When parents in Wisconsin get a divorce, they need to come up with a good estimate of child-related expenses. This can be important in determining child support obligations. Unfortunately, people often forget about many of these expenses, particularly when trying to recollect their children’s schedules and other information during the stress of a divorce.
In some cases, looking back at a calendar provides the answer. It could provide information on when the child may have visited a doctor or therapist as well as easy-to-forget expenses such as traveling out of town for a child’s sporting event or buying birthday presents throughout the year for the child’s friends. A calendar might also give information on parenting time, which is one factor used to calculate child support. If parents disagree about a particular expense or part of the child’s schedule, reviewing the calendar for the past year may be the key.
Past calendars can be useful in determining spousal support as well. Both child and spousal support are supposed to help the recipients maintain a lifestyle that is similar to the one they had before the divorce. A calendar can provide information on outings and trips to restaurants that may be less memorable than the main family vacation.
The divorce process, including determining child custody, does not have to be adversarial. In some cases, exes will reach an agreement without going to court. Parents may need to decide whether they’ll share both legal and physical custody or share legal but not physical. Legal refers to a parent’s right to make major decisions for the child while physical refers to where the child lives most of the time. If the child is unsafe with one parent, that parent may not share either type. Legal counsel could provide valuable guidance in these cases.
