My daughter visits her grandmother (On her father's side) every other week or so.

I end up getting a call from my baby's father. He told me "She's with my mom a lot, I'm going to call child support and tell them. Expect a decrease in your payments"

Can that happen? And does my daughter "visiting" her grandmother count as her father "having her". When I drop her off at her grandmother's house, my daughter stays with her and not her dad. Sometimes she's at her grandmother's for a week. But her dad only comes to see her once or twice (If he has time).

And another question, me and my daughter recently moved out into our own place. And now I'm paying rent. Do I have to call child support to let them know? And does that count as a change in income? And can my child support be modified because of this?

Thanks!

Please note* The reason why my daughter gets dropped off at her grandmother's is because her grandmother would call me and ask me if she could see her. And since they are close, I can't say no.

quote:

Originally posted by crittlecakes:
[qb] My daughter visits her grandmother (On her father's side) every other week or so.

I end up getting a call from my baby's father. He told me "She's with my mom a lot, I'm going to call child support and tell them. Expect a decrease in your payments"

Can that happen? And does my daughter "visiting" her grandmother count as her father "having her". When I drop her off at her grandmother's house, my daughter stays with her and not her dad. Sometimes she's at her grandmother's for a week. But her dad only comes to see her once or twice (If he has time).

And another question, me and my daughter recently moved out into our own place. And now I'm paying rent. Do I have to call child support to let them know? And does that count as a change in income? And can my child support be modified because of this?

Thanks! [/qb]

Welcome, Crittlecakes.
Here in California, rent doesn't enter the picture where child support is concerned. They look at the paychecks of both parents and plug it into a formula. It might differ where you are. Contact your District Attorney's office - they should be able to tell you.
Regarding the baby's grandmother: Let the grandmother go through her son. That will put a stop to all of that talk about a decrease. If you feel the grandmother will not be able to see your child because her son doesn't make it happen, make the grandmother come to where you and the baby are.

Hi crittlecakes, good to see another Solano County member

It's true that only income will be used to determine support, not expenses. I would definitely call child support services and ask about the grandmother thing, explain that it's not routine, and it's her asking you to visit with her granddaughter. They can modify support based on significant change of time spent with either parent. I take it they aren't even in the same house? I just don't know for sure what they'll say about grandma time. When you get child support service's interpretation of that please update here so it could be of help to others.

Don, do you think that a week at a time might mean a change in living arrangements for the child? Would grandma have to have some kind of custody for that to happen?

I had a severe change in my daycare costs, and took dad back to court for a modification. He counteracted trying to lower the payment amount because he earned less at his new job.

I was denied, since his income hadn't increased. He was denied because he had "earning potential".

BTW crittlecakes, welcome, and HOW LUCKY YOU ARE to have a good support system for you!!! Grandmas rule.

leftover, I just know I've seen Cali child support do some whacky things over the years. I hate to even guess what they might say on this. I mean apparently this time she is with grandma, the father barely even comes by. But they'll also look at that the child also isn't with the mother for this time as well, and it just so happens to be with his family. They could come up with their own story to tell CSS, for example that he IS spending much of that time with her over there. Even with it being at grandma's house she wouldn't need to be claiming any sort of "custody" for it to change the finances. Since it's about support and the formula just breaks it down to percentage of time with mom vs with dad regardless of who has custody on paper.
It's hard to say from the post exactly how much time the daughter is spending away at grandma's......every other week-a week at a time? Just a day visit here and there? Just how many days a month does the child really stay with grandma. If this is indeed a week at a time, every other week that's substantial. Then it's just a matter of how they view the fact that it's at his mom's house. That's the part I really don't want to guess at, especially since they could too easily state that he is spending that time with her there.

About your modification, that sounds familiar, as I said it's based on incomes not expenses. And him losing out on a modification I've seen it based on "potential" instead of "actual" a lot. In fact 18 years ago when I first got involved in paying child support, my middle daughter, they were calculating my child support. During the whole case, long paternity case w/lots of drama, for one month's time I had gotten a temporary job that was paying me $2 more an hour than I was typically making. That temporary job ended I went back to my typical job and wage, yet my child support was based on that temporary job's wages. They said I had the "potential" to make the higher wage.

MI does the same with potential income. Because some parents would take a job making less money so they wouldn't have to pay as much support as was ordered.
In MI child support will be lowered if the child spends more than X number of nights with the other parent. But this X number of nights would be part of court ordered visitation, not nights spent visiting Grandma or going on vacation with an Aunt.
The best thing to do would be to call and find out your States rules.

My daughter doesn't go to her grandmother's house every other week. Sometimes she goes there one week out of the month...sometimes 2 weeks...sometimes 3 days out of the month...it varies. She only visits her grandma whenever her grandma is available.

My daughter's father recently called me AGAIN threatening to report to child support services claiming that "He had her for a week". Which is BS because he didn't "have her", his mom did.

Tell him to go ahead and try.. Then give him the number to the child support office. They'll run him so many hoops he'll probably give it up after a day. (I see your in CA, I hear they are miserable to work with).

quote:

Originally posted by leftover:
[qb] (I see your in CA, I hear they are miserable to work with). [/qb]

Got that right. And Solano County at that. :badday:

LOOK, DON! That raincloud matches your hair!

I thought Contra Costa County was bad! I recently moved to Vallejo (Solano County).