Can You Waive Child Support Just to Keep the Peace?
If you ask people who have been married for decades how they have managed to resolve their conflicts, they will tell you that most conflicts do not end with a negotiated agreement. Usually, the parties simply run out of resources to fight, or else circumstances change so much that the issue of contention becomes a moot point. Elderly couples who get along swimmingly now probably did not have such a harmonious relationship when their children were minors; in short, raising children with someone is a minefield for conflict. Disagreements about money are the symptom, not the cause. If you never get upset about anything except your children, then you will be upset about your spouse interfering with the financial decisions you make regarding your expenses. By contrast, if you are a control freak, you worry about money all the time, and the fact that your children are the beneficiaries of this money only makes things worse. Even if your marriage ends in divorce, you might not realize, until you are sitting in a mediation session with your spouse and your respective lawyers, how many issues you never raised with your spouse just to avoid making your conflicts worse. For better or worse, child support amounts are up to the court’s decision, not yours. For help understanding how the court reaches its decisions about child support and which factors related to child support are within your control, contact a Boca Raton child support lawyer.
Child Support Is for Children, Not for Parents
Even though few things are more frustrating than writing your ex-spouse a check every month, knowing that your ex will spend it frivolously, or checking your bank account balance and seeing that, once again, your ex has flaked on his child support obligations, you are legally obligated to stay in this dysfunctional financial partnership with your ex until your youngest child reaches adulthood. The family courts calculate child support according to the child’s expenses, each parent’s income and non-parenting expenses, and each parent’s number of overnights per year. In other words, child support boils down to a mathematical formula.
How to Modify a Child Support Court Order
You cannot change the mathematical formula that determines child support amounts, but you can legally change the numbers in that formula. If you cannot afford your court-ordered child support payments because of a reduction in income, you should petition the court to modify your child support amount. Likewise, if you change your parenting plan so that you have more overnights per year with your children, you have the right to modify your child support order to reflect the change in parenting time. If you are wondering whether parents ever agree, off the record, to share children’s expenses in ways other than what the child support order dictates, the answer is yes, but this is a legally messy route to take.
Contact Schwartz | White About Modifying Your Child Support Obligations
A South Florida family law attorney can help you modify your child support order if you cannot afford your child support payments. Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.
Source:
floridarevenue.com/childsupport/child_support_amounts/Pages/child_support_amounts.aspx
