This may sound like I am rallying against our state agencies. Don't get me wrong, we simply agree to disagree on some of their practices. It is those people that force the hand of the state that I am rallying against.
Our child-support system is flawed, but for good reason. There are those out there that insist upon dodging their responsibilities. They take advantage of a system that was, initially, intended to support the needs of children by creating an equal financial balance between estranged parents.
Those that evade the system are not doing the rest of us any favors. There are those of us that put faith in this system to be just and fair. However, if at any moment, it even appears we are falling short of our responsibilities; we find that the system tends to ignore our needs based on the actions of so many. Guilty by association, seems to be this system’s approach.
While I find this to be an unfair practice, I tend to point the finger at those that drove the system to be this way rather than the system itself. Who can blame them, really, for taking up arms in defense of children who cannot do so themselves?
If you are of the mindset that “It is unfair of them to take money from my paycheck,” then try and remember why they are doing it. Your kids did not choose to be born; you chose to perform the act that brought them here. So it is only fitting that you should be held accountable for those actions. Why should they pay for your actions? They never should.
Yet each year, we see this continue to get worse. We that abide by the system’s laws and guidelines continue to be held in contempt, for the actions of those that refuse to abide.
So if you refuse to abide, as the rest of us do…the shame falls on you. As well it should.
Be a parent. Be a man/woman. Mostly, find it in your heart to love that child enough to sacrifice your vices in order to provide for a child that wants nothing more than to love you. Otherwise, you not only bred a child, but you also breed resentment that may last a lifetime…from that child and from those of us that this affects daily.