I was in the court room a few months ago during a child support hearing day. This was the days when dead beat dads have a chance to present their position on why they are months/years in arrears from not paying CS. Most of the excuses were no work, broken elbows, she is remarried…etc. Out of the 25 ordered to appear in court this day, was a woman. Her argument was she had only weeks left to graduate as an RN and only made $15.00 hr. as a nurse extern and her children now had a working step mother in their lives; no need to pay CS for her kids and she only had every other weekend to visit with the kids. The court room remained quiet, but you could see everyone’s eyes starting to roll over her argument. The Judge disagreed with her argument and ordered her to pay CS by the end of the month, pay on her 5k in arrears, and to have a good day. This woman started to cry and plea to the judge of her finances and how she could not pay CS. The judge quickly caved to her tears and reduced her CS payments by 50%. The tears quickly stopped and she was off the stand and quickly exited the court room. Everyone in the courtroom knew quickly who her ex-husband and the step mom were…. Deadbeats are certainly gender neutral and hats off to all of our step parents in their blended families.