Some Parents Flout System--why?

(FOURThJoF A SERIES) Not a 1 1 divorced fathers (and an occasional mother) refuse to pay their alimony I' and child support payments. some pay without fail - though I statistics indícate they are a I rare breed. Russell Hoisington, an Ann I Arbor insurance company exI ecutive who pays child support for his five youngsters I from a previous marriage ■ through the Livingston County Friend of the Court, is one of I these. "When I get my paycheck, that's the first check I write," Hoisington says. "It's not the I kids' fault for the marriage I breaking up, and the most imI portant thing is to bring the I children through a divorce in I the best possible shape." Hoisington has increased 5) 11 VoL LP o his child support payments on his own volition once and intends to do so again when he gets a raise. But Hoisington is convinced that the whole system of court-ordered child support "depends on the mature outlook of two people who can no longer live together but still must relate to the children. lts success is almost totally dependent on the outlook of the non-custodial parent, usually the father." . But what about the parents who don't pay their child support. What moti vates them? Hoisington offers the explanation that "men and women lose the idea that it is child support. The men use nonsupport, and the women non■visitation, as hitting weapons to get back at each other." He adds: "And it's the kids who get hurt." A divorced m o t h e r who lives in Ann Arbor says she thioks the parent who refuses to support his or her children is "showing hostility toward any type of law enforcement agency. They're saying, in effect, 'Make me pay.' " One divorced father told her he refused to pay any money for the support of his children because the judge had made the youngsters wards of the court. "Let the judge pay for them, then," he said. Candace Snyder of Ann Arbor thinks the prevalent attitude of society sanctions the parent (usually the father) who can evade paying child support. Best proof of this, she says, is that a man's child support record is not part of his credit rating. Dr. William Kimbrough, an Ann Arbor psychiatrist, says the parent who refuses to support his children when he is financially able is an adult whose emotions are partially I operating on the level of a I two-year-old child. "He is selfish, self-centered, I negativistic and irresponsible. I He doesn't think of nis wife or I children, only himself," Kim-I brough asserts. The idea of wreaking ven-l geance on his family by notl paying child support is a com-l mon trait of these people, I Kimbrough said. "And 1 geance is a common 1 teristic of a two-year-old," he adds. (Tomorrow: Suggestions Forl Change.) j