Happy Father's Day to all fathers even those wrongly dubbed deadbeat dads

June 21, 7:00 AMAlbany CPS and Family Court ExaminerDaniel Weaver

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             Book cover disparaging fathers

Happy Father's Day to all fathers who love their children and are trying to make a difference in their lives.

Father's Day is good day for everyone, especially the media, to ban the phrase deadbeat dad from their vocabulary. It's not that there aren't deadbeat dads. There are. We all know fathers who don't come through with their child support payments. However, there are women who are required to pay child support and who also cannot keep up with the payments. Rarely are they called deadbeat moms.

Should we then use the term deadbeat parent instead. It depends. A big part of the problem is the word deadbeat. Freedictionary.com defines deadbeat as follows

1. One who does not pay one's debts
2. A lazy person; a loafer.

Father's Rights advocates were incensed when Lifetime Television initiated a reality television show called Deadbeat Dads, and for good reason. Not every parent who gets behind in his or her child support payments is a deadbeat. Many are not lazy or loafers but get behind for a variety of legitimate reasons.

What many people don't realize is that the amount of money a parent is forced to pay in child support is not always based on their actual income but their potential income. In other words if you once made $75,000 a year and now you only make $50,000 a year, a judge can order you to pay higher child support payments than another person who makes $50,000 a year. If you have a PhD and you are not earning much money, the judge can increase your payments because you should or could be making more money than you are. This is referred to as imputed wealth.

The supposed rationale behind using imputed wealth to determine child support payments is that it keeps people from taking lower paying jobs or quitting their jobs to get out of child support obligations. One of the better known cases of a dad being arrested for not paying child support is that of Wilbur Street, who lost his job after coming down with ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease. He was unable to pay his child support, and he died during his second day in jail.

The term deadbeat dad is sexist. The terms deadbeat dad, deadbeat mom or deadbeat parent are derogatory when used against parents who are working hard to meet their child support obligations.

It might be okay to use the term deadbeat parent to refer to a person who is clearly trying to avoid his or her obligation to pay child support. However, it would be better when writing about parents who are trying to meet their obligations but have good reason for not doing so, to find another way of expressing that they are behind in their child support.

Happy Father's Day once again to all fathers who are trying to make a difference in their children's lives, including those who have been wrongly dubbed deadbeat dads.

Click here to read other articles by this author on Family Court, Child Protective Services and Child Support.