I Am Entitled to it

After the POD incident and arguments, I was ready for a moment of peace. That is, until I saw the little piece of paper where she wrote:

Contact Betty Re $10K less income - child support


The meaning of this was instantly clear to me. She intends to bring me to court to have the child support I will pay adjusted upwards because she found a job that pays less. Yet, she hasn't even received her first support check yet because she hasn't moved out.

Our daughter will have two nice homes to live in, both provided by me, and will be well cared for. Additional child support is not really required. The ex just sees an opportunity to get more money for nothing.

All this is a problem because my latest budget figures show that I will be paying so much that I will not be able to keep the boat--and I wanted my daughter to grow up with a boat--and I may not be able to keep the house. That really sucks.

But she has taken the last husband to court many times before for additional support and she always wins, often without a lawyer. The most recent case is in court now. He now lives in a little apartment and eats soup for every meal.


On top of this, my ex tells me that our daughter has been saying bad things about Mommy and it must be coming from me. I must be telling her these things. And so my ex has now taped our daughter telling stories about Mommy, for use later. She expects to get the custody agreement changed as well. She did the same thing with the last husband and it worked.

Certainly I have told our daughter on rare occasions that I don't agree with something Mommy has done or said, but I always back that up with telling her that Mommy and Daddy may not agree, but they are always right (she hasn't discovered the flawed logic there yet). But I don't bad-mouth her as she alleges.

The situation seems to compound itself. At this rate, I may need to take my ulcer medicine every hour.

• She has taken an unfair amount of money for the house she never contributed to.
• She has taken an unfair half of my retirement savings.
• She will be getting a check from me for Child Support each month while living in the house that was bought with my money.
• And now she wants more child support and more time with the child.

When I asked her about it she admitted she is pursuing it. "Are you serious?" I said. "Are you going to spend your whole life living off of other people?" "You know, I can't afford to support you any more," I told her. After all, I have supported her and her daughter for 15 years while she collected child support from the last husband. (And now she is suing him for an increase too).

"I am entitled to it," she says with a certain sound of entitlement.

So there it is. It doesn't matter whether it is needed, or fair. She is entitled to even more of my money. And this amount may tip the scale, forcing me to sell the house I had built.

If she tries to cut my time with my daughter, however, there will be big legal problems, so I am meeting with my lawyer on Thursday to ask him some questions.