State of Alabama....O.K. quick history. My soon to be ex wife was awarded $571 cs + me pay 1/2 all med bills + pay for 1/2 of after school care. The only thing on my cs papers state the $491 cs and I maintain med ins. and pay 1/2 of the uncovered bills. Now she is getting a layer on me saying I am still responsible to pay her 1/2 of all the childs needs(her opinion). What started this was a $100 deposit for an over night field trip. She was demanding that I pay this, saying it was my responsibility. And that this not something SHE should have to pay out of my cs payments. This came only 2 weeks after she had gotten her cs check. She is already broke for the month, don't know what she spent it on, but it was not the child. She has a job(about $1200 gross), she has her apartment paid for thru housing authority, she has her elec. paid for thru housing authority, and she gets about $400 per month for groceries thru the system. How can she be broke in the 2nd week of the month?!?!? SHe has NO bills. Is this not what the cs I pay her is for? Paying for the needs of the child? Why should I STILL have to pay everything on top of paying out the cs already?!?!? Please help.....anyone...

you only have to pay what is on your court papers. She can try and take you back to court for stuff like that but iam pretty sure that is what the cs is for. Anything the child should have had while you were still together with your ex. So you shouldnt have to pay anything else or at least dont until she brings you back to court

State of Alabama....O.K. quick history. My soon to be ex wife was awarded $571 cs + me pay 1/2 all med bills + pay for 1/2 of after school care. The only thing on my cs papers state the $491 cs and I maintain med ins. and pay 1/2 of the uncovered bills. Now she is getting a layer on me saying I am still responsible to pay her 1/2 of all the childs needs(her opinion). What started this was a $100 deposit for an over night field trip. She was demanding that I pay this, saying it was my responsibility. And that this not something SHE should have to pay out of my cs payments. This came only 2 weeks after she had gotten her cs check. She is already broke for the month, don't know what she spent it on, but it was not the child. She has a job(about $1200 gross), she has her apartment paid for thru housing authority, she has her elec. paid for thru housing authority, and she gets about $400 per month for groceries thru the system. How can she be broke in the 2nd week of the month?!?!? SHe has NO bills. Is this not what the cs I pay her is for? Paying for the needs of the child? Why should I STILL have to pay everything on top of paying out the cs already?!?!? Please help.....anyone...

For now, pay only what you were ordered to pay. How long ago was the CS order issued or modified? If it was a month or so, you can probably file a motion to clarify- have the order amended to state the exact terms of what you are responsible to pay. If it was longer than that, you may have to file a motion or petition to modify, is there a transcript available where it's on record exactly what the Judge ordered? If so, it may be a clerical error and that may be fixed without going back to court. Good luck.
Xena :)

She is wrong.

You are responsible for what your court order (decree or other order) says. You pay child support, and it is common to pay half of daycare and half of medical costs (half of out-of-pocket costs, not half of total bill, half of what the insurance doesn't cover). Any other NEEDS are covered with the child support you pay, that is what child support is for, anything the child needs. If the needs outweigh the child support, then she is living above her means and needs to cut back.

Thanks for all the info. This is all boiling down to her just being greedy. She got her first check this month from the cs ordered last month. And she used it all for herself, and is now wanting me to pick up the tab for what it SHOULD have went for. Since the cs was ordered, my little girls allowance has stopped also, for some reason. In the beginning after we seperated, I was paying for ALL the needs my little girl had plus gave her mom $160 per month and paid ALL of the med expenses and ALL of the after school care. The thing is that I was taking care of my little girl and she was not getting any money to spend on herself. So she decided to take me to court, this would give her the money for herself. Now she still wants my to pay the expenses that the cs should be going for. I told this to the court at the hearing, that this would happen. And it did, in the FIRST month too. So now I'm out almost $600 per month and my little girl is still havng to do without, and I'm so short at months end I can't do anything about it. All this after I adopted the little girl to make sure she have a chance at a decent life. Sorry this was so long, just needed to vent.

Yeah, that's too bad. That's the problem with child support is that as the non-custodial parent, you have no say over how the custodial parent spends the money. Sounds like you spoiled your ex for a while and now she expects it, not realizing she had it good and has now lost that priveledge by doing it a different way.

It sounds like you both need to go to mediation because she seems like one to want you to pay for everything and has an entitlement mindset and you feel powerless to stop her. So my first suggestion is to seek custody of the child if you feel the stress of her being unreasonable is going to go on forever and that you fear your child being exposed to that may not be a good thing in their longterm best interest. In mediation, you both need to understand what is paid for out of child support and what you pay on your own and what is both parents' responsibilitt.