My son has decided he does not want to come to my home any longer and follow the visitation order. I am not sure what brought this on but am I still obligated to pay child support when he doesn’t want to come.?
Not a Lawyer
I would say that the child support is for the support of the child, not paid for him to come visit, and would be owed (especially if court ordered) regardless of whether he visits or not. Additionally, since if you intend to allow him not to visit, this likely changes the number of overnights that your support payment was calculated on, if your spouse pushed the issue, it is at least possible that your obligation would increase, not cease.
For the most part, child support and visitation are two wholly separate things. Visitation is a privilege but support is a mandate. So, you can choose whether or not to exercise visitation, but until your children reach the age of majority, you are liable for support whether or not you see the children. Having said that, the number of overnights determine the amount of support you’ll have to pay, and if the child isn’t coming over that often and you are currently on Schedule B, then you may be liable to having to actually pay more child support while your child is refusing to spend time with you.
IMHO, the other parent should be doing everything in their power to encourage visitation with you, if not flat out telling them that they must go.
Unfortunately, it isn’t uncommon for a teenage child to not to want to come see the other parent. It is at that age that the child is trying to assert his/her independence from one or both parents and attempting to take control of the frequency, duration, and number of visits with the NCP, is one way of doing that. Have you spoken with your son to find out his reasons?
Also teenagers are bonding with their own age group and tend to want to be with their friends rather than parents, whether or not their parents are divorced. Having to split time between the parents takes away from time that they want to spend with their friends. If this is the case, is there a way you can see if they want to visit you and bring a friend to stay with them at your place?