Posted on July 24, 2021 in Child Support

Children are, without a doubt, expensive to raise. If you’re paying child support, you may view your teenager’s upcoming 18th birthday with a sense of relief.

The issue may not be that simple, however. There are a few situations where child support can extend into a child’s adult years.

Three possible reasons your child support obligation may continue

Illinois law makes it possible for a court to order child support to continue into a child’s adulthood for several different reasons, including the following:

• Your child is still in high school: Not every student graduates shortly before or after their 18th birthday. If your adult child is still in high school, your obligation for support may continue until they graduate.
• Your child has a significant disability: If your child is mentally or physically unable to support themselves due to a condition that started when they were a minor, you may be required to keep paying support for some time — at least until they become eligible for other forms of financial aid, like Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

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 Posted on July 21, 2021 in Child Custody

Custody arrangements can be challenging to negotiate when divorced or separated parents live close to one another. An added layer of complication enters into the picture when parents live in two different states.

Lots of co-parents must contend with long-distance parenting issues when sharing custody. Could some of the child custody options they implement be of use in your cross-state custodial situation?

Common approaches to shared parenting across state lines

The prospect of negotiating child custody arrangements in the above-referenced situations may seem daunting — but it doesn’t have to be that way. There are creative approaches that many families employ in such situations.

One option parents often go with when it's too far for them to travel to see their child regularly is to make a point of visiting on holidays or during summer vacation when their kids have substantial free time. A parent in this instance may request more prolonged, uninterrupted stays with their child when they arrive in town during these times, even though the child spends the bulk of the year with the other parent.

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 Posted on July 12, 2021 in Divorce

Anyone who has to go through a divorce knows that it can be upsetting. Whether you’re dealing with an arrogant or self-centered spouse, trying to navigate how to afford your lifestyle following your divorce or dealing with custody issues, it can be overwhelming and upsetting to have to divorce.

Fortunately, there are some ways you can make divorce easier on yourself. Here are a few tips to help.

Know your budget and what you need out of your divorce

The first thing to do is to know your budget and what you absolutely need out of your divorce. That way, you’ll be prepared to negotiate for more but know when you can’t take less. This gives you the freedom to negotiate away some items while fighting for the assets you truly need.

Turn on your business mind

The next thing to do is to recognize that divorcing is a legal process. It’s time to turn on your business mind and to negotiate. Divorce terminates your marriage contract, so focus on keeping your property division, custody and support issues separate from the emotional issues of ending your relationship. Doing this will help you manage the legal aspects of divorce more effectively.

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 Posted on July 02, 2021 in Divorce

Has divorce been on your mind for a while now? Do you find your thoughts constantly drifting to what life would be like without your spouse underfoot? Would you rather be alone than spend time with your spouse?

Why, then, are you still married?

It isn’t unusual for unhappy couples to stick together long after a marriage sours. When freedom from one’s marital bonds is so easy to obtain in the era of no-fault divorces, what could possibly hold unhappily married couples?

It could be the sunk cost fallacy in action.

What’s the sunk cost fallacy?

Essentially, the sunk cost fallacy describes a tendency in human behavior to trudge ahead with a plan or a course of action long after it becomes apparent that the cost of doing so is outweighing the visible or known benefits. Why? Because you’ve already invested a lot of time, money or effort into the action already.

You often hear this term applied to poor financial decisions. Gamblers, for example, will sometimes wage one losing bet after another because they’ve already lost so much money that they are convinced their luck will change — or desperately hope it will, at least.

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 Posted on June 29, 2021 in Fathers' Rights

Not all relationships work out, but sometimes those relationships result in a child. Just because you are not in the other parent's life does not mean you cannot be involved in your child's.

Studies show children tend to be better adjusted when they have both parents in their lives. It's imperative that you know about your parental and custodial rights as a dad.

What your rights are as a father

If you are a biological parent of a child, then you have a legal right to custody or visitation. It is not required that the parents were married when the child was conceived in order to petition for custody.

Courts make decisions that they believe are in the best interest of the child, which generally involves both parents being in the picture. The only exception to this rule is if evidence comes to light showing otherwise, such as domestic violence or other potentially dangerous crimes.

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 Posted on June 17, 2021 in Divorce

One of the hardest things for a divorcing parent is knowing that your child will suffer. It can be easy to feel guilty about this and think that you need to make it up to them.

