considering filing for child support

N

needsadvie1217

New Member
Jurisdiction
Michigan
When I divorced 4 years ago I waived any child support secondary to split parenting time and custody. My ex went back to school and moved about 45 minutes away from the city in which we lived. The children were in day care and school near me and are currently both in elementary school near me. We decided that I would keep the kids monday through Thursday during the school year and he would have them every other weekend and each sunday. This arrangement has continued since he moved back to the town we lived in together 2 years ago. During the summer we split custody 50/50.
I am self-employed and my AGI is about 14 thousand. He is a teacher and makes approximately 56 thousand. The kids are dropped off at my house every morning before school and have recently been having some difficulties leaving to go to school. If there is a sickness or a mental health day, I end up having to call off of work or go in late which costs me more money. He is considering moving again to a city about 30 minutes away.
I could really use the financial support as I take care of most extraneous expenses (we split health care and child care), but all school donations, projects, gifts etc seem to fall on my shoulders.
Would it be worth it to file and pay a lawyer?
 
Looks to me like you are entitled to child support just based on the income disparity.

Go for it.

Whether it's worth it to you to hire a lawyer is something you will have to figure out.
 
What do you mean the children have difficulty getting to school? If they are truly too ill to attend, that is one thing but a mental health day? In elementary school? The kids need to be parented and told they must attend school, period. If you go into court and the judge finds out the kids are missing a lot of school ,that is not going to go well for you.
 
ElleMD said:
What do you mean the children have difficulty getting to school? If they are truly too ill to attend, that is one thing but a mental health day? In elementary school? The kids need to be parented and told they must attend school, period. If you go into court and the judge finds out the kids are missing a lot of school ,that is not going to go well for you.
Click to expand...

My son has recurring strep throat and has an ent appointment to have his tonsils removed. Has doctors notes for the majority of his absences (not even required in kindergarten). Recently their father has made some changes and added 3 children and a gf to their home. it is my opinion (based on timing correlation) that these changes happening so quickly have been very hard on my kids. They've had mornings when one or the other were crying uncontrollably because their father yelled at the in front of the other children (just one example) and they were embarrassed and upset and just couldn't get it together in time for school. I am in the education field and know how important school is and they have always arrived to school once they've calmed down. I also know how important their mental well being is and I've spent many mornings reassuring them that their dad loves them very much, that all kids get yelled at sometimes, that even the best parents have bad days... Yes, they could be playing me, but I'm not willing to take the chance with this one.
I'm so grateful for all of the advice
 

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