[Blarg]

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I would think the new income he receives from Britney would factor into his child support to his first wife. I think it should. When he divorced his first wife he did not have much income. This will drastically change their entire lifestyle.

My understanding is that K-fed has partial custody of his kids from the first marriage but I'm not positive about that.

I think it's preferable that fathers have joint custody where they are not just funneling money to their ex-wives but are actively involved in the child-rearing. I've never understood the logic in saying to a man you don't get to have custody of your own kids but you need to pay your ex-wife thousands of dollars so she can live any way she wants. What man would be motivated to do this?

But getting back to OP's question, I think if a father's income goes way up the child support can be renegotiated can't it?

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I think this is a terrible idea, katy, and kind of makes a mockery of existing concepts of alimony and child support. What about the idea of someone being enabled by hubby/dad's money to live "in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed?" I think that's an idea that's okay for kids, completely out of line for moms, but that you can't really separate the lifestyles of kids and moms without throwing out the baby with the bathwater, so you have to keep the mom sitting pretty too. But they are going to get the child support needed to live a normal life according to their present notions of one, not a free ticket to gamble with and redeem when necessary.

What happens if the father's income goes down? Are the kids/wife willing to cut down on the alimony and child support? Will the courts likely enforce their doing so? Of course not. If the father's income level post-divorce is a lottery ticket, why can only mommy and the kids redeem it, and keep redeeming it, over and over again as a man's income changes upward, but the father can't redeem it if his income diminishes even if it winds up in financial catastrophe for him? What if his income goes way up but then suddenly goes down, as in the fashion typical of artists, who may make big scores but then spend years before they get another big financial windfall? Does the guy who made a million in a year have to pay at that level during the years he is making nothing, completely ruining his chances to ever save a dime and make a life for himself?

It's gotta be something settled and clear. It's one thing to take care of your kids, but another thing to write your kids and/or wife an open-ended lottery ticket for the upside. Especially if when the husband hits a downside and comes knocking on the door, it's going to be lights out, nobody home.