lupi
Lifer
- Apr 8, 2001
- 32,539
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Originally posted by: Xavier434
Originally posted by: lupi
Originally posted by: Xavier434
Originally posted by: lupi
Originally posted by: Xavier434
Allow me to also toss in that even though a father may have difficulty affording to pay child support, that doesn't relieve him of the responsibility even if he has a new family to look out for. In the end, that child still needs to eat and have a roof over its head whether the dad can afford to pay for it or not.
If the stepson is living with you, how many of his basic needs aren't being met?
None because I am a damn good stepfather, but that doesn't matter. I am not responsible to pay for his needs. That's biological father's and mother's responsibility. Fathers should not be held any less accountable for the child support they owe just because another person is choosing to help pay for their child's needs out of the kindness of their heart. If he paid his child support then his money and the mother's money would be paying for the child's needs while my money is used to pay for everything else. That's the way it should be.
And if the point of the support payment is to ensure the child meets a certain standard, why wouldn't the payment decrease when the child is living with 2 parents whom would assumed to be able to maintain a sufficient household themselves.
Simple. That's the law. The biological parents are the ones who are legally responsible for their own children. That includes all financial responsibilities to meet that child's needs. Just because there are people out there who are kind enough to help out other people's children does not mean that the biological parents should be legally relieved of their responsibilities or have them reduced.
The bottom line here is that someone needs to be legally responsible for the kids. It should always be the biological parents unless those parents prove themselves to be unfit to take care of the children because they are abusive or whatever.
And that's definitely not a law that needs to be looked at and revised. If the father can walk over and see the kid living well sheltered, fed, clothed, and educated, isn't that the responsibility. If you don't want to take some of that burder from him, then don't marry a chick whose already got baggage. Otherwise you are just turning the system into a form of punitive punishment, and that will be the first thing needed to help fix such a broken system.
