Happy Election Day Peeps! First off, a PSA—PLEASE make sure you get out there and make your voices heard, too much is at stake if you don’t!

Second, I saw this letter on a FB page and it REALLY rubbed me the wrong way: if you are a parent, you already know how time-consuming and expensive it is to take care of children, but those who don’t seem to have no idea how many resources it takes to do so properly on a regular basis, otherwise you wouldn’t see letters like this one……

“I am married to a man who pays child support. He is a good father and the chick plays games with the child by putting things in the child’s head, and not answering the phone at court ordered times he is supposed to be able to call. We have gone back and forth to court but she is money motivated period. Her hair and nails be done his kid be looking a mess. My question is why do these women think it is OK to live off child support. You layed down you had a kid that baby is not your meal ticket. Does anyone else have these types of problems.”

O…..kay, here we go: since ‘mess’ is subjective, I won’t even delve into that point—there is a difference, after all, between a kid not being ‘dipped’ and a kid being outright unkempt/nasty—but I DO want to call out is this presumption from others that we women who receive child support are flossing out-of-control and pampering ourselves as the children we are raising watch from the sidelines hungry, naked and @$$-out. SERIOUSLY?!?

Unless the child’s mom is unemployed, how is she NOT already contributing to his/her care? Is she getting top-dollar lacefront wigs and gel manicures every other week, or is Stepmother simply salty about this woman doing ANYTHING to care for herself while parenting at the same time (hello, ‘mother’ and martyr’ are 2 different things)? Keep reading for my response and if you also feel some type of way about this presumption, leave a comment below and sound off!

“I divorced my son’s father and also receive child support on a monthly basis. There ARE extreme examples of women/men caking up off the money and doing it plush, but unless your man is Diddy or some other mega-baller, I’m sure that if you take the amount he’s paying and divide it by 30 days, it barely amounts to what it would take to fill your gas tank for the commute to and from work, much less enough to ‘live on!’
If your stepchild’s mother is continually in contempt of the visitation order, I would suggest you and Hubby start a paper trail of her BS, take it to court and this time, file for primary custody. THAT should straighten her up, esp. if the tables turn and she’s made to pay rather than you husband. What will also happen is that you will realize what a mere PITTANCE child support is for the non-custodial parent no matter what the dollar amount, esp. when considering the time it takes to raise, feed and care for a child’s needs as well as their own 24/7. Good luck with all that……”