Usually, child support payments adhere to a set economic formula that takes into account which parent has the children most of the time. These formulas vary depending on your state of residence, but are generally based on the amount of time each parent spends caring for each child.
There are multiple child support calculators available online, but here is a hypothetical example based on a family living in Oregon, with one minor child. To make things simple, we’ll say that the division of assets is totally even, both parents earn a similar monthly salary (in this case, $3,000 a month), have no spousal support payments and no medical expenses or childcare expenses for their child, who is under the age of 12. Whichever parent has the child most of the time — even if the split is close to 50/50 — is considered the custodial parent. The non-custodial parent in this case will be obligated to pay $367 a month for child support.
“It’s a dollars-for-days conversion,” Wevorce CEO Michelle Crosby explains. “It’s a mandatory number based on the family’s expenses.” Although the number is based on a straightforward calculation, Crosby says the issue of child support can lead to conflict during the divorce process.
That’s why Wevorce Lead Architects like to help parents understand where these mandatory child support numbers are coming from. In a Wevorce, parents complete homework during their parenting planning stage and come up with their own estimates of how much each facet of childcare — from major expenses like school tuition to little costs like back-to-school supplies — really costs.
Because married couples tend to split their parental duties, it is not uncommon for one parent to know exactly how much all of these child-related things cost and for the other parent to be clueless about the extraneous expenses of raising a child. Helping both parents understand the costs of caring for a child or for multiple children can avoid conflict when it comes time to discuss the child support figures, Crosby says.
