At least in some states, parentage is assumed based on marriage unless it’s challenged within a certain timeframe. There have been cases where a wife had a child by another man, divorced her husband to marry that other man, and still succeeded in forcing the ex-husband to pay child support because he didn’t challenge…

I’m not going to defend it as a perfect system by any means. I think it is a feature, not a bug, that the system errs on the side of the child instead of on the side of a stingy shithead who goes to court to deny responsibility for their offspring.

If you want their standard of living to be the same as what they would have had in the household of the absent parent, they can. Prep schools, nannies, au pairs, maids, paleo chefs, summers in Paris... I’m not saying it’s right, but if the rich absentee parent cared about the kid’s opportunities in life more than they…

Not apathetic, just depressed. I did my civic duty at 7:30am and I have EARNED this afternoon vodka god damn it. Mixing with fruit punch makes my misery feel festive.

Unfortunately there’s no way of convincing a certain segment of the population that support is about the child and not about the ex.

If we’re all very lucky, she’ll be locked away far beyond her fertile years and never have a chance to be like that mommyblogger who repeatedly contaminated her own child’s IVs for Facebook “likes.” Because I cannot see someone this warped heading in any other direction.

She practiced being the sad girlfriend in texts to her friends before he died, pretending he was already missing. She was playing games, full stop.

Yeah, I could believe a one-off response of “ok well do it already” was a (misguided) attempt at tough love, maybe thinking he would break the cycle of suicidal ideation if she could get him to admit he didn’t want to go through with it.

I laughed but I didn't feel good about it. Well done.

Rational people can find both things upsetting. Like Robert Durst being acquitted of a murder charge because the prosecution fucked up... I can agree that acquittal was the correct outcome, and still be dismayed that he is free. I can be horrified by the fucked up railroading of Avery and still find him creepy beyond…