ALimony, Child Support and Mother's ability

I am currently considering an uncontested divorce, but i have a few concerns. If i were ordered to pay child support and spousal support, would the child support be subtracted from her financial needs and therefore affect the spousal support amount. Also I currently am working a Fri-Sun work schedule and my spouse works M-Fri 9-6 but would prefer a M-Fri for personal and religious reasons and i mentioned this to my spouse and she said she could not agree because she personally is uncomfortable with our 4 and 2 year old being in daycare 5 days a week and has a daycare in mind but isnt willing to split the $1000 a month cost to put them in. She says she will quit her job and stay home because she doesnt want them away from a parent for that period of time each day. would a judge allow her to quit her job and stay home because she wants to and not because we can not find childcare? Lastly if we were married for 4 years what is the likelyhood of a spousal support order and approx for how long would you guess?

Yes, you should expect that the court would take the amount a party is receiving in child support into consideration when determining that party’s needs as they relate to spousal support.

Your spouse cannot dictate what hours you must work for your job. If you will be taking a pay decrease with the change in shifts, she may have an argument that you did this in bad faith.

If your spouse quits her job to stay home and take care of the children, the court may impute income to her when calculating child support and her earning ability will work against her if she is seeking spousal support.

The likelihood of a spousal support order and the duration thereof are based on a lot more than simply the number of years married, but we see a lot of order for half the life of the marriage.

I also had another question:
With the house that was bought during our marriage, the mortgage is solely in my name. But if we agree that her and our children can live in the house after the divorce, and I am ordered to pay spousal and child support, is there any way i could petition the judge to allow me to pay that portion to the mortgage directly to the lender (as to take care of that household expense directly) and if there is any surplus then that would go to her? She wanted the house because the children know that to be there home and we didnt want to change their environment too much more than necessary. But also with it being in my name solely i dont want her to just take the money and one day just leave it behind or foreclose on it purposely and then this is all on my credit report.

Yes, you could ask the judge to order that you pay $X in spousal support with $Y going to pay the morgtage and the remainder of $Z going to the other party.

I was also curious, if it were decided that how I left was “reckless abandonment” , not even really sure what constitutes that,
How would that affect the length of alimony? I know it would raise the amount but I was curious about the life of the judgment.

There are many factors that the court takes into consideration when determining the amount and duration of alimony. You can see a full list of factors by referring to N.C.G.S. 50-16.3A. How the court chooses to address these factors and the weight it gives them is at the discretion of the court.

I have a friend who is separated and he usually watches his children mon-thurs. But recently lost his job and is searching for employment but his spouse said she will file paperwork to order him to watch the kids Mon thru Thurs. Is that even possible?

She can file a motion asking the judge to require him to watch the children during the week, but that doesn’t guarantee that a judge would order it.

Is there anything he can do? Because what happens if the judge grants that n he finds a new job during the week?

I said that she could ask the court to grant her request. While it may be a reasonable request while he is unemployed in an effort to save child care expenses, I am doubtful that a judge would order it longterm in lieu of him being gainfully employed.

The child support guidelines list is not exhaustive of all the items that may be included in a party’s actual income, but it is a good guide or checklist to consider in both alimony and child support cases.
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