Your Child’s Life After Divorce

Children can be really affected in the divorce process. You may be concerned about how to keep your child’s life as normal as possible and how you are going to manage that financially. There are many things to consider in limiting the changes to your child’s life after divorce. Here are a couple examples.

Work-Related Childcare

What happens to the costs associated with childcare for a couple’s child or children when both parents work outside the home and both parents are at work? Work-related childcare expenses are an included factor in calculating child support. The cost of regular, recurring childcare can be factored into the child support worksheet using the child support guidelines.

For instance, a child who’s not yet school age is in regular daycare and the weekly charge for daycare is a set amount. The amount of that recurring expense can be factored into the child support guidelines. In the case of multiple children who are at home with a caregiver – such as a nanny or au pair who helps care for them – the expense is a regularly occurring expense, and the parents can elect to apportion it based on their incomes with each paying their proportional share of the childcare expense.

Summer camp is another factor. School-age children might require before care or aftercare – and there could also be a component for summer camp. When both parents work outside the home, all of these things are paid in addition to the basic child support amount.

Child Medical Expenses

Oftentimes in divorce cases, there will be families that have extraordinary out-of-pocket medical expenses. Perhaps one of the children has autism or some other illness that requires regular medical attention. It could be for medications or special programs the child needs to attend. It could be speech therapy or occupational therapy, but the family knows they will continue to have these recurring costs monthly.

These considerations are above and beyond the child support calculation, and it’s very important that they’re quantified early on in the litigation so that a contingency plan is in place to ensure that the child receives uninterrupted services while the case is pending and post-divorce. Extraordinary medical expenses for a child with special needs is a very important consideration and you must work with your attorney to flesh out its financial impact.

If you have questions or concerns about your child’s life after divorce, contact New Jersey divorce attorney Tanya L. Freeman for a free consultation.

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