Divorce is a reality of life for many adults and many children. Your child will not be the first or the last to suffer because of it. While you should take steps to minimize the harm your divorce does to your child, you should not try to make it up to them by overindulging them.

Children might not appreciate your efforts to indulge them

A recent investigation asked adults to think back to episodes of overindulgence they had as children and asked how they had felt about it. It defined overindulgence as giving a child too much, whether that be attention or things, doing too much for them and allowing them to have life too easy. Here are the top five answers:

• 48% felt loved
• 44% felt confused
• 40% felt embarrassed
• 31% felt guilty, bad or sad
• 29% felt ashamed after initially feeling good

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 Posted on June 14, 2021 in Divorce

People who run a business sometimes find it hard to run a business while maintaining a happy married life. Balancing work and home life is tough, but failing to do so could lead to divorce.

Ideally, a spouse is treated like your best friend and top customer. They get priority over other things when they need support or help. However, finding time can be hard.

Some tips to help balance marriage and running a business include:

• Answering your spouse whenever they call or returning their calls as soon as possible.
• Remembering that the way you speak with your spouse will be reflected in how they treat you
• Investing in quality time together intentionally by setting that time aside

There are many situations in which these tips can help keep a marriage happy and balanced, but if you or your spouse find that the marriage is not going as you planned, then divorce could be an option.

What can you do if you want to end your marriage?

Sometimes, the reality is that you have to select your priority. If you are running a business that needs all of your time and effort and your relationship has problems, you may opt to refocus all of your attention on your business and end your marriage. If your spouse is always working and can’t seem to be on time or to make time for you, then you may decide that it is no longer worth waiting.

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 Posted on June 12, 2021 in Divorce

Unfortunately, one spouse telling lies about the other is a common occurrence in Wheaton, Illinois divorces. Examples include:

• He cheated on me through the whole marriage.
• She cannot stop drinking or taking drugs.
• He hits the children when I am out of the home.
• She yells at the kids and tells them they are useless.
• He forces me to have sex when I do not want to.
• She sells items from my sports memorabilia collection and pockets the cash.

Although these behaviors often fail to work out for the lying spouse, untruths can make an already trying time even worse.

Why would a spouse tell such terrible lies?

In most cases, your spouse wants to hurt you and your side of the divorce. Maybe your spouse does not want a divorce, and this is the only thing he can think of to delay the process. Regardless of the reason, we believe lying harms you in many ways:

• It can turn your family members against you.
• It can make a family court scrutinize your every move and the words you speak.

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 Posted on June 04, 2021 in Divorce

You think of divorce as something that will or will not happen based solely on decisions made by you and your spouse. No one else affects your odds of divorce.

But is that true? Or could outside factors play a role? For instance, say your own parents got divorced when you were a child, and/or your spouse’s parents got divorced. Does this increase the odds of divorce in your own life, even though your parents have nothing to do with the specifics of your relationship?

The odds are increased by 38%

It is true that adults with divorced parents face greater divorce odds. Researchers have even studied this phenomenon to the point that they claim that when one spouse has divorced parents, the odds of divorce go up by 38%.

Lest this be seen as an effect of having a single-parent upbringing, they also looked at cases where one parent passed away, thus ending the marriage. In these cases, divorce odds did not increase for the children in that family. This means that it is specifically having divorced parents that makes your own divorce more likely.

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 Posted on May 28, 2021 in Child Custody

One of the most difficult things about sharing custody with your ex is their constant involvement in your life. If you want to plan a weekend getaway, you have to communicate with them to let them know the kids won't be available to take phone calls that weekend.

If you want to completely change your schedule for the next two weeks, you may have to negotiate a temporary shift to your parenting plan or custody order.

Family law judges typically want to protect the relationships of each parent. Does that mean that your ex gets to decide whether you can move to Wisconsin to take a new job or move in with your parents?

If your ex approved it, that could help you

Any relocation outside of the state or more than a reasonable drive from your ex's house could affect your parenting plan. A major relocation is a significant change in circumstances that could justify a custody modification.

If your ex agrees that moving is good for you and will benefit the kids, the two of you can file for an uncontested modification that allows you to relocate with the kids. If they don't agree with you, then you will likely have to go to court.

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