Last Child Support Payment

[Axtremus]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/06/10/pennies-child-support-avery-sanford/

Avery Sanford was days away from graduating from high school in Virginia when her estranged father emptied a trailer containing 80,000 pennies onto the front lawn of her home last month.


“My mom came out and was like, ‘What are you dumping in my yard?’ ” she told WTVR. “She didn’t know who it was until he shouted, ‘It’s your final child support payment.’

”
Devastated by her dad’s display, Sanford, 18, her mother and several friends picked up the tens of thousands of pennies and wondered what they should do next. Their answer: Donate the $800 in coins to a domestic abuse center.
…

[Copper]

$4 every four weeks
for your first year

[Mik]

What a jerk.

[brenda]

Nah, he's not bitter, not at all.

Good luck having any relationship with your daughter, dad.

[Loki]

Is there any scenario where there would be some sympathy for him…the question is whether there is anything his former wife could have been doing that would mitigate the perception of “jerkness”?

[Catseye3]

@loki I had the same thought, Loki. Like maybe the child support burden had been unreasonable for too many years, or the wife was a superjerk. Or maybe the wife and the daughter, both.

[Horace]

@loki said in Last Child Support Payment:

Is there any scenario where there would be some sympathy for him…the question is whether there is anything his former wife could have been doing that would mitigate the perception of “jerkness”?

characterizing a bucket of pennies as a trailer full?

[Mik]

@loki said in Last Child Support Payment:

Is there any scenario where there would be some sympathy for him…the question is whether there is anything his former wife could have been doing that would mitigate the perception of “jerkness”?

I don't think so. His daughter did not know who he was. At 18. Had he wanted a relationship with her he could have had it, even if he had to fight for it. I would have.

[Jolly]

Maybe.

I have seen some absolute horrible divorces. I have seen mothers try to get sexual molestation charges lodged against a father for pure spite. I've seen a mother call a dad to come over, wait until she sees his car and then call the cops...That's followed by a restraining order against dad.

I would hate to be a family court judge...

[brenda]

Even in terrible situations of family disputes, there is usually the option to walk away without hurting the child, and finding some later time, even if years later, to reconnect with the child. Emotions run hot in these things, and he may have lost sight of his desired future with his child, or maybe he never wanted one.

[Loki]

I was as horrified as others as to the action, I just wondered if there was a case to be made.

[Horace]

I suspect there are two sides to the story. And he did after all pay the money, apparently, though with an exclamation point with the last payment.

[Jolly]

Lots of guys don't pay. This guy did, albeit in a horsey way.

Yes, there are two sides here.

[brenda]

It may be that both parents are less than stellar, or that the mother created the mess that led to this. Either way, the child should not have been put in this situation. Public humiliation and rejection by a parent are hard to forget.