I’ll pre-empt those who may post “he should have gotten married before he had children” by saying that in the western world, the courts don’t care whether or not you are married; they only care about getting Child Support payments (and in the case of marriage ALIMONY/Spousal Support payments) from the “non-custodial” biodad.
In the U.S. the state Child Support Enforcement Units get matching fed dollars for every dollar in Child Support they collect so:
1. No incentive to grant a downward modification (even though dad may have lost his job)
2. No incentive to grant 50/50 custody (this would reduce the amount of child support paid and cut out a whole lot of bureaucrats salaries)
3. Judges often impute income and in this economy that’s DEADLY (Mr. Dad, you COULD be earning 80K a year, even though you lost your job; we’ll see you in JAIL) Yes there is a debtor’s prison and it’s for non-custodial fathers paying Child Support. Arrears are a given considering the way the CSEU computes their collections.
Of course there is no corresponding “Child VISITATION/TIME SHARING Enforcement Unit. . .no money in that and after all, men are simply neccessary evils; merely WALLETS, “sistahs are doin’ it for themselves” (with the help of the men’s wallets, of course)
Mom can decide without punishment to withhold the children from Dad whenever she wants; particularly if Dad has the NERVE to move on.