When it comes to paying child support, rumors and myths abound. Sometimes amid all the disinformation, you might question whether you really know what’s going on when you make major decisions. In this ongoing series, we’ll be debunking common child support myths out there involving related family law issues. We start with two popular myths:

Myth 1: Neither parent pays child support if you have equal placement of the child.

While this may be true in some situations, it varies in reality. More likely than not, a state’s child support guidelines will have one parent pay some amount of child support. In determining child support, the Court considers the amount and type of time a parent has with their child. However they also consider the income of the two parents. The main principle to consider is that a child’s standard of living should not be extremely different between their parents’ households. For example, if Mom’s household has access to the internet, it is best for the children that Dad’s household also has access to the internet. When parents share placement of children but have a large gap in their incomes, the parent earning more usually must pay support to help minimize this difference.

Myth 2: The parent receiving child support cannot benefit from the child support payment.

Child support payments are intended to help with purchasing food, clothing, and other basic necessities for children. In a household, parents cannot divide up shared resources purchased with child support. For example, money applied towards rent payments pay for the home where both the parent and children live. Likewise, everyone uses food in the refrigerator, along with the same supply of water, heat and electricity. You use the same car to get to work and run errands that you use to get the children to school and extracurricular activities. For this reason, Courts do not scrutinize how a parent spends their child support payments, and parents are not obliged to report how they use them to their spouse. Parents may agree on how to use child support payments for larger expenses like college, if they want to work together and have ample funds. Sometimes, a court can create a separate fund for the support, and well-being of the children. This is not common, and usually only happens when one parent has a large income.

Debunking Common Child Support Myths

Do you have a myth you want us to review and debunk? Send an email to alexmderr@gmail.com and we’ll review your suggestions! Check back soon for our next blog in our “Debunking Common Child Support Myths” Series!