Standing Taller

I am currently unemployed and receiving unemployment benefits. I am also enrolling in a local college to become a paralegal. Then I can provide for my children by helping others provide for their children.

I have had to try to explain to my son, why daddy can’t afford to take him to the zoo or to Indiana Beach, or any number of other places the children might want me to take them. I have always wondered if I’m the only one who’s ever had to come up with an explanation without laying blame on the other parent.

I say this because I am the reason their mother and I divorced. I liked to get around a lot when I was younger (cheat). I finally realized that it was because I wasn’t happy. I then decided to tell her that I wasn’t happy and wanted someone who made me happy, and then she divorced me. Was I wrong for cheating? Yes. But, I did come forward, became honest, and brought it to her attention. Am I happy in my current relationship? After 6 years, I’m still not sure. But, I am not cheating on her.

I had a hearing scheduled for today, in the Starke Circuit Court, to have my child support reduced.

Here in the great state of Indiana, our state supreme court has set forth rules and guidelines, found in several documents throughout the in.gov website. These documents are made and published to be downloaded and read, to educate ones self in the proceedings of the court in such cases. In my particular case, these documents have helped significantly. Not only did I become educated in how my case should go, I also learned that judges don’t appreciate when the non-custodial parent has previously made some bad decisions with their case, and is currently being hung to dry. Nor did it seem as though she appreciated that I knew what she was supposed to do as well as she did.

At first, my children’s mother tried to tell me what a waste of time it was to drag her into court. “They’re not going to reduce your support when you’re not even working.” is what she said to me as we were waiting to be called into the courtroom. Little does she know, according to Indiana Rules of Court: Child Support Rules and Guidelines first objective listed (page #2) states: to establish as state policy an appropriate standard of support for children, subject to the ability of parents to financially contribute to that support. Furthermore, under Guideline 2: Use of the Guidelines “the Court should carefully review the obligor’s income and living expenses to determine the maximum amount of child support that can reasonably be ordered without denying the obligor the means for self support at a minimum subsistence level”.

To make a long story short, the judge had become agitated, my ex-wife became very angry, and I was (and still am) a little confused, but mostly satisfied.

To start with, I was asked how I had prepared my case and come up with the figures that I had submitted to the Court. I informed the judge that I had prepared them in accord with the Indiana Rules of Court: Child Support Rules and Guidelines, Order Adopting the Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines, and the online Child Support Calculator, all found on the in.gov website.

She then asked the children’s mother if she had received all of the documentation that I had filed, from the Court. She said that she had. The judge then proceeded to ask me for further proof, which I willingly provided.

Because of the simple fact that I had educated myself, and used what I had learned, I was able to have my support reduced from $131.00 a week to $66.08 a week. Yes this is a significant difference, so why am I still unhappy? I urge anyone to use the following link:
IN Child Support Calculator
, by in putting the following: my weekly gross is $322.00, hers is less than $406.00, she has less than 200 and I have less than 96 overnights, she pays for Medicaid @ $12.50 a week, finally there are two children between us. I believe that comes to $50.20, which is less than what I was ordered to pay.

Regardless, I am Still Standing Better Than Before!