The father grew furious with his teenager and says he now can't support his two new children
A teen went to the internet for advice after a decision they made ended up having major consequences.
The tale, posted to an anonymous forum, provoked conversation among the Reddit community as it involved a blended family’s finances, a bitter divorce, and massive child support payments.
Many Redditors questioned one key detail in the story, which played out in the comments section.
Read on to see how OP responded.
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AITA for helping my mom get sole custody so that she would have to pay no child support
“Ok so my father has never really held a job and has basically lived of the child support income my mom gives him which is around 70k a year even though I’m only at his home over the weekends,” the teen began.
“He has remarried and has 2 kids who live with him so recently [I’ve] heard my mom complaining about how she’s subsidising my father’s kids and wife with her child support payments,” OP continued. “I was already getting annoyed with having to go to his home every weekend cause their living accommodations are significantly worse and I hate having to drive 45 minutes and not be able to hangout with my friends over the weekend cause its either to far away or because my fathers home is a tiny 2 bedroom apartment I also don’t get along well with his new wife.”
After giving that background on the situation, OP explained they came up with their own solution.
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“So I asked my mom if it was possible to get the custody agreement changed if she didn’t want to be paying child support anymore and I didn’t want to be going there every weekend if there was something that could be done,” they recounted. “So like a buncha legal things later I got to tell a judge I didn’t want to live with my dad on the weekends because the living conditions were significantly worse and that I didn’t get along with his new fam.”
“So I don’t know the exact details but I only see him once a month now which is fine cause he was never really home when I had weekends with him,” OP continued.
“The child support was also cut down significantly I don’t know the exact number but my mom bought me a new car (I ruined my old one cause a guy was speeding through a yield sign and hit the side of it and bent the frame) with the extra cash she was saving so pretty cool.”
Of course, it was a different situation with OP’s father.
“However, I’ve my dad is super mad at me cause he is currently at risk of being homeless cause he can’t afford to take care of two kids and pay rent without the child support and he can apparently only get a minimum wage job cause he was out of the job market for so long and we live in a [high cost of living area].”
“So AITA,” OP asked in conclusion.
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How Reddit Reacted
OP was branded NTA [not the a-hole] by the subreddit community, however many had some questions about the initial custody arrangement — specifically why the parent who only saw them on weekends was given such a high child support payment.
“NTA but am I am a bit confused though,” one commenter admitted. “I thought child support went from the parent with less custody to the parent with more custody. Why was the parent with weekend custody getting money from the one with primary custody, and especially why is he getting anything now with 1 day a month from the parent with 29-30/days a month?”
“From what little I do know its supposed to be 25 percent of the non-custodial parents income,” the teen replied, “but since the earnings were so wildly different they decided it would be best for my mom to pay a smaller percentage of her income to equalize the quality of life in both homes.”
“Ah, gotcha, that makes sense,” the commenter said in reply. “Thanks for the clarification. I don’t often tell people to be selfish, but let’s be clear here, the point of all of this is your welfare, not either of your parents. Never feel bad about doing what’s best for yourself in this.”
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While another noted, “This story makes no sense. Your mom may have been paying alimony but if she was the primary custodial parent, she should not be paying child support. If I am wrong, there is a key detail missing in the story.”
However, many in the comments corrected the doubting Redditor and explained that often child support was to ensure the quality of life was similar at the non-primary parent’s home.
OP also chimed in, writing: “From what I know if the pay gap is significant enough they will give the non primary parent child support.”
Those statements of course begged the obvious question — if 70K a year is less than 25% of her mother’s income, how much does she make?
With one Redditor attempting to do the math: “Your mother was paying almost $6k per month and you were only there on weekends? So she was paying over $700 per day? Why? Does she make 7 figures? Sounds very strange.”
The teen replied, admitting they knew very little about their mother’s finances: “Idk my mom refuses to tell me how much she makes cause apparently I should have drive to make it on my own and not just become satisfied to rely on her.”
What do you think of the whole situation?
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