Mother is not forced to pay anything

by Brian Bouchard
(Renton, WA)

My ex-wife decided not to be a mother for the last 5 years. She was granted custody and child support during our divorce 7 years ago but decided to let her mother (grandmother) raise our son. According to our son, he would visit his grandmother during his mother's weekends and one weekend he never went home. Everyone in her family decided not to let me know. In fact, my son told me after he was living with his grandmother for over a year and a half. I asked his mother and she said it wasn't true. I begged his grandmother to come forth so that she would receive the child support instead of his mother. She refused, most likely since the custody papers explicitly stated that he was not to spend the night at her home (a drug addicted son lives with her).

Now, the mother decided it was time to up my child support since our oldest son was emancipated (long story but he lived with me for the last two years before emancipation). I was able to show the court that our youngest son did not live with his mother and got affidavits from both of our sons. She finally admitted it to the court in writing.

The courts decided what we both owed for child support and since it was out in the open now it was going to be paid to the grandmother. I was asked when the new order should begin and I told the court it was up to them as long as the mother was to pay back her share equally.

Today I found out that the mother doesn't have to pay anything because her mother (grandmother) wrote a letter to DSHS forgiving her (my ex) of any child support responsibility.

My question and angst is that she can walk away without having any financial responsibilities. Is this right?