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You and your wife decided to end your marriage. You went through the divorce process, reaching a settlement on your assets, children and financial support obligations. You’ve been meeting your end of the deal and supplying the court ordered amount in child support, until now. You’ve experienced a change in circumstances and can no longer afford to keep paying so much. Your ex believes that support and custody are intertwined and is now refusing to let you see your kids. What can you do?

It doesn’t matter if you live in Louisiana or elsewhere, child custody and child support are separate issues. Your ex cannot refuse to let you see your children during your scheduled time just because you are struggling to meet your financial obligation.

Options for dealing with the child support aspect of the issue

If you can’t meet your child support obligation, there are some things you can do. You can either:

• Work out a new support order with your spouse and submit it for court approval
• Request an official modification in court

Either way can result in creating a support order that better fits your budget. If you are on bad terms with your ex, going to court may be the only way to resolve the issue.

Options for dealing with the custody aspect of the issue

Whether you are working on figuring out the support aspect of this issue or not, you can take steps to address the custody aspect of the problem. If you have court ordered visitation or shared custody, your ex cannot keep you from seeing your children. If she wants to do so, she would need to seek a custody modification. If talking things through with your ex proves ineffective, you may be able to have her held in contempt of court. Legal counsel can help you with this.

Do what you can when you can

You love your kids and you want to do the best you can for them. Sometimes money is tight and offering full financial support may not be something you are capable of doing. This does not mean that they don’t deserve time with you. If your ex is combining support and custody into one issue, you can take steps to address both issues with the assistance of a family law attorney.