Child support is something that isn’t avoidable if you divorce while your children are minors. For many parents, the desire to support their children is strong and they don’t mind having to chip in financially. What they have a problem with is having to give the money to their ex, but this mode of thinking isn’t actually valid. You have to think about your ex as a medium for the payments. You can’t give the money directly to a child because they won’t know what to do with it, so your ex accepts the money on the child’s behalf.
You child support payments are meant to help your children have life’s basic necessities. This includes things like shelter, food and utilities. It can also be used to help support the child’s extracurricular activities, such as school sports or clubs. Child support may even cover entertainment options for the children.
The parent who receives the payments doesn’t have to keep the money separate. Instead, they can put it with the household money, which is hard for some paying parents to accept. It might seem as though the recipient is paying for personal things with the child support money, but this likely isn’t the case as long as the child’s needs are being taken care of.
On top of the regular support payments made to help cover the basic expenses for the kids, a child support order might also include information about health insurance and out-of-pocket medical expenses, as well as other financial needs of the children. You should carefully review these terms so that you can ensure you are in full compliance with them throughout the length of the child custody matter.
