http://www.examiner.com/fatherhood-in-houston/deadbeat-dads-to-become-reality-television-stars
Deadbeat dads to become reality television stars
Ron Mattocks
, Houston Fatherhood Examiner
Texas is a leader in catching up with deadbeat dads
Yesterday the Houston Chronicle reported the Texas State Attorney General?s Office had released its list of top child support evaders. Altogether the group, which includes eight men and two women, owes over half a million dollars in back support. Warrants have been issued for their arrest as this is a crime Attorney General Gregg Abbot takes seriously. Last year $2.6 billion in failed payments were recovered, and in 2007 the National Child Support Collection Enforcement Agency named Texas the nation?s leader in going after ?deadbeat dads.? The state?s announcement comes at a time when economic fallout and the media are bringing this issue to the nation?s attention.
This past month Boston Globe reporter Joseph P Kahn wrote about the economy?s impact on parents? ability to maintain their court-ordered child support. In the article, Kahn mentions that a national survey conducted by the AmericanAcademy of Matrimonial Lawyers showed a 39 percent increase in divorced spouses looking to alter their original decrees. I understand these circumstances all too well.
Being a divorced father of three, my support payments were based on a six figure income and included the standard health-insurance provisions. In addition I agreed to pay spousal support as well as maintain an high-payout life insurance policy even though the state (Texas is considered ?no-fault?) didn?t require this of me. After being laid off it was impossible to keep up with the full amount of these payments (I still paid monthly, but took the proper legal actions which I will share in a future article).
Now the Lifetime channel has announced a new reality television program called ?Deadbeat Dads? where they track down delinquent fathers ala Dog the Bounty Hunter. The show stars the founder of a private child support collection agency and has met with immediate protest. Among the most vocal is the advocacy group Fathers and Families which has organized a campaign against the show?s airing because of its stereotyping of all men who cannot pay child support as deadbeats as well as the network?s self-serving ploy for ratings. Others, like syndicated columnist Amy Alkon agree adding, ?The producers of this show, which is supposed to center the welfare of children,
think nothing about turning kids into collateral damage.?
Still, ?Deadbeat Dads? has its share of advocates including Los Angeles single parenting Examiner April McCaffery. McCaffery, a single mother of two, has received next to nothing from her ex-husband. ?I once wrote that slave labor is probably the only solution,? she wrote in an April 28th column,
?but national public humiliation is also good.? Given the ensuing financial hardships she has faced as a result, her feelings are justifiable.
I can empathize. My step-daughters?
father has failed to pay his $350 support obligations in over a year.
Even if he did care, by not taking appropriate legal steps his inaction lends to the image of deadbeat dads. Although he and other offenders
should be held accountable, I?m not sure parading them in front of a national audience is the best way to go about it.
If they don?t already feel shame in willfully not providing for their children, being hounded on camera probably won?t change their minds either. Here in Texas, the state has more persuasive methods.
