| Reasonable. Certainly!!! Take into account any money spent on the son,
make certain you do a cost analysis of what your spending on him, esp
councling for his conduct, food, gas, etc, etc. This is certainly a
dramatical change in your life, and certainly, with custody of your son
should be a reduction. ALSO!!! BEFORE YOU START THIS!! Make certain
that you have on paper, with the courts first, legal custody. Cause if
You do not. The son can and might go back and forth between the ex and
yourself like some sort of nomadic teen from hell. Your taking
responsibility of his welfare and you must put down the foot to keep
him on the streight and narrow!!
Peace
|
| Reasonable, Yes. Will the judge make her set any of the money aside
for college/etc? Nope! This has been one of the big sore points
in "child support" for years, and unless you can get a big enough
political force together to get the laws changed, you're s.o.l.
As George said also, check to find out how much having custody of
your son change the balance and amount paid. Also be careful to
get custody of him first, else she'll drag him back so she can
keep the $$$ flowing. If the situation is as you say, then you
may have a case for gaining custody of the daughter too. Do you
have any other evidence besides what your son told you about her
activities? Will he testify? (I know, not nice, but might be
better than leaving the daughter in an unsavory situation).
fred();
fred();
|
| The following is an anonymous reply from the base noter.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The orders have already been modified from $621/week for two
children, down to the current $500/week for my daughter.
I cannot believe that a judge would object to this. I'll have to
find out for myself. Though what I've been seeing of our courts so far
hasn't impressed me.
I have joint legal custody of both children, and physical custody
of my son. There is no way my son will ever go back with his mother;
she hasn't visited with him once since she threw him out, and he has
no desire to see her.
I've been documenting cases when she has gone 'out' and left the
kids alone. I'm fighting for custody. A GAL has been appointed. I hate
to admit it, but I don't feel like a father has much chance at all of
getting custody of the children when the mother wants to fight it,
even though she is only keeping the kids because of the meal ticket
they provide through child support, even though the mother is somewhat
of a tramp. Can't infringe upon their liberty and right to enjoy the
pursuit of happiness, don't you know.
The original temp. orders had given full custody of the children
to the mother. I wanted joint legal custody; her lawyer was against
it, saying it was only a matter of 'semantics'. I goint joint legal
custody of both kids when my son moved in with me.
Several weeks ago, my daughter calls me at work on Tuesday
morning. Tuesday evening is one normal visitation time, from 5 - 8PM.
My daughter said she was home from school with the flu, felt like
barfing, and wanted to know if we could get together some other day
during the week instead of that evening. Of course I agreed; I would
never insist on visitation in a case like that.
At 7:15 that same evening, my daughter called me at home. Seems
she was running around outside, in the dark, in the rain, and had
badly cut her foot. She needed to go to the hospital. Where's mommy?
Don't know, daddy. Where are you? Over my friends house. I took her to
the hospital where mommy showed up at 10PM.
Notwithstanding my wife's actions, if I hadn't insisted on and
got joint legal custody, I wouldn't have legally been able to sign for
my daughter's treatment at the hospital. Not that that would have
stopped me...but it shows that it is more than a matter of semantics.
|
| About all Joint Legal custody gives you is the right to get medical
treatment and access to some school papers,etc.
Make sure you document all these happenings. Also make sure you also
document what a _good_ job you are doing with your son. Keep a log
of things you do with him. It will be hard for the judge to ignore hard
evidence. For instance, she cannot handle son. Son does fine with
you. Daughter is left unattended and has to call you for medical
treatment. Son and daughter will remain together if they stay with
you, and will be separated if daughter stays with her. DOCUMENT,
DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT. Right now it's a better weapon than a .357 mag.
fred();
|