Child Support And Neglect

Pennsylvania- My brother pays child support for his three children; however, his children are not the recipients. The mother appears to spend the money on herself and leaves the children to wear shoes with holes to school. To make matters worse the children are neglected at their mother's home. They are banned from bathing more than once a week, and they are constantly watched by a babysitter. The youngest child started school this past year but has not received any of her vaccinations. The mother, who is a school teacher and has received all of hers, claims religious reasons. My brother does not have the funding to take their mother to court. Is there anything that can be done to help the children? How can my brother ensure that the child support money is being spent appropriately?

Call your form of child services. Usually, the payer of support has no say in how the money is spent. However, if child services finds that the kids are being neglected, then it may be a whole different ball game.

My brother has shared custody with his ex-wife. Does this make any difference?

It does make a difference if he has shared legal custody. In that case, he has the right to share in any decision regarding the children's medical care.

Even though I am a woman it upsets me to know that men have so few rights as a parent. My oldest brother has custody of his daughter. However, this was granted only after he proved the mother unfit and incapable of raising their daughter. Why do men have to prove that their love and parental capabilities are stronger than the mother's? Why haven't the courts realized that in many cases a father's love and bond with his children is equally powerful and existing? (As a mild feminist this is also upsetting, because it defines and limits women to the role of mother and suggests that she is unable to provide for her children as primary caretaker) I apologize for venting.

Anyways, my question is this:

Since my brother has shared custody of his daughters, he has the right to take them over the summer. This has been impossible since he works, and the children will be not attending school [B]then. However, he recently got married, and he is now able to take the children. Is he still responsible to pay child support to the mother during those summer months? Or, is he entitled to child support from the mother?

Also, with regards to the earlier question of neglect:

The problem with contacting the local child services revolves around my ex-sister-in-law's reputation with the community. We live in a small rural community, and her family is fairly well off financially. She is a well-respected teacher in the community and leader in her small-town church. Because of her status, few people acknowledge or care to comment on her neglectful behavior. *She once left my three-year old niece in the tub with the water running while she got herself around for school. My nieces reported the incident to my brother. Apparently the water became so high that it was up to my nieces chin, and it overflowed out of the bathtub.

[QUOTE=distressed aunt;168805]
Since my brother has shared custody of his daughters, he has the right to take them over the summer. This has been impossible since he works, and the children will be not attending school [B]then. However, he recently got married, and he is now able to take the children. Is he still responsible to pay child support to the mother during those summer months? Or, is he entitled to child support from the mother?

Does he have shared physical custody or shared legal custody?
In most cases of shared physical custody the order spells out who has custody when - for example every other weekend or X number of weeks in summer - etc.

Are you saying that the father was supposed to take the kids in summer yet he has never exercised this right until now? Then the mother could have asked for additional child support for the months she was sheltering/feeding etc. when he should have been doing so. It sounds as if she did not. CS is calculated based on the time spent taking care of the kids. Although it does not change month by month - the summers should have been averaged in to the yearly total for the original court order for support.

Regarding child protective services - they are obligated to investigate regardless of the mother's reputation in the town.

Let me clarify the situation. My brother has shared legal custody. He pays child support year-round. He has not exercised his right to take the children over the summertime; however, he does have that right. Because of his financial situation he works full-time and over-time just to remain financially stable. Working this much makes it difficult to exercise his right to take his children full-time over the summer, since the girls will be out of school for summer vacation. But again, he pays child support year-round and would be obligated to do so during the summer, no matter if he has them or not.

According to the court order, he is not obligated to take his children more than every other weekend. However, because he has shared legal custody, he is given the option to take them over the summer. But again, child support payments make it financially difficult to care for them over the summer as he will be the primary caretaker for those months and still pay child support to the mother (the CS which is calculated according to every other weekend visitations.

If he is seeing them less than every other weekend then he would probably pay more in child support. How old is the CS order?

He sees them at least every other weekend. Why would he owe more when he has never missed a visit? In the beginning he saw them more. He would drive the 45 minutes to their house everyday, feed them, get them dressed, and drive them to school while their mother slept. This was never worked out in the CS. He did this on his own free will out of love for his children. The only time he "has" to take them and does take them is every other weekend.