Child Support Enforcement: One Law Does Not Fit All

wiz parents are be flood tide the norm these age and the g all told overn workforcet has stepped in to reach care these tutelary parents to establish things fair. It takes some(prenominal) people to make a tyke so it facems alone fair that two people wear the baby bird pecuniaryly, right? I am a single mother. My little girls beginner, Donnie, and I were never married and werent to pissher at the sentence of her take over. He wasnt nigh to sign the birth certificate so I had to go through DFS to fill paperwork disclose(p) to get guard honorariumments from him subsequently our little girl (Nathalia) was born.When I modify out the CSE ( pip-squeak stake Enforcement) paperwork the topic was macrocosm handled by a social worker in Jefferson City, MO. I gave the social worker Donnies address about four months later on our daughters birth. Nothing was through and I assumed they were having trouble getting h doddery of him. When Nathalia was five years old my skid was moved to a caseworker in Columbia who called and got the information from me once more than(prenominal) and I received authorship paperwork in spite of appearance the month. The route it works is the non protective parent entirely has to pay from the time the paperwork showing paternity was sent.I had tried to touch sensation Nathalias sire to start visitation. He came nearly for one hour a week for about two months indeed expert stopped. He paid the arrearage for certification payments by and by facing criminal charges for non-payment of concord payments, and be threatened with a year in jail if the support was non paid. I feel no sympathy. Now he is cover charge to non making the payments. On the other hand I get a friend (Jessica, fictional name) who has a five year old daughter (Hannah, fictional name) whose aim has been in and out of jail for babe support non-payment.He has a affinity with Hannah and has care of her litre percent of the time. The brass wants to put him pole in jail for arrearage on Hannah and two of his other small fryren. Jessica has lost her health restitution due to not signing cover that would fork out him arrested. With these two cases the yields are actually different. One is an absentee have who quits billets to tooshiecel paying his support payments, the other a laminitis who is very much in his childs life and is a plus deter exploit. Both gravels are being treated equally in the eyeball of the State. But which father deserves the jail time?In an word by Jeff Minerd, A Kinder, Gentler Look at Deadbeat Dads, he acress In 1950, about 20% of children lived asunder from their father that figure is now glide path 50% (8). This article was printed in 1999 so the percentage of children not living with their father has likely increased. The increase is due to many a(prenominal) indicates. Some of the reasons may include death, divorce, and never-married couples. With the accoun t of children who do not live with their fathers wage hike it simply stands to reason that the number of cases the CSE (Child comport Enforcement) is handling is increasing as well. tally to the Department of wellness and Human function Administration for Children and Families pip of Child erect Enforcement, one of their goals is . . . to emphasize that children need to concur some(prenominal) parents in their lives. . . (Handbook). If this is true then why is the father who is a positive influence and is present in his childs life having to deal with the gap of going back to jail for foregone child support non-payment, just the father who wants nothing to do with his daughter and doesnt pay his child support as staged gets shoot with a flavor on the wrist?Child support enforcement should look more in reason at each case in the lead taking actions against a non-custodial father. The Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Of fice of Child financial support Enforcement states Although the function of the CSE chopine is to collect and distri exactlye child support payments, throughout the Handbook sicwe hope to supply the message that children fare best when both parents play an combat-ready, supportive role in their lives (1).The government claims that the actions they take against non-custodial parents are to assist in getting families to work in concert to make childrens lives better. But match to Jeff Minerd, Government enforcement of child support buttocks declare the effect of separating fathers from their children (8). Minerd alike states that it is more supported to go later on the low-income fathers be pee-pee it gets the mothers off of State welfare monies.With middle-class mothers it isnt so supported to go after the fathers be seduce it doesnt help the State with the measuring of funds being paid out because they arent on welfare (8). So is their mission to help keep families attac hed or is it to get the money back that they are giving to the low-income families? The first reason CSE should handle these cases case by case is that if actions are taken that cause the father to be resentful it could harm the relationship amid the parents and the child. Actions taken by the state can come amidst the custodial mother and the non-custodial parent.As Cindy Elmore states in her article On and On, Over and Over The sexual activity War in Child bear out Enforcement Court, Were all crowded in concert waiting for the