We did think of that, just one little glitch - the father of the eldest granddaughter. He has a very good job and comes from money. But he left the picture before "his daughter" was born and hasn't had contact since -- 10 years!!! As far as I know he never responded to the notice that we were getting custody, either.

The other "father" is even worse off with drugs, and he's almost always in jail. In addition he has two other kids. No hope of support there :-(

Here's the problem: If we file for child support, we're afraid he'll suddenly remember that he's "Daddy" and insist on visitation, etc. -- if not outright custody. According to NJ law we can terminate his rights because of the total lack of contact. But if we do that, no child support. Also, he would have little to no chance of gaining custody, and even visitation would require so much work on his part it wouldn't be worth it.

The other thing is that Pinky (my new name for the bio-mom) collected welfare forever, and they would have to be reimbursed before we ever saw a dime.

On the other hand, we may have to do it if the economy keeps getting worse.

I received child support yesterday on my gs. We have had him for 2 years and had not received anything but an occasional pack of pullups. She is ordered going forth to pay $550 a month in child support. We have to go back and determine the arrearage. I have court with the bio father in august, he to will have to pay an equal amount of child support unless he makes more money. I am not sure I will ever see this but it is nice knowing that they will have to have it deducted from their checks every where they work.

BTW if the bios do not pay the end up in jail. My gd bio spent 3 months in jail for failure to pay child support on his other 5 kids.

WOW - the mom only has to pay us $100 mo per child and she is behind 3 1/2 months. How far do they have to be behind before it is enforced? The father has to pay same amount that was awarded in his divorce proceedings.

Our problem is that Pinky is most likely still hooking, so there's no way to attach her wages. LOL

sara, attach her to a street corner and become the pimp lol you'll get way more support that way than the court system will give you.

There's a thought! LOL I bet they make good money -- tax-free -- and she is still attractive enough, although I haven't seen her in six months.

I just get this image of the courts walking up to a pimp and handing him paperwork to garnish her wages. HAHAHAHA!

Sara, I can only comment based on my experience, but I'd take terminating parental rights over child support ANY DAY. To date, after 4 years, I've seen about 400 dollars in child support. But I have, I am SURE spent more than that in gas, time and effort in trying to provide visitations, etc. Travelling, gas, food to and from. You name it. Then you get there and it's "Mom, I don't have enuf money to get home, can you give me 10 bucks for gas?". Besides that, from what I have seen, more often than not you end up fighting for every cent of child support you do collect. I've left that all up to the state through Kinship Care and have never regretted it. But if I could have parental rights terminated, I'd do it in a shot!

Amen to that, Granny!

Me Too!!!!!!!!!!!

The law or what they call the law is different in every state as far as if they don't pay child support they go to jail...My girlfriend received 1 check for the whole 18 years for 50.00 in Delaware they don't go looking for them if they don't pay. But in Maryland if you miss 3 child support payments they put a warrant out for your arrest and they will show up @ home / job / where ever and lock you up. Some times you get work from jail to pay it back and stay locked up til you make some progress. I know this because I still receive child support for my youngest or @ least should. My ex is in jail right now because he can't seem to pay for his son but he can blow his money on drugs and his girls...

I would look into your state law...like I said it differs from state to state.

Not sure if this was in another reply but if you file for TANF the state goes after them, the child can also get medicaid here at that point.