In an actual divorce, the custodial parent (aka the woman) usually gets to stay in the house they had, courtesy of dear old dad. (At least that's the way it works around here.)
And that's in addition to the child support. Also, dad pays 100% for health care and 50% min for schooling.
And once again, the guy's contribution is supposed to represent half (not 100%) of the kids support. So $250/mo from dad plus $250 from mom (she IS kicking in, isn't she?) = $500 / month.
If your kid is in the public school system, living in your house and eating dinner at home, then Yes, I'm saying $500 month is ridiculous.
Instead, its probably no more than $250/mo... which means its ALL being payed by dad.
But that's not what they claim when they lay out the figures.
Lastly, $250/mo is really low for support. Must been poor people (therefore not living in the Ritz to begin with).
Around here (N.E. Ohio) these days, its $100 - $150 / wk /kid for a middle class wage. They might give you a quantity discount though if there are lots of kids.
I agree. In a reappraisal of child support, my husband was ordered to increase payment from $1200 per month for two kids, to $1800 per month -- for two children spirited out of state in a divorce he did not want. Sadly, the son committed suicide before it kicked in, reducing the amount to $1200 per month for a single child. Over the course of 15 years, we paid all transportation costs for visitation, even though the ex was supposed to pay half -- she never did, and the legal costs it would have required to take her to court over it would have been higher, so we just let it slide. Further, when the kids came to stay with us for 30-day stints, did we get to then send LESS to the ex that month because we were the ones incurring expenses? OF COURSE NOT! The original payments amounting to $600 per month per child -- now, really, does it take that much to raise a kid? Especially when the ex was theoretically kicking in a share as well?