Woman Asks Why There's ‘Zero Accountability’ For How Women Spend Child Support Money, But Men Get Wages Garnished
The cost of caring for a child is complicated.
Inna photographer/Sara Eaton - TikTok When it comes to co-parenting, the division of financial responsibility has always been a hot topic. The debate has pitted men and women against each other and led to heated exchanges about how much child support should be paid to the primary parent, and exactly how that money should be spent.
A TikToker by the name of Sara Eaton is clearly on the side of men when it comes to advocating for fairness in the distribution of child support.
She explained why she believes women need to be held accountable for the way they allocate child support funds.
Calling some moms "overspenders and irresponsible," the crux of her controversial opinion centers around the argument that men are held to strict standards when it comes to child support payments, but women who receive that money are not required to show any proof or breakdown of how they spend it.
She argues, "the interesting part about it is that a man ends up in jail over child support, [and] all the women crying about the pennies they get in child support get nothing." According to Eaton, that benefits no one.
Sara suggests that child support should be on a debit card so the payments can be tracked.
Her reasoning: to make sure that the child support money is only being spent on the needs of the child. She goes on to say that "plenty of women get loads of child support" for their kids, "but have nothing to show for it."
Eaton further claims that custodial parents are "financial abusers" who misuse funds meant to support their kids, thereby using the children to milk dads for all they have. She assumes that these moms are not reporting other sources of income like government assistance or even family help and essentially double-dipping for more money.
There is so much misinformation in this video as it relates to women receiving child support.
Let's start with the assumption that women are the only people awarded child support. Men are increasingly taking care of their children and receiving support as well. Second, suggesting that states require child support payments to be made on a debit card is not some groundbreaking aha moment since many of them already do. And anyone with any knowledge of the welfare and child support systems knows that they offset each other. When receiving assistance, support is reduced and the more child support you receive, the less assistance you qualify for.
The same applies to the allegation that women are making so much money and still collecting all of this child support. Custodial mothers only get an average of $4,800 annually in support. That's hardly a windfall. Also, the Employment Security Department gets job reports each pay period, and that information is shared with social services to determine your eligibility for government assistance, so it is virtually impossible to make a ton of money and still "rob" your child's father for support.
But most importantly, the argument disregards the actual purpose of child support.
One commenter pretty much summed it up saying, "If the child has a home, clothes, food, entertainment, medical care and a parent 24/7 then that’s the proof." All of the comments were along the same lines. A judge determines how much it costs to support a child and the money is viewed as reimbursement for covering the non-custodial parent's half of doing just that.
Sara seems to be ill-advised about the nature of, and procedures involved in paying and receiving child support. Moreover, she appears to have a strong bias against women who are the primary caretakers of their children, making you ask the question, "Who hurt you, sis?"
Of course, there are women out there who collect money while neglecting their children but those are not the norm. This narrative only serves to further deteriorate the ability for mothers and fathers to successfully and amicably co-parent.
NyRee Ausler is a writer from Seattle, Washington. She covers lifestyle, relationships, and human-interest stories that readers can relate to and that bring social issues to the forefront for discussion.