My ex and I have shared custody of our children approximately 50% of the time for the past 6 months, although my percentage has been closer to 30% for the past 2 weeks due to my regular babysitter (my mother) no longer being available. I'm quickly looking for a suitable replacement.
Although my ex and I have gotten along fairly well over the past few months, she has shown no interest in signing a separation agreement. She has also shown no interest in working, and remains content to stay at home collecting government assistance. However, I pay child support based on the notion that her income is equal to what it would be were she working full-time at minimum wage, and she hasn't balked at that.
It's my understanding that child care should be split between the parents proportional to income. Is this something that we necessarily have to agree to? Can I require her to pay her share without an agreement? Should I also be considering her income as though she were working full-time at minimum wage for this purpose?
Should I pay the day care provider the full cost and bill her according to her share? If she refuses to pay, I'm thinking it would be a bad idea to take it out of my child support payments... I have visions of that coming back to haunt me ("he's been paying less child support than he should!"). Even if I were to memo the cheques as "child support minus child care", I'm not sure that's a great option. How should I handle this situation?
Although my ex and I have gotten along fairly well over the past few months, she has shown no interest in signing a separation agreement. She has also shown no interest in working, and remains content to stay at home collecting government assistance. However, I pay child support based on the notion that her income is equal to what it would be were she working full-time at minimum wage, and she hasn't balked at that.
It's my understanding that child care should be split between the parents proportional to income. Is this something that we necessarily have to agree to? Can I require her to pay her share without an agreement? Should I also be considering her income as though she were working full-time at minimum wage for this purpose?
Should I pay the day care provider the full cost and bill her according to her share? If she refuses to pay, I'm thinking it would be a bad idea to take it out of my child support payments... I have visions of that coming back to haunt me ("he's been paying less child support than he should!"). Even if I were to memo the cheques as "child support minus child care", I'm not sure that's a great option. How should I handle this situation?
Comment