by Ryan Arduini

Created on: February 12, 2009

I have a wonderful 9 year old son that I love very much. Since the day he was born I have paid child support in some way either directly to his mother or to the state which is required in the state of Illinois. Now I have had my ups and downs with the child support system in Illinois. At times when I was out of work unable to pay my debt would just keep mounting up even though his mother concerned with being paid since I was sincerely looking for work and spending time with my son. Another problem I have with the child support system is the fact that after giving my son's mother a largesum of money to invest for my son the state wanted to take that money for some past due child support even though I was paying monthly at the time plus interest on the past due. These are some of the issues I had with child support enforcement in Illinois. I still pay child support and have finally gotten some of the bugs worked out. This all being said there are many fathers out there that refuse to pay. This makes it harder for fathers that are doing the best they can to pay.

For almost 2 years now I have been in a relationship where I have inherited three step children ages 2,4, and 6. I love my fiance's and her three children very much and we are getting married very soon. There are not many drawbacks in our relationship except for the support her ex-husband provides for the kids. Granted he sees them when he is supposed to but even then he makes that hard sometimes. To this day he his well over $15,000 behind in child support and has paid a total of less than $1000 in over 2 years.

Being a father that pays child support and is also supporting three step children anyone can see why this would make me so upset. In my fiance's ex-husbands case the state of Illinois has done nothing to pursue him because he doesn't keep a job. However, they've come after people like me with a vengeance who over a 9 year period has been past due for a low amount and continues to pay as long as I am working. As of today I am injured and receiving Workman's comp and child support is even coming out of that.

The child support enforcement agencies need to start cracking down on the real deadbeats. The ones that refuse to even get a job to keep from paying. My father did this to my mother growing up and my fiance's ex is doing the same to her as well as many, many others out there.

One of the very sad things about this whole mess is that the children really know that this goes on. My mother didn't tell me how my father dodged child support until I was an adult. She didn't want us kids to hate our dad or think bad of him. This is the case for so many mothers. They have to deal with the burden of doing the right thing while these fathers get to have no burdens whatsoever.

To me this is one of the saddest issues in our great country and nobody seems to have any answers. During elections you never hear this issue being brought up by any of our so called elected officials. Not when running for office or when they are in office.

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