Meal Ticket

I know quite a few single mother on the edge of despair and destitution because their ex-husbands refuse to pay child support. Your heart aches for them as you see them struggle to make ends meet, see that smile on their child's face that only an unexpected surprise can bring. There is a price tag attached to everything in their lives including that coveted angel smile. You want for them to be able to let go and relax for a while, enjoy the childhoods they nurture with their sweat and blood yet never really particapte in.

The passport renewal law that enforces payment of overdue child support is wonderful news for at least some women. According to the news article, there are several other instruments to make sure that the payments are made but as with any law there are loop-holes and men manage to escape their parental obligations for the price of a shrewd attorney.

Women just tire of fighting tooth and nail for what is rightfully due to her children and give up. They end up making decisions driven entirely by lack of money that hurt their children. Then there are women who will use their children as bait to extract as much as they can from a man they have grown to hate with more passion than they ever loved. I have known some women of this kind as well. No matter how much the father provides, it is never enough. When a family disintegrates the children inevitably suffer but nothing is nearly as painful as being reduced to a meal ticket for a parent.