FOTC, Friend or Foe?

Today's blog is about the importance of staying married. And not for the reasons you are probably thinking (vows, God, children, love, etc.)... If you get married you should stay that way and not get divorced, because when you get a divorce you are forced to deal with the people at the Friend of the Court. These people are awful, I am sure there may be 5 people there that are nice, and know what the hell they are doing... But I have never spoken to any of these 5 people, so for now, everyone there sucks! When my ex husband and I decided to get a divorce we said that we didn't want any child support from one another. We both would pay for things for Olivia when we had her. She would stay on his insurance because well, simply put, it's FAR better than mine. And if he needed money towards any medical bills or anything of that nature, I'd pitch in. This was genius, so we thought. We had no idea there would be so much paperwork just to "opt out" of the court system. Now, paperwork is not my complaint, I understand there is paperwork and time spent on everything. That's just how the world works, it's filled with papers and time consuming phone calls and meetings. My complaint is that we've been divorced now "officially" for almost 4 years and I am still having to call the Friend of the Court because they have messed so many things up. First, they had my daughters last name wrong and her birthday in 2001. I was in high school in 2001, I didn't have a baby. She wasn't born until 2003, and her last name has always been Mikan, way to go Friend of the Court. So after my ex and I both called several times and filled out new paperwork for it, it took them 3 years to get her name right. Next complaint, they have been taking money out of my paycheck, over half of my money by the way, and before that, my entire check. This was supposed to be for child support, I know what you're thinking, "but didn't you say that you opted out, and weren't paying support", yup! They just decided for what ever reason, they would take money from me. The money isn't even going to my ex, either. We have no clue where this money is going, and they haven't told me, either. Every time I call them, they claim that this is taken care of and that my balance is $0. Unfortunately, this is not true, because we are going on month 5 of me having my checks cut in half. The Friend of the Court is now telling me that money is going towards "child care". My daughter doesn't get child care, she's almost 7 years old and goes to public school, all day long. When she's home from school, she's with me, my ex, or our families. So who am I paying this "child care" to, and what for? Have I mentioned that every SINGLE time I call my caseworker to address the situation, she doesn't answer her phone. I leave her several messages a day and I get no returned phone calls. Recently, I was able to talk to someone higher up and they told me that they would be sending me paperwork to fill out (oh joy) to get this fixed. It took over a week for me to get that "paperwork", and when it got here, it was wrong. Or at least it looks wrong. So here I am again, calling and calling, in an attempt to get this stuff fixed. You know, this would've been so much easier if the person who first took our case did their job correctly! In conclusion, if you get married and decide to have children, don't get divorced!

Tomorrow's blog--Customers at my restaurant!