Divorce Questions from a Mom
A few weeks ago I talked about some of the questions that Dads have when they come into my office. Today I’m going to address some of the questions that Moms ask me about divorce and the topics that Moms ask me. If you are thinking about divorce, use this as a starting grounds for your own questions and goals. These are just a sample and for illustration. For this article, let’s presume that the parents are joint managing conservators, children will reside with Mom (Mom is managing conservator) and Dad is possessory conservator.
How will child support be determined?
Child support will be based on the possessory conservator’s income. So, in this case, it will be a percentage of Dad’s monthly net income. There are different ways to calculate the monthly net income and one way is to use Dad’s gross annual income to determine the gross income for each month and then deduct taxes and any other allowable deductions in the statutes to determine the monthly net income. Then, child support is based on these percentages: 20% for one child, 25% for two children, 30% for three children, and so on as shown in the chart below. Additional information about child support is available in of my earlier posts.
| Children before the Court | Percentage of Net Monthly Income |
| 1 |
20% |
| 2 |
25% |
| 3 |
30% |
| 4 |
35% |
| 5 |
40% |
©O’Connell Law Firm 2013
Will we have to move?
This is a tough question and it isn’t usually one that is a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question. When we talk about this there are other considerations for example, maintenance, financing, cost for upkeep, time and the purpose for wanting to stay in the home. This last one is really important because maybe the purpose can be accomplished only by staying in the home and maybe there are alternatives. I ask clients to work through a lot of information to help them determine if this is a good goal for us to work towards in the divorce or if we can find a better goal to strive for through the divorce.
Possession
The possession schedule won’t need to be worked out every week, but if Mom and Dad can agree to work together they can do that. If not the possession schedule will be in the decree of divorce. Dad (possessory conservator) can choose some options under Standard Possession and get extended time with the kids. If he chooses the extended times, he can have as much as Thursday after school until Monday morning when school starts on the first, third and fifth weekend of each month. Holidays, Spring Break, Summers will all be included in the decree, too.
This is just a very simple description of divorce questions that are on the minds of Moms when they are preparing for divorce. Your divorce questions need an attorney to hear your story and give you specific advice to reach your goals.
Call today and set your appointment with Jill O’Connell, 940-497-5454.