| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/12/2008 8:36:59 PM | | I have done a few searchs already and have only seen one topic for Canadians only. I had a friend tell me recently of a Texas law or maybe a new one that would require divorcing step parents to pay for child support. I was totally shocked about hearing this as I thought it was the biological parents responsibility for supporting their children unless they were adopted. I could see how this could open up a can of worms especially if married a few times and pay for children who are not your own. Then would a biological parent then receive money from the actual parent and all the other people they married? | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/12/2008 8:46:26 PM | I'm not a lawyer, but as far as I know, the parent is only legally entitled to support from a stepparent, if the bio parent is not paying, or makes less than the stepparent made (the general basis being that the stepchild may have been used to a higher quality of life while his parent and stepparent were married.)
I've heard that it's "law", but I've never actually heard of it happening before "in real life"...... | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/12/2008 8:50:35 PM | | I think it's ridiculous for them to pursue the stepparent to get the support, unless the stepparent adopts the child. I also heard florida has this law also. | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/12/2008 10:16:31 PM | It's probably not quite as simple as that - I could see how a step-parent could be expected to bear the burden of child support, but it would have to be a pretty unusual circumstance, some sort of condition where the kid should reasonably expect continued support from the step-parent. (this would probably come with shared custody or visitation rights for the step parent) I'm not so sure that they wrote that into law, however, since the law would successfully prevent single parents from getting remarried, for fear that the step parent (who had no real choice in the kid's conception) would be financially responsible for them.
Since a step-parent has no reasonable expectation of custody or visitation rights after a divorce (you divorce a single parent, you divorce the kids as well) the courts couldn't hold them to support for the kids, either. | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/12/2008 10:32:43 PM | I don't know anything about laws for child support from stepparents.
But in my case, I've been a father to my step daughter from when she was 6 months old without ever having or signing any adoption papers.
She is now 13 and I am happy to be paying for her child support. I'm the only father she ever knew. I have loved and treated her like she was my own since day one. I love her and my own daughter equally. Without bias or favoritism.
Every time I see her, I am thankful that she was, is, and will forever be an important part of my life.
Plus she loves and never complains about my cooking. And she still thinks I'm the coolest the dad ever.  | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/13/2008 1:44:10 AM | | I find the entire thing to be yet another, liberal farce, along with most of the other, delusional laws which have slithered their way into the books thereof. I mean really; what a sham it must be to marry another, who has a child from God only knows what circumstance, and then get screwed for being a better person. But what can one expect from a society which now makes any, heterosexual union a horrifying proposition. Curious, who might you suppose gets the kid/s in a gay union; the one on top, or the one on the bottom? As for lesbians, I’m sure the first, documented divorce will leave the court beside its self, lol. I mean, will the one with the biggest breasts get the house and car? With all the current trouble going on with homosexual weddings, I really wonder if they realize what they’re getting into, lol. It should be a plus for mem, however, in that it's going to be a real **** for women trying to prove who the most suitable, custodial parent is after this... | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/13/2008 5:51:34 AM | Socratic....do you think there are many people that willingly marry someone else that "had a child from God only knows what circumstance" and married feeling as though they were some kind of saint or savour? (ie "being the better person.)? If so, than who's the one that truly needs help here?
And since this has nothing to do with Gay Marriage or Relationships (something you seem to know very little about), perhaps you could vent your fear and frustration in another thread all it's very own? | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/13/2008 6:04:48 AM | Sole2soul - more men should feel about the children that are in their lives the way you do. We wouldn't have such a screwed up world with screwed up children in it. Good for you.
OP- I have seen threads about this other then in the USA. I think if it was an enacted law in the USA - there would be less second and so on marriages taking place. | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/13/2008 7:23:11 AM | As for lesbians, I’m sure the first, documented divorce will leave the court beside its self, lol. I mean, will the one with the biggest breasts get the house and car?
i am guessing the parent who can best support the child will get custody...novel idea eh? | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/13/2008 11:53:00 PM | | I'm in Australia and my cousins step father offered to pay child support for him simply because he was so attached to him that he wanted him to have the best in life. The guy wasn't the best boyfriend mind you, but he was an awesome step father and father to her second child. I don't think it should be law, however things like this should be encouraged, especially if there are siblings involved. Or at least, like my ex does, gives gifts to both my children, even though the youngest one is not his. They're siblings. | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/14/2008 3:55:21 AM |
i am guessing the parent who can best support the child will get custody...novel idea eh?
Yea, novel idea. Therefore, why don't you advocate for it. Why don't you get a job in family court services and see how long your ideal endures all the stories you'll get from women who like playing on your sympathies to get their way.
