New Jersey is again trying to find a way to punish fathers for not paying support. The ideas abound - take away drivers' licenses, professional licenses, put in jail, garnish wages, intercept IRS returns, etc.
Perhaps it is time to work toward prevention instead of a cure. There are always going to be "Deadbeat Dad's," but not all fathers with a support problem fall into this category.
Fathers being denied visitations with their children and who are finding absolutely no help anywhere are going to try and use support as a means to an end. It does not work. The result is jail. After many frustrating years of going through the court system and still being denied the right to be a part of their children's lives, Father's get tired and bitter. If they give up, their children will turn around and some day wonder why their Father did not try harder to be there for them. "If you really cared, you would have been there!"
Dad cannot work it out, if Mom says NO! If a custodial parent decides that a non-custodial parent is not going to see their child, they will not. All the court orders in the world cannot make this happen. You can pile court orders on top of one another and nobody cares. The police will simply tell you it is a civil matter, "Go back to court." Meanwhile, the children are not seeing their Father and Mom has lots of time to create a mindset against Dad.
New Jersey is also trying to initiate a pre-divorce custodial agreement, to settle custody/visitation issues before the divorce is final. Putting the children first in a divorce would be a refreshing change.
There are very strict quidelines for support, there are no such guidelines for visitation. The inequity between how the court system handles visitation and support issues is blatant.
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MOTHER'S RIGHTS ARE ASSUMED, FATHERS HAVE TO FIGHT FOR THEM
