The income of both parents and the time spent with the children would be the two biggest factors to consider for child support. They would see how much the father was making and how much the mother was making, but they would also judge how much time each party was spending with the children.

If the father made a lot more money than the mother, but he did not have as much time with the children as the mother did, where he was spending only 20 percent of the time with the children and the mother spent 80 percent of the time with the children, then not only because he made more money than her, the father would have to pay a lot more because he would only be spending 20 percent of his share of time with the children.

The courts in California try to give both parents an equal amount of time with the children, which a lot of people call fifty-fifty custody. This arrangement does not always work, depending on where the parties live, especially if one parent lives far away from the other parent, or if the other parent was not mature enough to have a lot of time with the child.

A lot of factors go into it, but the court would need a percentage of time they could enter into the DissoMaster if the parties could not come up with their own agreement out of court. Once the incomes were taken into account, the computer system would spit out a number that one parent would have to pay to the other parent, so even with the fifty-fifty custody split, one parent might have to pay the other parent even though it was fifty-fifty custody.

How Does Custody Work And How Can Battles Be Prevented?

This would be up to each individual parent. There are some cases where for whatever reason one parent did not want the other parent to be involved, especially if the other parent was an innocent parent, meaning they had done nothing wrong, they had not hurt the child or children, and they had not taken the steps to have a supervised visitation.

Family courts can get very ugly and allegations can be made, so if the judge found those allegations to be true, then he would passes certain orders that could be very nasty as far as the custody goes. The best approach would be for each parent to take on the issue as a business arrangement and not call each other names. This might be difficult for some people to do, but they should be very professional and not try to stick it to the other side.

If one side was trying to stick it to them or if they were trying to be rude or whatever they were trying to do, the other side should try to take higher route and just take it, but then try to move on with the business issues regarding what to do about the property, and what kind of custody schedule could work. Bringing some professionalism and treating it as if it was a workplace with the other parent or the soon-to-be-ex, would probably be the best way to prevent a lot of future problems.

It can be very difficult when somebody digs their heels in, so ideally, both parents would need to look out for the best interest of the child or children. The best interest of the child standard is used in California, and it is a very broad standard so it is a good standard to go by, and both parents should do what they think is best for the child.

How Can Child Support Be Reduced?

Sometimes, parents who do not want to pay more will move to obtain more custody of the children and reduce what they need to pay in child support. They may or may not be acting in the best interest of the child, although each case is unique and determined on a case-by-case basis. There could be a situation where all of a sudden the father has to pay child support to the mother and he objects to why it is so high, so if he had not done so before the court, he would probably feel that he needed to get fifty-fifty custody to help reduce what he needed to pay to the mother.

There are also deductions for health insurances and other things that are plugged into the system which would probably reduce a little bit of what is owed in child support, but the biggest two factors to decide would in fact just be the income of both parents, and the time spent with the child. Both parents would have an equal amount of time with the children in a fifty-fifty timeshare, and then the court would basically look at the incomes of both parents.

If the father was making more money than the mother and there was a fifty-fifty timeshare, then generally speaking, the father would still have to pay the mother a little bit but not as much as if the father only had 20 percent and the mom had 80 percent custody.

How Do Men Versus Women View Child Custody And Financial Support?

When it comes down to child custody issues, a lot of women generally think they know how the custody schedule should go with the children, and there are a lot of women who do not think the father should have a fifty-fifty custody of the children. They would like the father to be an every-other-weekend father, if at all, which is something that happens a lot as part of the divorce process when custody is involved.

As far as perspectives with regards to finances, the women feel that they should be entitled to spousal support if they spent time at home, whereas sometimes men do not want to pay it. The woman would be entitled to spousal support if she was a stay-at-home mother, although it can go both ways because a lot of women now make a lot of money. Some female clients who make a lot of money end up having to pay the man a lot of money in spousal support, because the father might be a stay-at-home dad, which is something we get to see a lot nowadays.

What Is the Father's Rights Movement?

Certain custody cases can even happen outside of divorce and they are called Paternity Cases. They happen when dealing with younger people who are not married but have a child. If they were younger in age, the mother would think that the father should not have a lot of custody, and the father would generally not get a lot of custody if the child was a newborn, so he would then have to go through a step-up plan.

Women generally tend to think that the men should not get as much time, which gave rise to the “Father's Rights” movement. Quite a few attorneys now handle cases regarding the father's right to assert his rights. I have handled a lot of cases where the father did not even get to see the child at all until the matter went to court to get court orders.

The father would not get a whole lot of time in case of a newborn or if the parents did not live together, because the mother would need to nurture the baby. It is call a step-up process, where the step-up plan means the father can possibly or ultimately get to a fifty-fifty custody share, because men would generally like to have time with the children.

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