There are plenty of women all across the nation that do not receive custody, and therefore have an obligation to pay for child support. When they refuse to take care of this responsibility, they bear the same consequences that men do in such cases.

Both parents certainly share the responsibility to care for their children. In traditional divorces of the past, generally the mother did receive custody of the children, while the father paid child support and had visitation rights. In recent years, however, this has become less of a given than in the past. 

Recently, the news reported that a non-custodial mother had been given two concurrent five year sentences for refusing to make her child support payments. She pleaded guilty, but received a suspended sentence on the condition that she pay back her missed payments and keep making her regular payments.

This mother accepted the terms of the suspension and paid a lump sum of $5,000 to the children’s custodial parent. She has also added $270 per month to her regular payments. It is estimated that it will take a total of five years for her to pay the entire amount of her back payments. After her sentence ends, the court will continue to supervise her so that she makes the rest of her regular payments as required by the original divorce settlement.

This situation shows how crucial child support is for a family’s economic situation. It matters little if the non-custodial parent is male or female. The children bear the brunt of the non-paying parent’s irresponsible actions. Many Florida non-custodial parents, however, do work hard every month to make the child support payments on which their children depend for bare necessities. It is never easy, but the reward lies within their knowledge that their children are receiving their full support.