Fathers Bear the Brunt of Gender Bias in Family Courts

INSIGHT magazine ^ | July 29, 2002 | Dianna Thompson and Glenn Sacks

[RogerFGay]

Thanks. I read Thompson and Sacks at Men's News Daily. They even do an MND radio program together.

[Clinging Bitterly]

The money seems to be what it's all about to some mothers.
I've said here before that we are raising a pair of twin girls, now 15, because their mon just wanted, well I don't know what, but she's whacked out on meth.

Their mom and dad have been seperated forever, and he's supposed to have been paying support all this time and only sporadically does it. We are not blood related to either of the parents, but they are friends from way back and we agreed to take the girls because nobody in either family would do it, and we have not asked for or received any financial assistance at all. Our arrangement with the mom and the girls is private, the state is not involved in any way and that's just fine with me.

The financial issue has come up though, since we did want the tax deduction for them last year. Their mom didn't want to give that up (a full EIC payment will buy a lot of drugs I guess). As foster parents in our circumstances, we would not have received EIC and I'd have been fine with that because I hate the EIC anyway. Decided to just leave well enough alone on that one, looking at the plus side of it, that the government gets to keep a couple thou less than it would have if it went the way we wanted.

Next wrinkle, one of the girls has a condition that's going to require a surgery and hospitalization next month that's gonna cost, we figger, close to 50 grand. Now we don't have that kind of money, so we have put the girls on Oregon's medicaid system (this is a slam-dunk example of precisely why there is medicaid, and I have paid for it through both nostrils over the years, so I don't feel guilty about that).

What's happening now is, the state is going after the mom to (1) stop forwarding the father's child support payments to her, (2) collect child support payments from her, and (3) continue collecting support payments from the dad.

We have no idea to whom the state intends to give the support payments, as we have asked for no such thing.

Whatever happens, the girls will get what they need, their medicaid is based on the income of a nonexistent household, but their mom clearly does not want to give up the financial benefits that go along with custody, she only wants to give up the resposibility.

Things just get twisted that way sometimes.

Dave in Eugene