us that we can’t express ourselves. I’m probably more empathtic toward the cause of child support for women than most men. However, poor monitor edicate will have its own effect.

You are perfectly right in several comments on this page, however, a good monitor will refrain from judgement in order to understand why a person is spilling there guts. If you say,I don’t like your post, so don’t write this or that then maybe your right. So what are you after as a monitor and what your you wish this blog to be? If not all comments are your fancy, then what is the point.

Comments on review”
NOTE FOR COMMENTS: Please don’t post about how you have an income of $500 a month and the judge ordered you to pay $2000 a month in child support to your ungrateful lazy ex-spouse who spends all the child support money on dresses she can wear to the track and she earns more than you do anyway and the judge won’t even reply to your motions. Unless I know both you and your ex-spouse, and can verify for myself that she’d tell me the same version of events that you’re telling me, I don’t think anecdotal evidence of that sort is more useful than the federal data.”