Should I be receiving Child Support?

[LdiJ]

Wow!! Thank u everyone. These are all very helpful thoughts, however, I am trying to see his point as well. He feels we have to cater our life around whatever my exes schedule is...every month we receive my exes work schedule. My husband has four kids of his own that he pays a good chunk of support for (leaving us scraping by) and I do make some money from buying, fixing, and selling furniture on craigslist. My husband only gets to see his kids every other wknd and works hard to support all of us and my ex is only working ten days a week (24 hr shifts) at min wage. He used to make 125k + a year. My ex also has another child living out of state that he pays child support for. My husband is convinced that my ex makes as little as possible in order to avoid paying out too much child support...I'm going crazy here.

Perhaps what would be in the best interest of your family is for you to work also (opposite shift from your husband) in order to reduce some of the financial strain on your family.

Maybe your ex IS working a low paying job in order to avoid paying support. However, unless that could be proven to the satisfaction of a judge, its basically irrelevant...and you would spend a decent chunk of money trying to convince a judge of that.

 

[AlmostThere]

Have you considered getting a full time job - and splitting the child care costs with your ex - like many many divorced parents do in order to support their mutual children?

 

[stealth2]

Wow!! Thank u everyone. These are all very helpful thoughts, however, I am trying to see his point as well. He feels we have to cater our life around whatever my exes schedule is...every month we receive my exes work schedule. My husband has four kids of his own that he pays a good chunk of support for (leaving us scraping by) and I do make some money from buying, fixing, and selling furniture on craigslist. My husband only gets to see his kids every other wknd and works hard to support all of us and my ex is only working ten days a week (24 hr shifts) at min wage. He used to make 125k + a year. My ex also has another child living out of state that he pays child support for. My husband is convinced that my ex makes as little as possible in order to avoid paying out too much child support...I'm going crazy here.

That's actually a rather impressive workload...

And honestly? If you and hubby were financially strained taking care of the existing and respective kids? Perhaps y'all should have thought twice before having another together...

Both you AND Dad are responsible for supporting the children. Including financially. You're not holding up your share, either.

 

[cbg]

ONLY 10 24 hour shifts a month? The average 5 day a week job is 40 hours a week or roughly 160 hours a month - he's working 240 hours a month or roughly 60 hours a week. That's a pretty tough schedule, my lamb. There's no "only" about it.

 

[The_Non-Mom]

That's actually a rather impressive workload....

Agreed. 240 hours per month is an average of 60 hours per week. Do you really think he wants to work those hours at min wage? It sounds like he is doing the best he can. And hey, at least he's working.