What Does Child Support Cover? (Updated to Include Our Day in Court)

For years (8 to be exact!), the devil expected my husband to reimburse her for one-half of her out-of-pocket expenses for the children’s school supplies, clothes, shoes, haircuts, etc.

Don’t get me wrong: he pays child support. In fact, he pays A LOT of child support! But the fact that child support is supposed to cover all of these things didn’t stop her from harassing him for reimbursement. (I’ve documented as many as three emails, two text messages and five voice messages in the same day demanding reimbursement for a $10 expenditure that she’d planned to incur for one of the kids that was actually covered by child support. We've learned to simply ignore her demands.)

Here’s the deal…

Child support guidelines and calculations are designed to minimize disparities in the standards of living between households by defraying the cost of the child(ren)’s predictable and recurring expenses incurred by or while in the care of the other parent.

So what IS your ex supposed to be doing with all that money you've been ordered to fork over to her each month? It’s supposed to be going toward your child(ren)’s:
• food (groceries, school lunches, etc.)
• housing (mortgage payment [excluding principal payment], property taxes, homeowners insurance and home maintenance costs)
• utilities (gas, electricity, water, sewer, garbage, cable TV, internet and telephones)
• K-12 education (school supplies, backpacks, lunch boxes, field trips, class parties, etc.)
• transportation (car payments, registration, insurance, maintenance and fuel)
• furniture
• clothing (clothes, shoes, outerwear)
• medical (over-the-counter medicines and medical supplies)
• personal hygiene products (toiletries and accessories)
• bedding and linens
• laundry and cleaning supplies
• discretionary/extracurricular activities to include enrichment (e.g. piano, ballet) and sports (e.g. karate, soccer), and all associated expenses (e.g. registration, lessons, instrument, uniform, gear).

Generally speaking, the only things that are NOT covered by child support are work- or school-related child care, health insurance premiums, and any uninsured medical expenses (i.e. co-pays). All other expenses are covered by child support.

The court can order you to pay for other items, as well, but these are typically extraordinary items such as tuition for necessary special education and the like. So you aren’t liable for any extra expenses unless it states so in your support order.

In other words, you aren’t obligated to pay for anything beyond the specified support amount. And paying for any extras is entirely up to you.

UPDATE:

On 10/26/10, the devil's fiance (referred to herein as "no nuts") served my husband with an Order to Show Cause for "extra curricular and other issues as pleaded." That is: she wanted the Judge to order him to reimburse her for one-half the cost of her out of pocket expenses for the children's 2010 and future extracurricular activities and school-related expenses. She also wanted him to "obtain and maintain adequate wardrobes for the children [to be kept at our house]." (Which, by the way, we are NOT obligated to do and which, by the way, we have ALWAYS done.)

WHAT A FREAK!

They went to Court on 11/23/10 (yes, the week of Thanksgiving!).

The Judge started by asking the devil to clarify what it was she was asking for. The devil reiterated that she wanted to be reimbursed for one-half of her 2010 extracurricular activities and school-related expenses. The Judge at least pretended to be confused by her ridiculous request: she made it clear that this is "not an issue of reimbursement"; that she would consider prospectively but not retrospectively. (That is: she would consider future expenses by establishing an order, but not past expenses by ordering enforcement of something that had not previously been ordered].)

The devil then complained that my husband has never reimbursed her for the children's school supplies expenses. The Judge (God bless her!) looked at the devil, dumbfounded, and said, "Isn't that what child support is for? It's not child support PLUS he buys everything for the children!" Priceless!!

In the end, the Judge dismissed everything that came out of that idiot's mouth. She did, however, order my husband to reimburse the devil for one-half of the children's future expenses related to their (non-existent) music lessons. (The devil had lied to the Judge by saying that she'd had to cancel the children's music lessons because she couldn't afford them...only they hadn't taken music lessons in months because they'd only just been dabbling in them and really didn't enjoy them enough to want to continue.)