I divorced a closet meth head. For those who don't understand what this is like, try imagining all the worst things you've ever thought about the opposite sex, combine, and magnify it times ten. Then, give the person a free, union paid attorney every two years, a job she can't lose no matter how much meth she does, and then fill her with enough delusional, liberal idealism to power a freight train. What you'll get in return is a court house full of idealist out for your blood, and all the laws in the world can't protect you or your kid.
You’ll run across people like Jaxi, who believe they know everything and you nothing, due to the fact that they’re convinced of their own superiority, further overt sense of justice that’s so refined that it even exceeds the written law. You’ll then have to put thousands of hours into reading family law, as to make the system actually function for you, because some like freak recommended fifty/fifty custody. You might also have to have a wellness check done on your kid, after the courts give a self admitted meth addict fifty/fifty custody. If you’re lucky, as I was, the cops will catch her under the influence, in possession, and your kid will be alone in a room, within arms reach of enough meth to kill a horse. Does this sound cool so far?
But after about five years of rehabilitation, you might start having silly ideals; thinking she can now get around your kid. And although your kid hasn’t so much as received a birthday card, much less Christmas present from her in as much time, she shows up. You’ll start thinking the system really works, and she’ll have you convinced. Then you discover that she was only trying to establish routine contact, when the visits cease the instant you get an OSC in the mail from her new, union paid attorney. It’s once again filled with like lies, in that she can’t remember the first ones, and the whole bloody thing starts all over again.
Upon going to court, you get suckered into reunification therapy that’s meant for your kid, but discover that it was nothing but a rouse so that some feminist, psychoanalytical **** that your former wife has hired can write a nasty letter to the court about you. But by this time, however, you’re smart enough not to sign the blank agreements that she insist you sign upon the first session. You take one, without her knowing, to the judge, who tells counsel that he wouldn’t sign it either. You also find a little known law that the judge didn’t even know about, which makes reunification illegal for a child who is not a ward of the court but has resided with a biological parent. This got her case, in addition to all the nasty letters from the aforementioned, including the supervised visitation monitor, in addition to her church going, pious ****, rehabilitation counselor who wrote that only a mother could provide the support a child needs, thrown out of court. Two months later, you look on the puter and find she’s been arrested again. But quite frankly, this didn’t justify the nasty looks I got from this lesbian ahole in the family court services department, nor did it make me feel any better about this Freudian jerk off who threatened to tell the judge I wouldn’t cooperate if I didn’t let the slime ball interview my son without me present.
But wait, there’s more! At the beginning of this new OSC she filed, the judge did in fact lower my support. The fact that she was $20,000.00 in arrears didn’t mean shit, nor did the fact that I was in college full time, further entitled to more monthly support according to law. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that at the time. Point being is that the judge usually goes on whatever the family court services suggests, and you need to be ready to defeat those recommendations with written, applicable law. Otherwise, watch out; some idealist will certainly be looking to screw you. I have a divorce file which takes the entire, first drawer of my filing cabinet, and the copy the court has takes up two binders -- it’s sixteen inches thick, thanks to a load of liberal jerk-offs. Upon wising up and going pro per, however, it didn’t get much larger before I forced the settlement with 19 counts of contempt of court. Yea, baby; got the house and everything in it, which by that time was over six figures in the pink vs. 40k in the red at the beginning. So when I read something like what the op has written, I know it ’s a load of crap for any court to allow. But wwwwwhatever… | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/14/2008 5:32:43 AM | Now, it seems you've been through the wringer .. and the last comment out of your mouth is whatever????
I'm constantly blown away by what people write in these forums and then when you read their profile, it paints a completely different picture. | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/14/2008 6:12:05 AM | | And I'm blown away by those who only see what they want to, further speak metaphorically about everything without so much as a point. | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/14/2008 7:00:32 AM | My point was that you posted in a forum on Child support from step parents a very very long post, full of hate about the ex and at the end of all this rant, you put whatever...
If whatever is actually how you felt, you wouldn't have taken the time to write all that. Be honest with yourself. Whatever is the last thing you feel.
This things wind us up so why pretend they don't. | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/14/2008 7:34:45 AM | | my story is not quite so dramatic.my ex left me for the guy across the street.now we had our issues,but that is not the purpose of this.she tells the court she cant work because of a bad back..ok.she also says that her lack of education keeps her from doing work that might be o.k for her back...ok.now these two things being the case and both of us being of sound enough mind in the courts eyes,how the heck is it that she gets the primary custody?i am perfectly willing and able to work.i have education to teach the children at home if i had to,and i wouldnt ask for a dime from her.in fact i would pay her to be with the kids while i am at work.the only rational i can come up with is the court doesnt want to deal with the unrational party.so that being said,if you wish to be the one to raise your kids.quit your job and play dumb. | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/14/2008 9:17:54 AM |
Then would a biological parent then receive money from the actual parent and all the other people they married?
