Should You Support Your Parents?

Image via WikipediaIf you are financially well off, should you support your parents? If you live in Pennsylvania and the courts consider your parents destitute, there may be no question. Pennsylvania still has laws on the books which obligate children who are financially able to do so to support their parents who cannot support themselves.

How do you feel about this? What if your parent had a gambling problem, or problems with drug and alcohol abuse? Should you be obligated to take care of them when they've spent all their money?

PA Elder, Estate & Fiduciary Law Blog: "Filial Support" in PA? Really?!?

Presumption of paternity can trump DNA tests for non-dads (phillyBurbs.com) | Pennsylvania News

"Remember whose ox is getting gored here," she says. "Who is the one who is going to suffer? The child."

'Presumption of paternity' can trump DNA tests for non-dads (phillyBurbs.com) | Pennsylvania News

The problem is, Spaid infers that the child support is all about the mother. It's not - it's about the child. Where are all these case where mothers are getting independently wealthy because of the chid support they receive? Where are all these mothers are living the wealthy life while their children are in rags? They are overwhelming overshadowed by the stories of mothers struggling to cover basic needs because the support they receive is far too little, if they receive it at all. They are overshadowed by stories of men who, like Spaid, apparently, under-report their income or claim no income at all in order to get out from under their obligations to feed, clothe, and educate children they are responsible for.

Where is his anger directed? At his wife, and at this child. Where should his anger be directed? At the man who, most likely, knowingly slept with and fathered a child by another man's wife. And who should have been taking responsiblity for his actions.

That's the person Spaid should be going after - and he should be getting every penny of the child support he paid back from the man whose obligation is was to be paying it. So why isn't Spaid angry at him?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Enough

Damn, I just love reading Candi's rants. She really lets it fly. He recent posts about guns and crazy mothers were pure screamers.

Take responsibility for your fuck-ups. Any way you want to word it. Pass the buck all you want to - it eventually comes back and lands right in your lap anyway. Stop blaming things on stress, or bad laws, or a lousy childhood. Wake up and pay attention to your family, your neighbors, your co-workers, your friends. How can we be a society with so much to offer but at a loss to locate our basic humanity?

Take the Yates case. What in the world is this women who is so obviously unable to cope doing with five children? After she attempted suicide after the 4th child, did her husband think another one was going to make it easier? Did she need to put up a billboard? This woman was rapidly spiraling downward while her husband sat in the blissful ignorance of his own making.

Yes, what she did was horrible. She should had said "Listen, bud, I'm going to work for awhile. You take care of the kids. And I don't mean a few minutes of basketball. I mean 24/7. Diapers, vomit, tantrums, the whole bit. Have a ball. Just leave me alone."

My guess? He wouldn't have lasted a week.