[TheCrusader]

"I do agree though that some dads are given a ration of bull".

It's not "many" dads, it's most of them. For every story I hear about a guy not paying his child support there is his own story that we don't hear. When an arbitrary order from some divorce factory "Family" Court says a man owes such-and-such a week in child support, it is for some bizarre reason accepted as gospel that the woman has some God-given right to the children that the man does not possess. The man's "ownership" rights of the children begins and ends with his child support check. He never gets what he's paying for, namely, his own children.

Forgotten in the cloud of smoke is the fact that the man has just lost his family, his home, his life. These alone are devastating events in anyone's life. But add to this depressing loss the loss of his income to child support, and the attorny's fees, and the difficulties he will recieve from his ex wife when it comes time for visitations, and the fact that many moms become "move-away moms" and leave the state with the children, and you begin to see the picture in a much broader angle than just weekly child support. True child support is when the father is in his children's lives as much as the mother is; and the Courts almost always prevent this, to the great loss and detriment of the children.

Child support, in too many cases, is excessive and even oppressive. There is nowhere to go to appeal it in most States, and it's the biggest sham ever perpetrated against American citizens since our nation was founded. This lopsided sham only perpetuates the high divorce rate in America, because women know from the outset that everything will go their way. I am not talking about real dead-beats, who get a gal pregnant and then run. My issue is that I have seen way too many GOOD fathers try to keep their children in their lives, and the ex wives find it all too easy to prevent this, and the Courts almost never respond to a father's complaints about his ex abusing his visitation rights. These men want their children in their lives and find the system won't allow it. I've seen it all, including alcoholic women who neglect and beat their children get custody and child support, while the father sits in his room at night praying to God that his children are O.K. Anybody who says the Divorce Courts are not unfair to men is just not in touch with the facts.

[ChemistCat]

Just FYI: some of us with vision problems cannot easily read that color.

[only1percent]

A few thoughts:

Child support orders can be high ... but so are the costs of providing a home for and raising children. I have never seen a child support order which was plainly in excess of the costs incurred to provide for the children. That doesn't mean they don't exist, but they're quite rare.

Possession of the house follows primary physical custody of the children, almost always. The basis in most child custody determinations is what parent has spent more time with the child. A father who can make a credible showing that he has spent more time with his child than the mother has a decent shot at custody in many courts and get. Not very men can do this.

When you "get" the house, you get two things: home equity (small or non-existent for most divorces) and the expenses (mortgage, huge for most divorces, insurance, upkeep, property tax, etc.) In many cases, the ex-wife has to make good to the husband (through foregone claims against pension benefits or cash) half the value of the home equity, to boot. This is hardly a financial winner in most cases.