Not a yellow brick road

by Ferg
(Mississippi)

I have been fighting the child support system for the past 20 years. I’m nearing the end of my child support payments. I haven’t had any luck making any changes in my local jurisdiction. The politicians change too rapidly to get a good mental grasp on the situation and it ultimately turned out to be a waste of time and money.

I want everyone to know that the child support system has failed my family as well as many other families that I know. My ex-wife and I have never talked since we divorced 20 years ago. We are nothing more than enemies that used every chance that we got to lash out at each other through all channels of our legal systems and then afterwards press insults at each other when we each got in some good punches against each other or watched each other fail in life. Even though my family has stayed good friends with my ex-wife’s family, we all feel the tension that has built up over the past two decades.

My child has moved out of the state to attend college and pursue her degree and to get away from both of us. She disapproves of her mother’s behavior because of her wanting money from me and that it takes her out of college to testify in court. She has become aware that the mother is using the system to her advantage and realized that I was not there because the judge only gave me 4 days a month.

Four days a month didn’t really connect us enough to bring about the family bonds that other families share together and create those sentimental family values. Four days out of each month only gave me 48 days each year for the past 20 years. Many of those visitation days I spent working overtime to pay the bills..

So now after my daughter’s grandfathers have passed away, while we spent time tending to our court room battles and endless struggles to maintain a suitable household for the kids, I would like to be the first to thank the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Administration for Children and Families for strengthening our family through timeless efforts to live up to the promise of ’strengthening families’ and helping our daughter grow up in a happy household. Thank you very, very, much for making all of our dreams come true. I hope that you provide the same service for all upcoming generations with the same service that you have provided for my family.

Of course that is my sarcasm venting outwards, but these governmental entities won’t be offended by my losses or their reckless damage to real life family situations.

To everyone on this path, God Bless and God Speed each of you and your families through this painful journey. It is not a yellow brick road.