El Paso Family Law Blog

Parents in Texas who are in the military know that military life can sometimes strain a marriage, even to the point of separation or divorce. Military-connected children are also affected. According to the president of the Military Child Education Coalition, school-aged military-connected children, who now number about 1.2 million, relocate three times as often as civilian students. Additionally, children of active duty parents are also more likely to experience separation problems if a parent is relocated or deployed. As Texas parents know, these issues can complicate military family life, resulting in conflicts between parents, as well as special challenges to providing a healthy education and home life for military-connected children.

With these issues in mind, parents in the military will be glad to hear about the work of the Military Child Education Coalition. By upholding Common Core Standards in areas such as science, language arts, social studies and math, the coalition works to help children get ready for college and a future career. According to the coalition's president, these standards are necessary to improving the continuity of students' academic experiences, even if the students frequently move. The standards serve as continual points of reference for growing minds, allowing for a smoother learning progression.

Before a Texas couple decides to divorce, oftentimes one of the spouses handles most if not all of the financial matters of the household. A married couple may share a bank account, but sometimes one person ends up paying the bills and balancing the checkbook, while the other person doesn't even see his or her paycheck because it's electronically deposited. Groceries and other household items are purchased, but the individual purchaser may not ever see the calculated effects on the couple's joint bank account; the other spouse handles all of that.

Meanwhile, life moves along smoothly enough, and then gradually there's trouble in the relationship, then divorce. It happens all-too-often that after a separation, one former spouse is at a serious loss as to how to manage finances.

Texans who are dealing with a divorce may be interested in a new book, humorously titled, "You Can Keep the Damn China! And 824 Other Great Tips on Dealing with Divorce." The book consists of brief and insightful comments from people from a range of backgrounds and who have previously gone through a divorce. Essentially, the book amasses a collection of potentially helpful advice that spans the emotional spectrum of post-divorce living.

For example, a man tells how his ex-wife and son moved to Texas after the parents' divorce. He expresses how he felt a great void afterward, especially when he returned home from work every day. To cope and also ensure that he would remain a significant part of his son's life, the man says he calls his son two times a day, making certain each time to say that he loves his boy.

More often than not, when a child is born out of wedlock in Texas, the single mother makes a claim for a court order that may award child support. At that point, the judge must determine if the man involved is in fact the father of the baby. If the father does not acknowledge paternity, the court generally requires that paternity testing be used to determine the truth. And if the test confirms the parentage, the child custody and support proceedings continue under state guidelines.

With these issues in mind, Texas readers may be interested in a child support case involving the popular rapper, Gucci Mane (whose real name is Radric Davis). The rapper recently agreed to pay over $2,000 per month in child support payments for his 4-year-old son. It was reported that the rapper makes upwards of $25,000 per month. But before the legal proceedings were resolved, the issue of paternity for the young boy had to be addressed. Testing confirmed that the rap artist is indeed the father of the boy. In addition to support payments, the mother was awarded primary custody, and visitation rights were given to Gucci Mane when his schedule permits.