Your children’s mother can use the child support you pay her for anything she likes. Her expenditure of these funds does not have to be even remotely related to the children’s reasonable/legitimate needs. If she wants to take the money and gamble it away in Las Vegas (or some other place), she can do it. What a great child support system we have here in NC!
You can’t “require” your ex-wife to do anything with the child support money you pay her. Only the court can do that. If you believe ex-wife is misusing the child support money and you can’t reason with her, you need to go back to court and try to convince a judge to put a stop to it.
On a related note, does your ex-wife not provide any financial support to you children? If she is able to provide support, according to state law and court decisions she must provide support. The fact that a parent happens to be the custodial parent does not relieve that parent of the obligation to provide financial support based on his/her ability to do so.
My significant other’s ex would send the kids to us with the worse clothes, stained, holes, did not fit, Etc. I went out and bought them some nice clothes and let them take them to her house when they went home. The next visit she sent them in the same ratty clothes. This time I bought clothes but when it came time to go home, I went through the stuff they were taking home and took all the new clothes out. I made it clear that anything I bought was to be left at our house so that they had nice clothes to wear when they were with us. This mad her mad but tough, She was getting more than enough child support to buy them clothes.
Unless it is stated in the papers, as WakeDad said, you can not tell her how to spend the child support money.
I am required to pay my children’s mother (my exwife) 100% child support. The children are with me every other evening (5hrs) and every other weekend (Thurs - Sun), plus 30 days of vacation per year. Since I’m paying her 100% of child support (garnished from my paycheck), it is my understanding she is 100% responsible for the children’s clothing needs at BOTH homes. Is this a good assumption/understanding? If so, how can I “require” her to go purchase clothing for the children that they desperately need at both our homes? She tells me to not ask her for money or ask her to spend money, but my children are needing new clothing badly at both our homes. I refuse to double spend when I feel she is responsible to provide these things.