Literally, let’s put a end cap on this fucking year. Someone please blow this fucking useless rock into the sun.

“I’m also taking this action for the benefit of all parents and families, who may be facing the same violation of their rights—”

“I want to destroy you for your own good. Why can’t you see that, you ungrateful little shit that I effectively disowned.”

AAAAND you lost me. Right there. You are the worst. Go run outside. Go to a public swimming pool. Go to the goodwill and buy sets of weights. Do push ups. Go to the park and do squats, lunges and run stairs.

This is exactly what I was thinking. I spent 10 years being a stay-at-home mom, and had to go out and find a job when we separated - so, no “real” experience at 35, looking at entry-level positions, and worrying about day care expenses.

I almost want to place bets on how quickly he finds a decent paying job after his youngest turns 18. My dad always complained about having to pay the child support he was required to pay ($500 a month) because my mom had remarried... dude that shit wasn’t alimony, and even though my stepdad was happy to pay for my…

I don’t think anyone said find a better job. I think everyone above has said the harsh reality is you have to take crappy jobs for your kids sometimes.

Under the federal consumer protection act, up to 55% can be garnished....so I call bullshit on that.

He also doesn’t mention being any part of the day-to-day labor of raising a child. I would have had a totally different reaction to this piece if he had said “I don’t make enough money to pay child support, but my flexible schedule means that I do all the after-school pick-ups, sick-day care-taking, etc...” Instead,…

A friend of mine who worked in support enforcement says part of the problem is how many non-custodial parents don’t see it as child support, but money they’re being forced to pay that bitch.

I am no one to judge anyone besides myself, but at the end of the day, our circumstances don’t absolve us from our responsibilities. My kids can’t eat my good intentions. My dad graduated college, but drove a cab and worked at a gas station at times to make ends meet. You gotta do what you gotta do.

I used to process garnishments at my last job, granted not for CA but for several states and there is a limit on what they can take and it was well under 70%.

OK, the system sucks and taking away your driver’s license is destructive to your earning potential and unhelpful. But, like - if your kids lived with you full time, you’d have to find a way to make it work. As the mothers of those kids already do. Stop thinking of child support as something you will pay when you can,…

You’re a professional writer and you think the phrase is, “on the lamb?”

I agree with that but my point was that when you have kids to support sometimes you don’t get to hold out for a “career”, you just have to have a “job”, or two or three.

If you’re a huge asshole, then so am I. I was reading all the way through, thinking “Just get a second job at Taco Bell and pay your arrears.”

Same... while I have sympathy for what he’s going though, I was real interested to read the comments on this piece. Living the life of a starving artist is an okay choice to make if it’s just affecting you, but in this case? And affecting your kids for so long?? At what point are you damaging your kids to fulfill a…

Yup, raising kids is very expensive and very hard.

You don’t need a gym membership to exercise.

What'd I'd like to know is how the mothers of your children were keeping it together all this time.