okay then. i agree. CONGRATS!!! it has to feel better.

As a veteran of 15.5 years of $1,800 per month child support payments...CONGRATULATIONS! The best part is that your ex now has zero leverage over you. She's officially out of your life. That was a real sense of freedom for me.

+1. But I must give credit to my ex as she did indeed spend every cent on our kids. When they went to college I negotiated with her to give half the CS directly to them. She balked a little but I did it anyway. And when the youngest graduated Papa got a new truck!

All's fair in love and divorce right?

Write a blank letter to all.
Explain your side of the separation long ago.
Use nice language when you explain the flying frying pans of the past.
How you hurt inside as a real human being.
How you covered it up by being a jerk as a protection mechanism.
How you struggled to pay her for a lavish lifestyle when you really couldn't afford it.

How much you paid her out of love (and unequal court determination) and the dollar amounts.

And how you hope the kids received your money, indirectly from mom, as middleman.
They..um..did receive your money..hopefully?

Yea......I remember that day in my life. First month I didn't have to send a cheque I went out and bought a BBQ. Still have the BBQ. It's lasted longer than the marriage. :)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/lol2.gif Hilarious

Good for you JB. My ex told the kids all sorts of lies about me. Things were pretty rough until they grew up, saw her for what she is and decided I was the good guy. My son in law and daughter in law can barely tolerate my ex. I almost feel sorry for her, almost I say.

And they say O.J. was a bad guy ................

THAT sounds like the "Joe Bob" I know.

As long as you wear bunny ears...

It's about time he peed on someone ELSE'S lawn for a change ;)

I was quite happy to pay my lawyer to get the Alimony for my ex-wife shutoff. She had been married for 5 months and never bothered to tell me!

Congrats, although child expenses hardly stop at 18. For me anyway. But at least it isnt court mandated.

Child support and alimony all ended about the same time for me. I went out and bought a extremely fancy coffee maker. Well, I guess that was the first of several toys...

That was the short story. She managed to get a garnishment on my wages and retirement. The order was levied w/o notice. My check just showed up one month $1K short.

The order had no termination date. I had to hire a lawyer to get that information ($2K).

Her (and mine in many cases) attorney wouldn't return my calls, my retirement board was less than helpful.....it's all over as I mentioned but the whole issue was depressing at the least.

I felt like I was tied down surrounded by wimmen lawyers, judges and County workers that simply turned their collective backs on me and ignored me. The whole cabal was wimmen, not one guy....they all seemed to have banded together.

Well there goes my plan to knock up a millionaire lady and sponge off of her.

My dad told me when I was first dating "son you can marry a woman with more money that you can earn in a lifetime" but I never found a rich lady.

Congratulations JB and, as others here have stated....kudos to you for being a stand up dad to your kids and fulfilling your financial duties to them even through what seems like a very "adversarial arrangement" had been handed to you by the courts and by your ex!

Now, is there any chance that you can reconcile with your other two daughters?

talk about a buzzkill lecture...

Best feeling in the world... I did make the mistake of adding it all up once.. don't do that..

Never had any 2 legged kids myself thus no child support issues.

Every rare once in a while, I muse at the prospect of having a son (or daughter) I could watch grow into someone I could be very proud of. Especially if he/she went into the military.

Over the years I have observed much chagrin as a result of relationship failures. To the point that I subscribe to the opinion that there are very rare circumstances where men and women can live under the same roof with the level of harmony necessary for utter happiness.

Therefore my default concept of a perfect relationship is for each party to maintain their own independent domicile and living arrangements.

Of course if your goal in life is to be a family with children and living under the same roof.....you have to roll the dice.

"I'm not a smart man. But I know what love is."
~ Forrest Gump

$100k give or take....

She bought a house and a couple cars with the money she took from me. When the kids came to visit, my daughter could fit all the clothes she had in a small suitcase. Got her suitcase full of clothes and she checked a bag on the way back. Ex was bent they had to wait for it :D My son and I are very much alike, in temperament and appearance, so she got to see me every day.