Child Support Question

sk wilson,

I don’t have all the facts I need to comment exhaustively on your situation, but there are some potential avenues for relief. First, your wife could ask her ex-husband to suspend the child support during the summer months. Second, you could ask a court to modify the child support. You may be able to modify based on a changed visitation arrangement (if at the time the child support was set the child wasn’t spending the entire summer with you) or based on a reduced net income (if your two-year-old daughter hadn’t been born when child support was set for your older daughter). And your situation may be one in which the court would entertain a “deviation” from the child support guidelines. Again, without knowing any more particulars, I just couldn’t predict what a judge would do in this situation.

I do want to express to you, though, how imperative it is that you continue to support your wife throughout this situation, as in all likelihood, nothing would bring her ex-husband more pleasure than to know he was causing problems for the two of you. What’s most important is that you and your wife get to spend the summer with that wonderful child.

David L. McGuire
Attorney
The Rosen Law Firm
4101 Lake Boone Trail, Suite 200
Raleigh, North Carolina 27607
NCdivorce.com
(919)787-6668

The response posted above is based upon the limited factual information made available and is not intended as a full and complete response to the question. The only reliable manner to obtain complete and adequate legal advice is to consult with an attorney, fully explain your situation, and allow the attorney sufficient opportunity to research the applicable law and facts required to render an accurate opinion. The basic information provided above is intended as a public service but a full discussion with an attorney should be undertaken before taking any action.

I, first of all, want to say that I believe totally in supporting your children because I believe it’s your responsibility as a parent.
However, my wife is in a situation with the father of her daughter that is causing a-lot of friction in our marriage. This has to do with child support.

Ironically, my wife is the one paying the child support to the father. I have no problems with this at all. What I do have a problem with is the fact that my wife has to continue to pay child support through the summer months - even when her daughter is staying with us. She stays with us for two months straight during which all things are provided for her just as if she were staying at her “other” home where she lives when she goes to school. We carry her on our health and dental insurance the entire year as well, so there is no absence of providing on our part.

It would seem to me that my wife would be exemt from paying child support to her ex for the months that her daughter is with us being that we are the total and sole providers for everything for her during those times. As it stands now my wife is paying child support during those months AS WELL AS supporting her daughter in every aspect with no help at all from the father.

The way I see it is that, during the summer, my wife is having to pay twice the amount to be with her daughter. One, the child support to her ex, and two the amount it costs us to support her daugter while she lives with us.

Is there any way to relieve my wife of having to pay this support during these months her daughter is with us?? This puts a major strain on our family, especially with a two year old of our own to provide for?