League City Family Law Blog

People in Texas who spend more time on social media might have unhappier marriages. This was the finding of a Boston University study that found a link between social media usage and the quality of marriages. While married and even when contemplating divorce, people should avoid posting negative things about a spouse online. They may want to consider reviewing past posts and privacy settings. They may also want to remove people from the contacts list who are likely to cause problems.

Once the divorce is underway, this policy of discretion should continue. It can be tempting to vent about a spouse, but this is best done to family and friends offline. If a couple is divorcing amicably, they might want to make an agreement about when they will announce it on social media. Parents who are concerned about the privacy of their children may want to include guidelines in divorce paperwork about discussing them or posting their photos on social media.

In Texas and across the United States, divorced parents do not always make the same child support payments. In fact, payments vary sharply depending on the state in which the divorced parent resides. For instance, a parent living in one of the Rocky Mountain states pays the lowest child support payments. However, a parent living in the Northeast pays the highest payments. Furthermore, some state laws do not count the divorced mother's income. Child support payments are $100 higher in these states.

According to research conducted by Custody X Change, a move of only 28 miles could change a parent's child support payments significantly. A parent residing in Bennington, Vermont, may need to pay $519. However, a parent residing in neighboring North Adams, Massachusetts, may pay as much as $1,187 in child support payments. A parent residing in Virginia may only pay $402 a month to support their child. Since states make their own legal regulations about child support, each state has different formulas for calculating the payments.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it supports child support cooperation requirements for people receiving support from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), often referred to as "food stamps." In order to receive SNAP benefits, the USDA is arguing that states should require SNAP recipients to cooperate with child support enforcement efforts. This can include requiring both custodial and non-custodial parents to make official agreements for child support as part of their eligibility to receive SNAP benefits.

There are around 40 million people across the country that benefit from SNAP. Around 37% of children in single-parent families live in poverty, and one contributing factor is a failure by the non-custodial parents to pay child support. Of course, poverty itself poses a challenge, as poor parents are both far less likely to have a child support order or agreement in place and far more likely to face difficulties in meeting their payment obligations. Studies estimate that there is a nationwide gap of $13.5 billion between what custodial parents should be receiving in child support payments and what they actually receive.

If the wife is the breadwinner in a marriage, it could put a strain on the relationship. In some cases, a relationship may be doomed before a couple is even able to get married if a woman makes more than her significant other. This is in spite of the fact that 38% of wives make more than their husbands according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A Harvard study found that couples are 33% more likely to divorce when the women is the primary earner in the relationship. This is partially because attitudes toward a man's role in a marriage have not changed while a woman's role has evolved in recent decades. A Pew study discovered that 40% of respondents felt that it was important for fathers to make money. Furthermore, 75% felt that women in the workplace made it harder for families to raise children.