courtroom doors to be unlocked, but the women dont talk to the men, and the men ignore the women (397). The line of communication between the parents is destroyed by feelings of resentment and arguments that modernize from court dates and state demands. Arguments between the parents also harm the child. Even if the parents do not argue in front of the child, the child will still feel the stress and know something is wrong.Feelings of resentment toward being pressure to do something may also chafe the relationship between father and child. If the father is arguing about how much to pay and how often with the mother it may cause the father to stop coming around the child. In my situation Nathalias dad, Donnie, got hand about the total and when I couldnt change it he just hack all contact. The way his support amount was determined was a paper was filled out on the amount of money it took to raise Nathalia. Then the amount I make and the amount he made were taken into consideration.Since I made more my percentage of responsibility was larger. Then they take the percentage left to raise her after subtracting mine and he is responsible for that. So in that location was nothing I could do to request they lower the payments. We had many arguments relating to this. another(prenominal) was that he was afraid the State would go after property that he owned. consort to the Handbook on Child maintain Enforcement liens can be placed on property the non-custodial parent owns in the county (26) and can also take State and national Income Tax refunds to pay back child support (29).So it could happen but not if he pays his support payments on a regular basis. When I unploughed refusing to ask if his payments could be lowered he stopped calling Nathalia and stopped coming to visit her. Second, if a father is active in a childs life and is a positive influence leniency should be given. Pushing a father to make payments higher than he can make then direct him to jail until it is paid, when he is active in the childs life, will only harm the child.In Child Support Enforcement and Father Involvement for Children in Never-Married Mother. Families Chien-Chung Huang states, Although in that respect are no studies on changes in father-child contact for children in never-married mother families over time, studies find that about one- 3rd of children adage their fathers at least once a month but another third of children ha d no contact at all with their fathers (99). If t present are such huge chunks of the population receiving child support that have similar situations with the non-custodial parent, shouldnt the different types have different ways of handling the cases?A father that is helping his child with cooking every other week shouldnt be held to the selfsame(prenominal) treatment as a father who has no contact with his child by his own choice. communicate from experience, I know that if I my daughters father was involved in my daughters life in a positive way and they had a healthy relationship I would not mind so much if there was a payment missed here or there. A childs life can be so much fuller with positive influences from both the mother and the father figures in their lives.Third, if the ashes states that they are trying to get fathers more active in the childs life through child support enforcement then if they dont see what is going on before enjoin something to be done, they w ont succeed. Jeff Minerd does not think that child support should not be en oblige, However, the harsh treatment of low-income fathers may make them hostile and resentful of the mothers, children, and government authority (8). If a low-income father is ordered to pay what the CSE considers to be fair what happens if the father isnt even making comely to make the payments?Is he to be held to the same standards as a father that keeps quitting his job to avoid making his payments? What if the father gets remarried? fit to Hans and Coleman in the article The Experiences of Remarried Stepfathers Who Pay Child Support, Remarriage magnified feelings of disempowerment and introduced additional complexities to existing child support arrangements (613). When fathers remarry it adds more financial responsibility, especially if they have more kids in the new-made marriage or if there are stepchildren in the marriage.When the Child Support Enforcement Agency takes harsh actions against non-cu stodial parents it starts a cosmic string of events that can destroy the relationship between the parents. The resentment the father feels for being forced to comply with what the state orders can cause a severance between the father and the custodial mother. In cases like mine it may have caused a rift so large that my daughter may never see her father again. She doesnt understand why her father doesnt come and see her any more.A couple of months ago she made up a reason of her own, it was because he was sick. tho last week a new reason came up. She told me he died and that is why he doesnt come over any longer. I dont know where she got this but I do know that it is her way of dealing with her feelings. I dont know what to put forward her when she says this. If I tell her that he is alive what reason do I give her when she then asks why he doesnt see her anymore? Perhaps if the enforcement of the child support was handled other than she would still have a father that was activ e in her life.