Men and women come together all over the world every day and make a decision to engage in consensual sex. It takes two. Whether these two people are married or not is not the determining factor of whether children will be the result.

Men and women marry and have children and often decide they do not wish to live together any longer after the children are born. This results all too often in the pair of adults acting very much like children themselves where they are not able to take into account what is best for the children.

Now the fun begins. Lawyers are hired and things get ugly. The child more often than not is given into the sole custody of one parent (mostly the mothers) and the other parent (mostly the dads) begins a life time of paying child support.

Please do not misunderstand me; I strongly agree that child support is essential and that the parent without custody pay that support. I do see some very unjust things happening though, and it troubles me.

This hub is being written to address one of those issues that I have recently been made aware of. I would like to note the way things happen in our governmental system and how things are dealt with when a family splits.

Take a normal family with the mother and the father who actually do stay together and raise their children. In many cases both parents work because it generally takes two incomes to keep things together. Even with both parents working in the middle class family, it is difficult - if not impossible - to put aside money for RESPs for their children. If that happens, those children will be required to work their way through college or university - most often supplementing their earnings with OSAP or other types of student loans.

To date, I have not heard of the government stepping in and demanding that the parents of the children who stay together and raise their family together pay for their children's higher education. If the parents decide to do so, it is their decision, and often they will be required to go further into debt to do so. My point is, it is their decision. They are not being dictated to by the government that they must do so. I cannot imagine the uproar that would and should take place were that to happen.

So I have to ask myself why the government feels it is their right to make it obligatory for children of separated parents to pay 1/3 each for the children of that union for their continued education? Why are we not up in arms about that? Why do we allow the government to interfere in these situations to the point where undue hardships are forced on one or the other parent? Should the children of separated parents receive this added benefit BECAUSE the parents are not together? Something here just rings unjust to me, and I don’t understand.

I don’t know the statistics but separation, divorce, and extended families seem to be the “norm” in our current society. If that is the case, then there are a great many children being raised by only one of their natural parents. It’s disconcerting to realize that the government is allowed to make these decisions for such a large portion of the population.

One would hope, by the time these children are ready for college or university, that they are adults, so the argument that the government is looking out for the best interest of the “child” is a mote point.

If you are a single parent, please let me say that I am not pointing a finger in your direction at all. I am fortunate to be happily married for 30 years and we have managed to raise our children without this type of government interference, but when I hear about it I cannot help but be concerned.

Is it just me or does anyone else see this as something to be concerned about?

I have come back to add to this hub because I have found some interesting conversations on this topic throughout HubPages.  If you are involved in this type of situation or similar ones, you might find these either useful or interesting.

Family Law James takes a look at the subject from the man's side

Tips for finding a Family Lawyer

Join in the discussion about what type of family you have

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