Punshing Dead Beat Dads Curbs Pregnancy
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Good Decisions, Social ProgramsApparently if you hold people accountable, they’ll stop being idiots.
From the AP:
SEATTLE (AP) - Tough child support laws may dissuade men from becoming unwed fathers, as states with the most stringent laws and strict enforcement have up to 20 percent fewer out-of-wedlock births, a new study shows.
Researchers at the University of Washington and Columbia University said Friday that child support laws’ power to reduce single parenthood is an unintended consequence of a policy designed to help children and cut public welfare costs.
Full disclosure, I’m the son of a deadbeat dad so this one hits particularly close to home. Hoo-ray!
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 23rd, 2005 and is filed under Good Decisions, Social Programs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 31st, 2005 at 12:36 pm
Dems should push stronger laws, including opening up Court ordered child support payments to enforcement by … the IRS.
July 20th, 2006 at 2:34 am
Pregnancy is like a boon for a married women. Pregnancy means a lot of joy for the women who is pregnant as she is about to deliver her offsprings. The excitement is quite different. The women began to take more care of them as their baby’s health who is inside the womd depends upon them. one can find helpful tips regarding pregnancy here.
November 26th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
I’m all for going after dead beat dads,. However pregnancy weather through mutual planned conception or unplanned isn’t going to change it from happening. When a man cares so little for a child he should be punish through the courts and even maybe let him experience the pain of birth and
pregnancy symptoms over a course of nine months. See if he then has a connection?
January 9th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Hi all of your readers.
I agree with your sentiments, although my kids have a great Dad, I would have want away Dads beaten up.
Your blog is excellent by the way, but I thought I’d share with you all the story of my biggest baby. It was our son Sam, and he’s now 9 but we will not forget the experience of his birth!
My husband Steve, and I already had 2 girls. Emily was 3 weeks premature and weighed in at 7 pounds 13 ounces. I guess the writing was on the wall then. Ellie came next and was actually a week late, weighing in at 9 pounds 6 ounces. (Steve was 11 pounds at birth by the way, and his mother never forgave him!) That may not sound a big deal to some but it was some feat of engineering to get her here.
Anyway, both births were normal deliveries and the girls were both fine. But we did panic about our third.
Sam came along, like most lazy boys, in his own good time. We begged the consultant (we are from the UK by the way) to induce me early but because there were no complications he wouldn’t have it. So we waited until a week after date and were called in.
I don’t want to panic mothers to be, and say right now that everything ended up fine in the end, but Sam was a 10 pounds 12 ounce baby, and had to be delivered Van Teuse (is that the right spelling?). For me, it was hard but I was full of drugs… legal ones by the way. But Steve suffered because he was the one having the conversations with the doctor and midwife. Not until about 2 weeks after we got home did he tell me how close we came to an emergency section. And then I realised why he was in bits at the time. Sam is now 9 as I said, and seems like a typical boy.
Holly followed later but this time we got the consultant to grant our wish and she was induced at term. Only 8 pounds 2ounces…phew!
What I would say to the mums and dads to be, while things can go wrong you are in the best hands and always go with what you are told. These great people have delivered more babies than we have had bowls of weetabix, so trust them and enjoy your experience.
There’s no more kids for us after Steve’s delicate operation! But we had the 4, we still have them, and fingers crossed they and their children will bring us joy for years and years to come.
Thanks
January 20th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
I suspect a lot of women trick men into having kids, so the woman can sponge of the man forever.
February 28th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
Paul, what a stupid comment do you really think child support does anything more than helps towards the child? my ex pays 448 for 2 children and now that I went forward to up support he quit his job and has paid only 224. And at one time my support was set at 75 dollars a month for three children. I’m not saying all fathers are like this but as a mother I don’t get to look at my children and say sorry no clothes, or no lunch or just your life is put on hold. or no going to the doctor this month. So if you think women look at men as in WOW if I have a child with you I’m living the good life you must be pretty sick in the head…because Do you really think 448 is taking from him forever? 1- they have received one birthday card and gift from him. Sad to which I to this day have held on to those cards knowing those will most likely be the only card they will receive from him.
March 15th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
I am in a siuation with a dead beat dad. He has never wanted to pay child support and even went to jail for not paying. Now bc he is upset that “I” have ruined his life for having our daughter he is trying to seek visitation so he won’t have to pay as much support. The judge in our case advised him to file. The DBD lied time and time again stating that he has tried to see my daughter and I didn’t respond. I recieved 3 phone calls and 1 selfish letter. Never once saying he wanted to see her. Only that he wantedd me to drop the support case.
The problems with the laws (I live in CA) are too many to write. Sure, he went to jail after 4 1/2 years of not paying and being warned for 1 1/2 years and they didn’t make him do the whole sentense, 10 of 55 days. Now he is trying to see a daughter who has know idea he walks around the earth.
If the courts and laws protect the best interest of the child, they wouldn’t wait so long to take action . They would prossacute them as strongly as rapist or murders. I say that bc the children are the ones who suffer for what the DBD does. One trip to jail comparied to a life filled with sadness, anger and unanswered questions on why the DBD didn’t want to take care of them. The children live a life sentese of that…Why shouldn’t the DBD? To know a child in this situation is to be one.
The laws are set to control the masses, not help the children of DBD.
And Paul needs to stop writing his thoughts down and probably stop being a Dead Beat Dad himself. Stop wasting time deffending your selfishness and become a person worth being! Only a DBD could make such a comment.