Divorces are always tough, but they get infinitely more complex when kids are in the picture. After finalizing their divorce, one mother discovered that her ex would be shelling out a large sum in child support payments each month. To make sure she had some financial security, she chose to keep this money in a separate savings account. The online community is blasting the mother for not using the child support money to provide her son a better life, instead of just saving it for an emergency.
“So, my ex gives me a generous amount of child support every month, and I use about 20-30% of it may be,” she said. “I’m very good at budgeting since my mum raised me on her own, and we always stuck to a strict budget. My ex grew up being overindulged and knowing he would never have to worry about money in his lifetime, so we have different ideas of what living cheaply looks like.”
While the mother may be acting in a logical manner, she should instead utilize child support payments to provide her son with the best possible life. Alternatively, she might invest the money in his college education later on in life.
“Recently, my ex wanted to have a word with me because he didn’t like the fact that I made our son walk home from school,” she stated. “He wanted to know why I wouldn’t buy a car and offered me money to get one when I told him cars were expensive, and I thought it was a waste of money. I told him no since I would rarely use it.”
Since her son is only four years old, the car would be for mom’s use only, and not for her son.
“He then told me to take an uber home instead of making him walk,” she continued. “Again, I told him, no, and he brought up all of the other ways he thought I was making our son’ live cheaply’. For example, I didn’t buy him new football boots or a goal when he started getting into football (he is only 4), I buy him ‘cheap’ clothes, I rarely take him to eat out, and if we go to a toy shop, I only ever let him get one thing, and it can’t be super expensive.”
Then, mom elaborated on where the money goes.
“My ex wanted to know what I was using all of the money he gave to me on if I was raising our son like this, so I explained I never used most of it but kept it in a separate account for either a rainy day or for our son,” she stated. “Now he’s angry at me for making our son’ live cheaply’ and essentially told me to stop saving and actually give our son the things he wants now because he had already made sure our son would be fine in the future.”