In Canada, yes, double dipping is legal. Paying CS for step-children is also likely to happen if you live with someone with a kid for as little as a year.
I paid CS for a stepson and the bio dad was also paying. I didn't have to pay the full amount, but I still had to pay because I made a lot more money than bio-dad.
It's called in loco parentis and kicks in when you act as a parent to a kid.
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/14/2008 9:27:07 AM | Wow Capitano, I didn't read it that way at all, I obviously missed something there....
However I know you have a *choice* as a bio parent whether to ask for that or not.....I separated from someone that was not my son's bio father, but his stepfather...I couldn't imagine asking him to pay support for my bio son. Ludicrous! | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/14/2008 11:56:47 AM | The way it is looked at legally, is while you were married, you contributed to the childs well being. Part of your income did go to support the food on the table, the roof over thier heads...etc.
Once you leave, the childs lifestyle should not change-this is Family Courts way of looking at things.
Personally, I would never ask for CS from a man who did not biologically produce my child...but the courts are just trying to ensure the childs lifestyle does not change as a result of adults backing out of commitments.
Be very careful before you get married, period. | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/14/2008 12:18:00 PM |
The way it is looked at legally, is while you were married, you contributed to the childs well being. Part of your income did go to support the food on the table, the roof over thier heads...etc.
Once you leave, the childs lifestyle should not change-this is Family Courts way of looking at things.
Personally, I would never ask for CS from a man who did not biologically produce my child...but the courts are just trying to ensure the childs lifestyle does not change as a result of adults backing out of commitments.
Be very careful before you get married, period.
Change is a part of life. Lifestyle is totally different then providing for the child's basic needs. These basic needs are suppose to be meet by the biological parents. An improved lifestyle is someone who goes beyond those basic needs. I'm sure that child can go without that new ipod that just came out, for example. | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/14/2008 2:25:08 PM |
The way it is looked at legally, is while you were married, you contributed to the childs well being. Part of your income did go to support the food on the table, the roof over thier heads...etc.
While married they never look at the income of the step parent only the income of the biological parent....you only look at the income of the step parent under marriage breakdown....after all the biological custodial parent is often heard lamenting how the step parent is not responsible...until it suits them,,that is! | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 11/14/2008 3:37:14 PM | What I often written is; I am not looking for father for my children, they already have one. Problem with this statement is that who would enter into a relationship without being a parental figure to the children and the expectation would be there that one would have that role.
Or I don't need his money, that is until we divorce then it is that the kids lifestyle needs to be maintained.
This is though the major flaw within our current system. If two incomes while married supported a certain lifestyle, how can the same income level support two households without the standard of living going down. It is an unrealistic expectation that post divorce the lifestyles of the children can be maintained to the same level unless you accept that the standard of living for ncp is expected to go down since they are now supporting two households.
Until this unattainable expectation is removed from the courts we will be in the same position that we have now. | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 1/25/2009 1:28:49 PM | Eroc, first of all WHY are you supporting your ex??? Second, I don't think your spam will be appreciated here....especially since you're posting the same post all over the place..... | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 1/25/2009 1:48:29 PM | | Step-parents have no obligation of support for the kids of the other spouse from a previous relationship. In other words, the Texas Family Code section 154.069 actually prohibits the use of step-parent income in the obligor spouse's child support calculation. | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 1/25/2009 3:00:43 PM |
The way it is looked at legally, is while you were married, you contributed to the childs well being. Part of your income did go to support the food on the table, the roof over thier heads...etc.
Sorry but i might have to disagree with you. While you were married there was no consideration about a new parent or step father contributing to the child's well being. that is for the biological father only. Otherwise can you imagine non custodial would be looking for relief in cs payments for situations where the mother re-marries?
They suggest that a parent who includes a child or has the child or children as part of the family then becomes finacially required to pay support to a step child. They actually in the wording make no reference to the finacial contributions..because they have already legally made any contributions immaterial.
However...Jax in fact there is legal precedent that suggests a mother cannot legally pursue a cs order on a step parent if she has not received one from the biological father. A number of lawyers do not like playing this card but there is some case law supporting this premise. | |
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| Child support from stepparents
Posted: 1/25/2009 3:55:18 PM | | This is a horrible law. A step parent that contributes to the growth and development of a child should not be made to continue because a marriage ends. That Step Parent contributed out of goodwill and formed a bond with that child. Anyone that would even accept support,once the divorce has taken place, in this way has some serious character flaws. That Step Parent would not have any Parenting rights so let them move on with their lives and give thanks for what they did contribute. | |
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