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Furthering education and need to modify support

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lorindastark

Junior Member
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
 


Phnx02

Member
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!
 

lorindastark

Junior Member
thank u very much for the advice...i am not going to stop..if anything i will save some of my income tax to pay child support. I do not get child support for my older two..my 16 year old is working and is going to help as much as she can..i raised the four children on my own for 6 years and did receive child support for the youngest, and he got married for the 4th time and got a very good attorney, i resumed after the lose and decided to better myself, i have told myself that i will do what i have to do. Thank you for the advice and i also will probably triple his income.
 

topsidder

Member
If the courts adward a downward modification so you may attend school voluntaryly and quit your full time job, please post so we all know.

That way, there will be case on point the next time some DAD wants to do the same thing!
 

stealth2

Under the Radar Member
Courts generally won't reduce CS for a voluntary cut in pay. And that's what this would be.
 

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