Providing for A Child: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Raising children is a large financial responsibility. Food, clothing, housing, school supplies and more are minimum necessities for their lives.

Within the United States, the average cost of provision over an 18-year period is $245,340 for a two-parent, middle income family, according to the CNN.com article How much will it cost to raise your child.

Yet, children are born daily primarily to single parent households that are governed by women. Working mothers who cannot afford monthly household expenses rely on assistance from family members, friends, companions or federal government subsidies.

More than ever child support is needed to successfully operate single-family homes.

According to the U.S. Census, about 22.1 million children under age 21 live with 13.4 million parents, while their other parents lives in another location. Of that number about 48.1 percent of black children live in one-parent households. In 2013, the amount of child support due to parents caring for children was $32.9 billion of which 68.5 percent was receive. As a result, the average household received about $3,950 a year per parent received child support funds.

Parents who don't pay child support for various reasons, must set aside differences, when stiff penalties are faced for lack of support. Penalties range from driver's license revocation to jail time and loss of employment. Our law firm can assist parents with securing child support from a parent who fails to make payments or settle payment disputes.

Although both parents may not live in the child's household, the need for child support surpasses all disagreements between mom and dad. Through the years, traditional two-parent households have changed to single-parent households where partial payments are received and full funding is regularly experienced.

Although typically, primary sources of income through child support are not paid regularly or in full, the flagrant reasons behind these actions are without merit.

When children interact with the parent paying child support, full payments are typically received. While, parents who rarely see their children are more likely to withhold child support. To learn more about parents and child support read the U.S. Census Report Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2013.

Although federal and state laws govern a parent's right to receive support for their child, forcing a parent into prison can hold a double edged sword. In an effort to minimize yearly jail lock ups, authorities are seeking problem-solving methods to help parents work out their differences and feed, clothe and house their children.

Prison officials work with mothers and fathers to ensure they do not return on residual charges of evading child support. To learn more about this national child support rehabilitation movement read The Washington Post article Locking up parents for not paying child support can be a modern-day ‘debtors prison.'

Child support can be the lifeblood for many households. Yes, the responsibility of paying child support and the ramifications of failing to take care of a child should be considered before children are conceived, experts say. Laws are in place to protect children and to assist in protecting tax dollars that often fund the lack of parental support.