It looks like Jenelle Evans is a free woman. No, her divorce from husband and jailbird Courtland Rogers hasn't come through yet (Wednesday officially marked their one-year wedding anniversary!), but the Teen Mom 2 star has managed to get her child support revoked. Jenelle's mom, Barbara Evans, has reportedly agreed to stop making her daughter pay for the care of her grandson.
Of course there is one little sticking point in all this holly, jollyness. Jenelle isn't going to pay child support anymore, but she isn't taking back custody of Jace. Which makes her, what, exactly?
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She's not her child's guardian. She doesn't live with him. She isn't on record as someone paying for his care. So she's, what, an auntie who comes over to play occasionally? A babysitter who is actually related by blood?
This is a girl who had a warrant out for her arrest earlier this year because she was so far behind on her $130 a month child support, and now all of a sudden her mom says, "Eh, it's OK, you don't have to pay."
The whole thing is just too strange for words.
More than that, it's sad. Here's a little boy who doesn't really know what his mom thinks of him. She can't get her act together enough to take custody of him, but now she's cutting off child support too? What kind of message does this send to the child?
Not the 4-year-old -- he doesn't know who's paying for his sneakers and toys -- but to Jace in a few years when he starts getting a handle on who actually pays the bills and who actually signs his permission slips and attends his school events? How can he call Jenelle "Mom" when she really has no legal ties to him?
There is no one perfect way to deal with child custody. I know a fair amount of parents opt out of a formal child support arrangement simply because it's costly to get the courts involved. They broker a deal themselves and just pay in every month because that's being a parent -- supporting your child, even when you aren't there to give physical care.
But considering the courts are already involved, that's surely not the case for Jenelle and Barbara. If anything, it just sounds like another chance for the almost-22-year-old to go have fun instead of fulfilling her obligations to her son. Just think what she can do with an extra $130 a month!
What do you call a parent who doesn't have custody OR pay any form of child support?
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