Why does our nation focus its attention mainly on the financial well-being of our children and not their emotional stability? Why are there few resources available to ensure that our children maintain and enjoy having both parents active in their daily lives? Are non-custodial parents merely a bank for their children? Does our nation truly look out for the best interests of our children as it intends to? .
While there are many aspects involved in raising children in split families, we will focus on the resources available to both custodial and non-custodial parents. Custodial parents have a vast network of resources to ensure that they receive the child support they are entitled to for raising their children. There are far less resources for non-custodial parents who only seek to be an active part of their children's lives. .
The offices of Child Support Enforcement in every state are federally funded to secure and enforce payment of child support. They are given a lot of authority to enforce the child support orders to include taking away the non-custodial parents" drivers and/or business licenses, having them arrested for non-payment, and even reporting their default of payment to the credit bureaus (http://ww.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cse). These enforcement offices can basically ruin a non-custodial parent's life for not fulfilling their financial obligations to their children. .
What comes to mind when hearing the phrase child support? I have heard everything from uncaring fathers, non-paying non-custodial fathers, and even the infamous and stereotypical "deadbeat dad", just to name a few. Of course there are many mothers who are non-custodial parents, but the majority is still fathers. How funny that we choose to label our non-custodial fathers as uncaring and indifferent while we put our custodial mothers on a pedestal. I personally know several fathers who pay their child support on time, yet are not allowed to see their children.