DadsDivorce.com provides essential information and resources about divorce, alimony, child support and child custody to men and fathers at any stage of divorce.

Question: My wife wants a divorce and we are both living in our home right now. No legal paperwork is filed yet. She will not be able to afford the home on her own. Will the courts likely make me pay the mortgage and allow her to stay in the home? We have 3 kids 15, 12, 4. I also know one of the three want to live with me. What chance do I have to keep the home? I have paid for all bills for the 16 years of our marriage, and she has only brought in a part-time income the whole time. She has been a student all 16 years.  How would you recommend I present my case so that I can continue living in the home with the kids, and paying the bills? I would even consider it fair to help her afford a small place on her own since she is the one that wants out.

Question: I need to know when child support officially begins. Is it at the point the divorce is filed, on the date I was served?  How should I begin documenting this even if I don't have any kind of order that says I need to pay this or that amount?

Question:

I want to get temporary custody of my son. I have already filed the paperwork but my soon-to-be-ex now wants to take my son back since the divorce has started rolling.  Obviously, I want to make sure he stays with me. What can I do to make that happen?

Question:

If spousal maintenance was not ordered in my final decree, how can the judge sign an income withholding order requiring me to pay for it?  Can the judge go back and order spousal maintenance if he had meant to order it but didn't?  What sort of leeway does a divorce decree have when it is issued? I always thought it had to be in writing.