3 ways child support matters can complicate divorce
Divorcing when you have children is almost always more complicated than getting a divorce when you don’t share kids. Custody arrangements create their own set of complications for divorcing parents, and child support can also lead to emotional disagreements.
Many couples will need to negotiate some kind of support arrangement, and that may lead to a longer and more volatile divorce. How does child support sometimes complicate family law proceedings?
Parents demand custody just to avoid support
One of the most common complications caused by child support is a parent fighting for an unrealistic or unreasonable amount of parenting time because they don’t want to pay support or they want to force their ex to pay.
In Arizona, the amount of child support reflects the division of parenting time, the financial resources of the parents and the needs of the children. Sometimes, one parent will push for 50/50 custody when they know fully well they can’t have the children half of the time because of their work. You may have more intense negotiations or litigation regarding custody matters when your ex wants to manipulate custody arrangements to avoid child support.
A parent tries to deny paternity
In married couples, the husband is the presumptive father of a child born during the marriage regardless of the genetic circumstances. Parents who suspect that they are not the biological parent of their child may initiate genetic tests and otherwise complicate custody proceedings by denying their parental relationship to the child.
Not only can such actions increase how long custody issues take to resolve, but it can do real harm to a child’s mental health, all in the hopes of saving one parent a percentage of their monthly income.
Parents may fight over the use of support
Child support can go toward any necessary expenses for the children in the family, from their housing to their health care. Conflicts can often arise when the parent paying support believes that the other parent misuses the funds they provide.
Parents may get into intense arguments about the use or amount of child support. Anger about the use of child support or how much someone pays can even push parents to quit their jobs or go back to court to fight over a possible support modification to reduce how much they pay.
Learning about how child support matters can complicate your upcoming divorce will put you in a better position to negotiate such matters with your ex.