Issues with being a single mom/custody agreement

[kirsey2121]

TJ & I have been doing all our own custody arrangements which has been working fine. His child support amount was finally set through Child Support Recovery Unit. (Free service offerered) It took forever but they got the job done. Anyways, we have the dates set that TJ is taking Holden.

Since TJ is paying child support does that mean he doesn't pay for anything else? school, lessons, etc? He was trying to make me buy diapers for his house and realized really quick that it is not my job to supply basic necessities for his house. Any info on this topic from personal experience/legal standpoint would be helpful.

[katlnhats]

Hi Kirsey,
When I filed for divorce, Dave was only 2 months old. I got child support, when he bothered to pay it, that is. The rest was up to me. You could call Legal Aid - they'd probably be able to give you some better answers.

Kat

[munchkin_momma]

the supposrt that you are given is supposed to be money to help you account for the extra cost of bills, food, and neccesties for the child. Anything above that should be split between the parents. Unless the accounted for the school expenses ect when they did the support order then it is a separate issue. As far as diapers for his house, if you were responsible to pay for his things at his dad's house, they'd have let him keep that portion of the money LOL. Tell him that he is responsible to buy things like that for his son while in his care. I suggest that if you have other expenses like child care, school, ect that you outline that in the custody agreement so that there are no legal issues later. You can even put in there that he is responsible to help pay for college when the time comes. I know it seems silly to worry about who's going to pay for tee ball uniforms or cub scout activities or football gear senior year now, but if you put it in there now you won't have a battle later, and you'll have the peace of mind knowing that a judge sign the paper saying that he has to help pay for that stuff.