[conservative cat]

Divorce is sad. I agree that my ex did me a favor by leaving, too, because I stayed through a lot of BS trying to make it work. It is tough on the kids,though. (I, too, am remarried with more children.) He left for another, and we, too, had the acrimony coming from THEM. They would call and scream at me over stupid things, and then his lawyer hated his own ex-wife so he actually would ask for things my ex wasn't even asking for just to stick it to me. We are settled down to a reasonable level of neutrality, but he is only very minimally involved with the kids. (And that's not for me not trying to involve him.) Every once in awhile he does come through, and he is at least more involved than his own father had been.

if both your pay has gone up then it should even out unless one of you passes a benchmark level and the other doesn’t

It's arbitrary because we are beyond the tables, and you never know what kind-of judge you are going to get. Also, when we were divorcing, he cut his work hours in half and then worked an under-the-table job to supplement his personal income. They wouldn't look at his past income and only looked at his last couple month's paychecks. (I initially had a great lawyer, and he had a surgery that went bad and medically retired right after my first hearing, leaving me with a weak replacement.) I wouldn't put that past him again. I figure it's not worth the effort. It's easier for me to work overtime, and his support just supplements our grocery money.

[Clemenza]

I guess if I take one lesson away from this thread it is “don’t get married.”

[wardaddy]

In Florida the tables used to go ato around 260K and then it was a fixed percentage...low....for each child over the established table limit

fathers should always stay involved regardless