Child Support and Childish Adults

I'm an aspiring lawyer and I work for a small litigation firm. We do a lot of family law, mainly divorce and custody/support arrangements. I hate family law, but I'm fairly decent at it. Ironically, it was the class I hated with the absolute most vehemence, and yet it was my best grade in law school. Go figure. It is in observing the practice that I see why I hate family law so much. It's the grossest display of human selfishness that I have ever seen. Rarely do the parties actually want something fair to everyone. It is like Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina multiplied by as many parties are involved. Freaking whiny bitch divas. Anyhoo, so I'm working a couple of cases that deal with simple (ha!) support arrangements. One is for a non-custodial father, and the other is for a custodial mother. Both of the fathers have the same general argument - I can't pay more child support because it's hurting me financially. Neither of these people have married the person that they conceived the child with. One guy has been forthcoming but didn't get a lawyer until he got screwed, the other hasn't and has a screwy lawyer. In both cases, one parent makes significantly more than the other; in one it's the woman making more. The sketchy guy with the screwy lawyer is trying to keep his child support payment down at well below the state guideline for support. What he paid wouldn't even cover the cost of after-school care in a month. And yet, he's looking at these hoity toity private schools for his children at home. Fortunately, the judge cut through the BS and upped his child support. She also made him make the back payments on his arrearages, which he was trying to skate out of. I feel sorry for the kid; he's the one getting shafted out of all this. The forthcoming guy's hearing is on Friday. He actually wants to support his kid, but he wants what is fair to him. Right now, the support award is above the basic calculation. Why? We don't know. There has been no discovery. It's a joke. Now that he's lawyered up with us, we have to fight to dig him out of the hole he put himself into by not lawyering up earlier. It's shit like this that makes me happy to be single and childless instead of having a child for someone that I can't have a real relationship with outside the courtroom. In many ways, I despise the fact that family law ratifies this bullshit instead of changing it. Single parenthood is not a virtue. It's unnecessary stress and is unfair to the child. Just because you are physically able to have kids doesn't mean that you should, and children or child support should not be used as a weapon. For any guys that read this, I have a piece of advice: Never have kids outside of marriage. And, for the love of God, do not "help" someone who is childless and wants your sperm. You might just get screwed when support time rolls around. I don't see that trend changing. Make them go to the freaking sperm bank or infidelity center unless YOU want to be paying for a kid for what is effectively the rest of your life, or half of it. If you want to help people, go to an infertility center and anonymously donate your sperm. There is no reason why the person you help should know who you are just to screw you when times get tough (or just to be a bitch). The same results can happen if it's just you, Playboy, and a cup. And you can get paid. Instead of paying through the nose...