At my whits end

[mpp1978]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio

Ok, this may get a little complicated, but hope this all makes sense. My wife is driving me crazy with our divorce. We separated in October of 2010 and agreed to divorce shortly after that. We have said that we were going to do a dissolution but she is not willing to negotiate with me at all. I am from The Bahamas, and we met while we were doing our undergraduate degrees. Got married, and I have stayed in the US finishing my PhD. Our plan was that once I got my PhD we would move to The Bahamas, because I had a job waiting for me.
Well she didn't finish her degree, and I finished all of mine. She said at home with the kids, and when our oldest was old enough to go to full day preschool, i pushed her to go back to school. She went, but never finished instead partying and having fun in stead of doing homework. She would never get a serious job and i had to work and go to shcool full time to cover most of our bills.
Ok, forward to today, 3 kids. I am back in The Bahamas, and she is still in Ohio. I make about 2700 a month, and she makes between 3 - 400. She lives in a house owned by her parents, and when we lived there agreement was 1000 a month for rent and utilities. We agreed that I would take on all the marital debt, except for the money we owed her parents. I give her 700 a month for child support and pay about 500 a month to our debts. she is telling me she wants 1000 a month child support and alimony (which she hasn't told me the amount). also, she insisted on putting our eldest son in a private school, which is 620 a month (310 is my half), I am against.
I can't afford a lawyer, but I can't devote 1810 (without alimony) almost 2000 or more depends on what she wants. I don't know what to do**************...

 

[mistoffolees]

So you don't have a court order? Then you don't have to pay anything - much less the extravagant amounts she is requesting.

Assuming that the above is correct and there's no court order, you let the court decide. Ask that she be imputed full-time minimum wage (which would be around $1250 a month) and support be calculated per guidelines. You almost certainly won't owe alimony, nor living expenses for her. You will have to pay child support per the state guidelines:
Ohio Child Support Calculator

 

[LdiJ]

So you don't have a court order? Then you don't have to pay anything - much less the extravagant amounts she is requesting.

Assuming that the above is correct and there's no court order, you let the court decide. Ask that she be imputed full-time minimum wage (which would be around $1250 a month) and support be calculated per guidelines. You almost certainly won't owe alimony, nor living expenses for her. You will have to pay child support per the state guidelines:
Ohio Child Support Calculator

I don't think that you can be certain that there will be no alimony.

 

[mistoffolees]

I don't think that you can be certain that there will be no alimony.

That's true. However, they appear to have been college students, so I'm assuming they weren't married long (long enough to have 3 kids, though ).

Depending on the length of the marriage, there might be some alimony.

 

[nextwife]

And if kiddo is just now starting actual school, and has not been in private school, you need to firmly object, and make sure she knows you don't agree to pay half. There will eventually be three kids in school, how will you manage even half tuition for three, after taxes, child support, your share of child care, etc? Your wife really needs a realtity check. At that income I don't even know how you managed even when it was one household and 1k/mo rent.

You only earn $2700/mo? Gross?