Nobody can pass a tax law without creating victims and victors. The changes to our tax code brought about by the recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) highlight this. Gone will be the deductions for spousal support payments by the payor (in Virginia, usually the man), and the recipients (in Virginia, usually the woman) will not have to declare ...
The Tall Texan, Billy Walker, crooned a major hit in 1964 called “Circumstances,” with this soppy, sweetly sad little lyric: “O! But the dreams this foolish heart romances, When two blue people were the victim of circumstances.” Though Walker was not a Virginian (the shame!), many a Virginia Dad has felt the hard heartache of changing circumstances affecting child custody. Endangering ...
Trigger warning: this post will involve emotions. Some dads are a little shy about dealing with emotions. It’s one thing to scream and chest pound over a touchdown with your buddies; it’s another thing to shed a tear because your six-year-old daughter pirouetted in her dance recital. Many of the best television commercials about fatherhood and being a real dad ...
Throughout the annals of medicine, a stark reality has been a prevailing pattern: doctors are merely human, after all. They sometimes dispensed bad advice. Doctors do have, though, one vital tool in their armamentarium: education over years of long hours, hard work and hands-on learning. So while any parade of social media gurus can blather on about breastfeeding do’s and ...
Children are a kind of illusionist’s trick. They seem to exist with no visible means of support, much like the magician’s mysteriously floating person. Feeling the need to show the greatness of his trick, the illusionist passes a metal ring up and down the floating assistant’s horizontal body, proving no wires hold her up. And yet, just as with our ...
For anyone struggling to keep home and hearth together, the recent “news” and other sources that poverty affects decision-making is no news at all. Virginians who depend on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) know that getting out of the grind of poverty is hugely challenging. Adding divorce and child support to the mix only makes every move more complicated, ...
Red flags can mean the start of battle, wildfire risk, or dangerous swimming conditions. One of our favorites: the bright red Bravo flag of the International Code of Signals1 means you’re carrying explosives. In divorce, red flags fly up for all sorts of reasons. Here are the biggest red flags that could be fluttering in your future. Your Wife Hasn’t Hired ...
Deep inside Goddard Space Flight Center, not too far from the calm waters of Virginia Beach, spacecraft destined for Mars and beyond are assembled for liftoff. Many of the components have bright red tags on them reading, “Remove Before Launch.” For probes journeying outward to the far reaches of our solar system, those flag tags are one-way decisions. A planetary ...
Teenage male otters deliberately swim into the “triangle of death.” Teenage gazelles deliberately taunt predators like lions and cheetahs, says the BBC1. Fathers of Virginia teenagers, take heart: our species is not alone in dealing with reckless and impulsive behavior from our offspring who are not quite children, but hardly adults. In a split or a divorce with custody issues, ...