Child Support Reform: What Side of The Fight Are You On?

If you do not know what child support is and how it works, let us explain it to you. Once a couple gets a divorce, the child, or children, has to be supported in a manner that all his/her educational, health and other basic necessities are financially taken care of by either or both parents. To make sure the child’s basic necessities are not compromised, child support laws and government organizations keep a check on the parents and the child. However, as with most laws, these are also not 100% perfect. These laws vary from state to state.

Divorced mothers are usually allowed to take care of the child by getting funds from child support organizations, which work according to child support laws. However, the funding is not entirely provided by the organizations. In fact, the father has to make sure he fulfills all the financial needs of the child while mother is allowed to not work and be a fulltime mother. This happens in most of the cases.

The tough and fast life of today requires not one but two people in a household to work and earn in order to support the child and live a better life. However, the father is generally responsible for handling the financial needs of the children, besides paying alimony to his ex-wife, which can make it difficult for him to take care of his own needs. Most child support laws are not fair. Why? The main reason is that a single law has been set for all kinds of cases. This means there is no difference between loving and caring parents, and cruel, “dead beat” parents.

In many cases, mothers take complete advantage of the laws by using the money for their own use. The mother benefits while fathers are seen working day and night to generate the funds because if they do not do so, they risk facing legal sanctions and even jail time. Apart from this, some laws are so strict that fathers who are providing for their children still have to obtain permission from the court to meet their children and spend time with them.

What can be done to make child support laws fair for both parents? The ideal approach is each case should be studied in detail and all the expenditures, such as the attorney fee, court fee, and other expenses should be equally divided between the parents or at least according to their levels of income.

Also, the parent responsible for keeping the child should be drug tested to make sure the child does not live in a dangerous environment. The overall income should be taken into consideration. Mothers should be provided with job opportunities that do help them generate money while taking care of the child. It should be strictly checked that no one gets a free ride.