A Discount Price for All Your Good Deeds

[montecristo]

Shannon's birthday was Sunday. I called to say hi to her on Saturday and wish her happy birthday. I knew that I wouldn't catch her on Sunday. She had a couple of friends over on Saturday night. I suppose that Shannon was regaling them with tales from the anime convention that she went to in Bakersfield a couple of weeks ago. According to

Comments

[emmabovary]

The girls' mother is so "tapped" she can't pay for the children's school supplies, yet she is willing to take in a dog, with all the expenses that entails? Bite me. You already pay substantial child support; your ex-wife should be paying for the kids' book with that, having properly budgeted for this expense--which should not go to any of the kids she has with the other guy, nor her own personal items. She should not let the children be messengers, trying to get more money out of you. If anything, she should have had this discussion privately with you directly, so you would not be put on the spot.

Money is fungible.

[montecristo]

Yes, what I spend on my daughters should be just for them. What is envisioned when law is written and courts decree is not always what actually comes to pass. If my dear ex's decisions result in her living a lower standard of living than me then my ladies will likewise have a lower standard of living in staying with her than they would have if they lived with me. It's their choice. They understand it. The courts do not care what happens to Dad's money once they've given it to Mom - unless one makes a legal fight out of it, which would only waste more money than it saves. Divorce is a real crap shoot, as I am sure you can attest: sometimes one party loses and sometimes the other party does. Law is a roulette wheel. I just do what I can for my girls when they need a little extra help. I've gotten pretty philosophical about the whole state of affairs, now that it's been five years "a done deal

Re: Money is fungible.

[homc]

You are a good father. One of the reasons I didn't and haven't gone into to family law is that usually both parties bicker over money and forget about the children. Every one in awhile, you find a fellow like yourself!

Sorry to hear about the dog. Hopefully things will work out.

Re: Money is fungible.

[montecristo]

It's easy for everyone and anyone to lose focus on things when money gets involved. It's not that people don't care, for the most part, but that money is the only objective benchmark upon which people can focus in a legal environment. It's all about hard objective numbers or it's about nebulous subjective qualities that are hard to define, much less adjudicate. Fortunately, despite our differences of opinion on quite a number of things both my ex and I have always tried to do our best for our daughters. It makes things easier to deal with.