Gonna throw one more thing out there. Along with the report about my son's job situation, his Dad sent me a recent dental bill for my younger son. I only pay child support for younger son at this point. Up until this year, I had dental insurance that covered them even out of State. Because they changed our plans such that the premium exceeds the maximum benefit (I know, insane--my union has a grievance over that), I canceled the insurance.
I wrote back that I assume we are splitting the bill? And Dad said, "Well, I thought when you canceled the insurance you were going to pay it," reminding me he is paying for older son's dental care. Now, that momentarily ticked me off, because our deal has always been that my insurance is better than his was, so I kept the kids on mine, but we have always split any excess expenses. (It isn't a huge bill, but money is tight for both of us right now.)
We have never had a serious disagreement about money or support, and in fact, he has waived timely payments for several months when I was in financial crisis. Overall, I pay less (probably MUCH less) in child support than he could have insisted on.
My thought is that I will offer to pay half of the combined bills for the two kids, and suggest that we purchase a couple of dental discount plans ($104 a year each) that provides one free checkup/cleaning a year and discounted services.
I don't want to argue over it, and in fact, he told me to pay whatever I felt I could afford right now, but I could tell he felt a little put-upon because of his belief I had agreed to pay that bill. This is one of those instances where I'd rather be happy than right.
Sound reasonable?