I Should Be an Army Recruiter LOL

So when your in the Army at say an E-4 Rank which is what my ex husband is back at after during our marriage having gotten caught with his current obssession "Vyktoria an innocent Texan" in his room by health and welfare. He is now planning on getting out of the Army, funny thing is I dont even think she knows if she marries him when child support gets reviewed in a year her income will count as his and if they default in child support they will garnish wages and taxes. Of course myself the babies momma in this case is made out to be the bad guy lol my ex wants to pay under $300 a month for 2 kids in support. Daycare alone costs at least $1200 a month fulltime for two children, not to mention they have to eat, Nat is still in diapers, and they have to have shelter, water, gas, electric. All of which for me is extremely expensive. If I didnt have children I would be living in a studio or have roomates rent would be $300 a month in a city not $650 in KS. Daycare no issue, food lol please I'd probably buy $30 worth a week! not having to buy gallon after gallon of milk ,cheese, bread, vegetables etc, There would be no diapers, or even a car a metro-card did me justice in NYC. Sick days would be for when I am sick not for when the kids have a runny nose. Throw in the fact he wont even be putting in his share of having the kids! not even on the weekends because that sacrifices precious drinking time or he plans on not even living in the state so he would basically never even have them to at least provide some relief of parental duties so I could at least have a normal day occasionally.

Ok so the point of all of this is I make $8 an hour at a good job in KS. I pay for everything and have the kids fulltime! Rarely do I really complain about it, I do what I have to do and yes sometimes I feel sorry for myself and wish I could afford the haircuts, clothes and manicures I got before I married at 19 quite stupidly I must say. There are mornings I look in the mirror and dont even recognize myself and its stress I know , bags under my eyes from staying up trying to get everything done or staying up all night crying because I dont know how to make ends meet, ragged hair because I can rarely afford a haircut something I used to do every 6 weeks and men do everyweek!, my nails are crap havent had a pro-manicure in over a year I just dont have the time or cash. I posted something just last week about not even knowing what my jean size is.
Im exhausted but I chug another pot of coffee and keep on going.

I have friends who feel sorry for themselves for being single moms of 1 with little child support. Funny thing is they dont even realize how lucky they are to have good friends and family. The kids dad even takes her once a month for a weekend, that to me would be a gift a relief to sleep in for once and not wake up to chaos, to have a sister that lives up the street I wish I got to see my bro even once in a while, and grandparents aunts uncles and even friends are only a call away who would watch the little girl for any reason. So yes while being a single mom is tough and expensive I dont feel bad wish I at least had that type of support system. Instead I do it alone, well not entirely I have Nic on the weekends and it helps, but we want to go out and be young as well. Can we go camping without diapers and a million things we wouldnt need otherwise, don't think so. Just to go to a movie it costs an extra $30 to pay for a sitter! for a couple hours.

So while an E-4 in the Army w/ dependents. Would essentially have his childsupport for free and still keep his take home pay of over $2000 a month w/ housing, gas, water, and electric provided to him, be able to provide very good daycare to his kids at an extraordinarily reduced rate, not to mention 100% coverage on their health insurance and free prescriptions even over the counter. The Army would essentially be paying him an extra $22,000 a year upping his salary to about $64,000 a year even divorced if you count the savings just for health insurance, and daycare! So I won't even get into the actual breakdown of the actual basic salary for a soldier because it is definitly not a secret and everyone can look it up on http://www.defenselink.mil/militarypay/index.html and to tell you the truth that is just non deployed pay. But no he plans to get out of the military anyway to try and skeez his way into the bare bones of child support so instead of $46 a month for day care I have to put in more than half of my $1200 a month take home pay into daycare not to mention all of the other expenses and stress. Just the one trip to the ER because of a stomach bug this weekend would run $900!! if they werent still covered by Tricare which expires on 2.1.2009 so cross our fingers and pray they dont get sick for a while.

So while some may argue why are we trying so hard to have a huge amount of child support lol its just to make ends meet. Even at $800 a month I would barely be making it by the skin of my teeth. So get over it civilian Rivera you could be a man and provide for what you helped create but no it will not happen go serve coffee at Starbucks! or even find a decent job that provides you all of those benefits in this economy.