travelling alone with my son

[Samurai_Jerk]

As for child support payments, EVERY CENT must go directly to support the children?! So, the mother, who can't be out working while taking care of the kid(s) can't use any of the support/maintenance money for her own food, clothing, and so on? She can be in no way compensated for the time she spends on child rearing, which obviously cannot be used to be out earning a living? She must care for the kids with the support money, and just forget about her own well-being? That sounds fucked. Sure, there needs to be accountiblity, but every cent for the kids. Definitely not practical.

Uncle Tom.

[Mike Oxlong]

Child Support and Alimony are different things.

I don't necessarily agree that every cent of child support needs to be accounted for but the current system of "fork over cash and hope for the best" is fucked and needs to be fixed.

I also think "fork over the cash and hope for the best" is not the best way to go. Perhaps you didn't need to cut this outta my quote:

Sure, there needs to be accountiblity...

You are preaching to the choir.

Some men don't (care to) understand that alimony is usually paid in addition to child support. I've no love for gold-diggers, but some compensation is deserved, unless it's one of those (relatively rare) situations of joint custody and balanced financial outlay.

[Mike Oxlong]

yes, that's why it's called child support and not "my ex needs to buy beer and bingo tickets" or "my ex wants a new handbag & nosejob" support...

I hear ya. There are ho's out there who take advantage. Always were. Always will be. I also have divorced friends, and in some cases the opposite is true. The ex-wife stays home taking care of several young children (some school age, some not). Gets a very small amount of money that barely (if even) covers the extremely basic necessities of the kids. Ex-hubby is out on the prowl spending cash on wine, women, and song. No problem with that, if the man's responsibilities are covered first. They ain't. This sort of deadbeat is also common. There are clearly two sides to this issue.