lorindastark said:
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? I live in the state of Illinois. I am 36 years old and the mother of four children. My oldest children 15 and 16 live with me and are from my 1st marriage. I have twins that are 12 that I lost custody to 3 years ago to their father, my second marriage. I pay child support for my 2 children. I have been going to school for two years getting my general classes out of the way while working a full time job. This August, I am planning to start my nursing program. I will have to cut my work down to part time to be able to pull the load. This is a two year program. The father of the twins will not work with me..So I am going to have to go back to court to get it modified. How will the judge feel about me voluntarily going full time to part time? Also, how do I do this with court? I will not have paystubs for working part time until after schooling starts and there is no way I can pay that can of money. Hope I am not out of luck. I want to do my part with child support. Once I finish school there child support will probably double..Any advice would be helpful
Kudos to you for furthering your education! I have never had to pay CS....have only been a recipent, but as a single mom that returned to school myself....to finish my BS.....I can offer support. In my opinion, I would go ahead and start the program before you ask for a modification. This way, when you go to court, your circumstances have ALREADY changed.....and a ruling could be made based on your CURRENT income.......instead of "anticipation of". Who knows how the judge will feel about you going to school...he/she may not really care and and just modify CS accordingly....while another may not be too keen about the change. When I went back to school, I asked that my ex pay 1/2 the daycare costs while I attended school. I went full-time and my studies were like having a full-time job......classes took up to 5-6 hours a day, 5 days a week. But the judge didn't award me daycare costs for school.....he said my ex only had to pay 1/2 daycare while I worked a job. To me, this just wasn't right.....I was doing something to better myself and my family.....so I could be more self-sufficient......but the judge didn't see it this way. I was on my own. Regardless, I continued my studies, got my BS, and am now making 3 times my ex.....which I'm sure made him very happy in the long run.
Just do what you have to do. Don't abandon your career ambitions out of fear. Even if a judge may not favor you cutting down your workload for a higher education, I highly doubt if you were ALREADY in this position when you went to court, he/she would not order you to quit school to work full-time.....I've never heard of this happening. Good Luck!