Last month, I learned that my husband of ten years had not paid the mortgage on our family home in an entire year.
Had he been ill? Unemployed? Disabled?
None of the above.
Baby Daddy makes $80k/year at a swanky corporate job, drives a phat F-250 and has a weakness for premium cable – among other things.
He’s also (prepare for massive understatement) fiscally challenged. I’ve known this for several years, it’s a big reason he finally had to hit the door, so I shouldn’t be surprised that he’s having a tough time providing $1,000/month to keep the lights on and the kids fed.
I feel you, BD. It must be tough paying Baby Mama to stay away from you, but it’s time to take it like a man and admit that you’re hurting your kids more than your ex by withholding child support payments and backing her into a financial corner.
Because children who grow up in poverty fare significantly worse than their more economically secure counterparts on nearly every indicator of child well-being. And the effects of child poverty go beyond the individual child. Estimates suggest that the U.S. economy loses $500 billion each year due to the costs associated with child poverty.
And in our state, 34 percent of families headed by single women and 15 percent of families headed by single men live in poverty, compared to just five percent of married couples. Single mothers with very young children are the most at risk. Forty-two percent of single mothers with children under five are living below the poverty line.
In our own community there are nearly twice as many families headed by single parents than in the rest of Seattle, and more than 40% of Rainier Valley children live in poverty.
According to Nelson Mandela, overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.
So pay up, “Daddy”.
While she once considered divorce a failure, South-End Single Mom now realizes that freedom is only possible with the release of dead weight. Her column is a hat tip to the more than 20% of Rainier Valley households that are headed by single parents (nearly double the rate of single parent families throughout Seattle) in one of the poorest communities in King County. Email her with your south-end tales of single-parenting victories, disasters and everything in between.
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