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Important Changes In Custody And Child Support For Women In Us

Discussion in 'Married Life' started by rosequeen, Apr 2, 2022.

  1. rosequeen

    rosequeen Bronze IL'ite

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    Recently my friend moved with family from west coast to Florida where they continue to work remote, they have two kids and are now living in separate condos. In the US there are very big differences in divorce laws between states but things are rapidly heading in one direction --> Time sharing and shared parenting.

    Primary custody still tends to be awarded to the mother, but there are two parts to custody, the legal aspect which deals with who decides on major decisions like child's religion, school, healthcare etc. and time sharing or how many nights the child spends with mother vs father.

    When it comes to time sharing, laws and judgements are STRONGLY favoring 50-50 split , i.e. 183 days with mother and 182 days with father, specially when both parents live close by. In states like Florida this has huge impact on child support payments.

    In my friends case we did Florida website calculation on child support that father may have to pay. This is approx guide only as judges will consider other factors. Payments depended on monthly income of both parties, number of children and other expenses. Approx monthly income of husband is $30K and she is making ~$8K. In the old formula this would mean father would have to pay the mother $2,638 for both kids, every month. With recent changes the amount goes down if children spend > 20% of nights with dad. If the children spend 183 nights with mother and 182 nights with dad, the child support amount goes down to $970 and if her pay increases to $14K (yearly 168K) or more support goes down to $600

    I often hear advice that women need to get a job and become financially independent, but you should also mention this has huge implication for child support payment. Even if husband is making a lot more money, wife's CS payment will reduce significantly.

    The good news is that bitter fights over custody have gone down and fathers are generally agreeing to pay the much smaller child support amount readily
     
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  2. 1Sandhya

    1Sandhya Platinum IL'ite

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    Interesting information. I knew about 50-50 custody but not about how it links on the back end to support and alimony payments. Any change which increases parental involvement is a good one in my opinion.
     
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  3. rosequeen

    rosequeen Bronze IL'ite

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    These are very recent changes (2018 on-wards and impact was post 21), only some states have adopted,concept is spreading quickly. Never before in history has there been such huge reduction in CS payments and now its even possible for the man to receive payments, if he can quit his job and show woman makes more. Its also possible to have prenup/postnup signed to waive alimony or any right to property.

    I agree its very good for men and also for the children but devastating to women. Traditional 'patriarchy' model provided good protection to women with lifelong alimony and large CS payments. Specially those who chose to be home makers and look after kids.

    The worst part about the change is the women has no control over what happens to kids when they are with dad. He is not obligated to spend a dime on them and can let them watch TV all the while or simply neglect them. Also women are feeling lonely and depressed when kids are not at home
     
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  4. 1Sandhya

    1Sandhya Platinum IL'ite

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    Enforcing timely alimony and child support payment has always been an issue. Previously the deadbeat dads would skip off leaving wife with kid and no money. There was no real way to enforce the ordered alimony and child support. This change addresses that problem is what I meant.

    Even in community property states they just divide all the assets accumulated during the marriage equally or some negotiated settlement and call it a day. No alimony or child support. So looks like they are trying to do away with it in the other states as well.

    Even Melinda Gates got a measly 2B compared to the billions her husband got to keep after 3 kids and 21 years of marriage. It was by no means 50-50. I think they had a prenup though. So no woman, rich or poor, is immune from this inequity.
     
    Last edited: Apr 3, 2022
  5. rosequeen

    rosequeen Bronze IL'ite

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    Good point, there is another bill in Florida right now which is trying to remove alimony except for very poor women. Yes this solves problem of deadbeat dads by greatly lowering CS amount to sometimes less than 1% of income
     
  6. Bubbles

    Bubbles Silver IL'ite

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    These numbers are an eye-opener. Women have ?always borne the cost of marriage (at least in my opinion)... and now they have to put up with the cost of leaving a marriage too?! Seems like the only sensible thing to do is to be financially self reliant and judicious all the way through marriage - and not get carried away by the emotional-construct of marriage - of companionship, family etc.
    Why are women penalised so much, for having/building a family?
     
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  7. rosequeen

    rosequeen Bronze IL'ite

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    When it comes to relationships, I don't think we should be doing cost-benefit like you are saying. Obviously, only women can have babies, so childcare and household burden will fall on us. Can't call that penalty. There are men's groups where opposite sentiment is expressed saying men have invented everything from cars to computers and made life easy while women are getting to enjoy all this for free
     

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