Tucson Family Law Blog

A parent in Arizona who loses a job is not automatically allowed to pay less in child support. If the parent is eligible for unemployment, the unemployment office needs to be notified about the child support order. Child support payments will then be deducted from the unemployment benefits.

Some parents who become unemployed might not be eligible for unemployment benefits. In this case, the parent should not simply ignore the child support order while looking for a new job. Instead, the parent should keep communication open with the custodial parent and the family law court. The parent may need to ask for a modification in child support based on a change in circumstances. If the parent's child support payments are not lowered by a court during this time, the parent might need to pay extra after finding a job to make up missed payments.

When people in Arizona get a divorce, they may wonder how this could change their plans for their children's college education. A study by Ameritrade found that two-thirds of couples do not have a financial plan in case of divorce or death.

Divorce can be expensive, and it is costlier to maintain two households than one. Therefore, there may be less money available for college. Children may need to consider a state school instead of an expensive private institution. Scholarships, grants, loans and other forms of financial aid may be available to some. Usually, a parent cannot be compelled to pay for graduate school. Divorce agreements commonly specify a five-year limit for education costs.

Some marriages in Arizona may start with each person being on equal footing. Others may begin in a more traditional manner, where the husband is in charge of finances and earning money while the wife stays home with the children or has a job that pays less money. According to researchers in Sweden, if there is a change in the career trajectory of the wife in the latter scenario that leads to her earning as much or more money than her husband, that marriage could be more likely to end in divorce than one in which both people were equal from the start.

One issue is that women may put off their own career development in favor of relocating for their husbands' jobs and raising the children. When the women reenter the workplace or take on more responsibilities at work, husbands may not step up to take over the child care and household chores even if they cut back on their own hours. This can create resentment in women who are now juggling these tasks along with demanding careers.

Some Arizona parents who are getting a divorce might have heard about a practice called nesting. This involves the children remaining in one home while parents take turns living there with them. Nesting can help children adjust to the divorce, but it also requires a high level of cooperation between parents. Furthermore, it is important for children to understand that the arrangement does not mean parents will be getting back together.

Nesting is often more successful if the arrangement is temporary. For example, parents may plan to use this arrangement until a lease runs out or until they are able to sell a home. It may also be important for both parents to have a place of their own to retreat to when they are not in the home. A factor in one nesting arrangement that broke down was that while the father was able to go to his parent's house and have his own space when he was not in the shared home, the mother had to sleep on her sister's couch. There were also issues with the parents' schedules and the condition the house was left in.