My mother pointed me to a comic she reads every day. Even though she isn't raising teenagers anymore, this one gives her a chuckle. Well, I'm addicted now too, and this comic is right on for a mother raising teenagers, especially teenage boys.

Enjoy!!

Zits

I don't know what the rules are in other states, but Missouri's Child Support Enforcement rules are generally a sucky way to collect.

I've been lucky the last few weeks; for about 7 weeks I've gotten a weekly check ranging from $15 to $127 from the Idiot. It was nice to get it, but it is over now, which means he's lost another job, and it will be months before we catch up to him again to collect more, if ever.

What sucks about the Missouri system of collection is that because he made a few payments, I have to wait until there has been six months of no payments before I can ask the state to take action. I find this to be a very backwards way of doing things. If he'd made a $1 payment this week, he could get away without paying another penny for six months before they could do anything at all to him.

Now I openly admit I don't need the money, and we obviously do just fine without it. But it is nice to have when we get it and I use it to do fun stuff with the kids (that's what it's for, right?) This last round of support payments bought clothes, birthday presents, and a pool. It wasn't much, about $600, but it was something, and of course I spent it.

But what about those women who actually need the money? They are under the same difficulties as I am; a single small payment will hold off the dogs for six months.

Wouldn't that be great for mortgage payments and credit card payments? I think Missouri needs to take more concrete action in collecting on these debts. My ex owes around $17K in back child support. How big will it get before they take definitive action? I've been dealing with this for 12 years now as of July 20th, with rules that don't help custodial parents, but benefit the non-custodial parents.