Child support in the US doesn’t work that way. Either the parents agree on an amount, like my sons father and I did, or the court awards a flat 17% of the gross income for the first child, and between 3-5% for the second… and so on. It makes no difference how much time the child spends with the non custodial parent. The way the court looks at it is this… (using myself as an example)
I have sole legal custody of my son, his Dad gets 48 hour visitations biweekly. If he takes my son for days other than that, its at my sole discretion, but the child support will never change based on that. As a custodial parent I am responsible to maintain a home large enough to raise my son in… and child support is considered my ex’s contribution to maintaining that home… expenses such as mortgage/rent, electricity, taxes, phone, cable tv, educational expenses, toothpaste and toilet paper are even taken into consideration if the fight over money is that bitter… any type of household expense. Groceries are not the only consideration. So to figure the child support that way, or to suggests that payments should be reduced because the father fed him one or two days more than he was suppose to isn’t really logical, nor does it change the household expenses that the mother has.
The amount changes to 3% for the additional children to compensate for things like an increase in groceries and clothing for the additional child. But the household bills will not increase because of more children… if you see what I mean.
This is probably the one area where I can get a little bitter. Contrary to popular belief, mothers do not receive child support and go shopping to buy themselves new clothes. And even if they have new clothes… so what. Their kids still have a home, food, clothes, ect… the bills are still paid, and they ARE allowed to spend a portion of their own money on themselves. Child support should not be calculated based on how much the mother earns, or whether she’s financially capable of raising the child herself… she shouldnt have to. And I’ve seen many fathers who don’t have custody that have new cars, or boats, or take expensive vacations, waste money on stupidy… all while complaining about the modest child support order.
I haven’t had an increase in child support since our original court date, and probably won’t request one. I don’t have the need to. My sons father is very good that way. If Seth needs something, and I don’t have the money… and alot of times even if I do have the money, as soon as he’s aware of it, he gets it and he brings it to me the next day. The amount of child support I get just about pays for his groceries… and very little else. But the fact is, Patrick would rather take as much responsibility for raising Seth as he can, and wouldn’t care if we didn’t get any child support. My son is very lucky to have 2 fathers who love him so much.