Lets say there is a case where a mother works and the father doesn’t work. The father gave up his profession so that he can take care of the children, and the mother works all day to support the family. As the kids grow up and leave home the mother finds that the father doesn’t do much of anything and justs spends “their” money and doesn’t bring any income in. The mother finds this irritating and sees that the behavior continues after she had continuously told him to get a job. The mother wants to divorce him, but she is afraid that she will have to pay him money that he does not deserve. She has a catch 22 situation, on one hand, if she doesn’t divorce him she still has to pay for everything and put up with his disrespect. On the other hand, if she divorces him, she will have to pay for other family expenses and plus alimony. She had thought that she would support the family while he took care of the kids and after the kids were gone, that he would get a job and contribute to help pay for college, household necessities, and retirement. She wants to divorce him, but is it fair that she has to pay him money for doing nothing? He doesn’t do anything all day long, and if the mother divorces him, he will continue to get her money. What should she do? Government statistics show that one third of the primary incomes of families comes from women now a days.
will the judge be biased, will he think that since the man is usually the breadwinner, the primary moneymaker in the family, that he is entitled to less money as if the situation was reversed and it was the wife staying at home while the husband worked? In this case, the husband should be treated as if he had a very hard job working 24 hours day with the children. I think the law should acknowledge that this husband has worked at a difficult job and has contributed to the family. Had he not done this job they would have to pay for a nanny or a housekeeper. His contribution to the family is financially valuable; he should be paid a salary (although there is no one to make this payment). If they do move forward with the divorce is it fair that the judge should simply split their savings and not give the husband any alimony while he tries to train for a job outside the home. Its now time to try and put aside our expectations as to who is the breadwinner and who should stay home with the children, and we should also try to consider the contribution of the stay at home parent to be a financial contribution equal to the breadwinner.
1 comment:
Hey Ariel!
That was a great blog! You have some really interesting thoughts. Does the father take care of the kids when he is home? And does he schedule appoitments and clean the house and stuff? Because if he does, then it is fair. But if he literally sits around and does nothing, then it is not fair. For instance, my mom does not work, but the household could not function without her. My dad provides the family with money, and my mom provides the family with basically everything else. It is a very interesting and contriverseral situation.
Post a Comment