I will reserve my opinion so as to not sway any one else’s-
“Papers filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday granted Kimora Lee, 33, sole custody of the girls, allowing their father one week of visitation out of every eight weeks and extra time for summer vacations and holidays, People magazine reports.
Furthermore, Russell Simmons, 50, must pay $20,000 per child per month in child support, which stops when each reaches the age of 19 1/2 – or until the daughter is married, emancipated, becomes self-supporting, joins the armed forces or stops living with her mother. Once they can drive, he’s required to buy or lease a car valued at $60,000 or more for each of the girls . . . once every 24 months.”
Honestly, I think it sounds outrageous, but, I don’t know the scope of it: I don’t know why they are getting divorced or the problems (if any) incurred during the relationship, etc. I’d have to know a lot more to form an honest opinion but on the face of it, it sure sounds like she got a sweet deal.
Hmm. Well I don’t know the law in the US. But from what I understand, in cases of divorce, the judge orders child support based on the kind of life the children would be having if the parents had stayed married. It definitely sounds insane, but maybe the judge thought that if the parents had stayed together, these kids would have gotten a 60 000$ car every 2 years, so this is what they are “entitled” to get. I honestly don’t know how the judge can get to a conclusion like this, though… :shrug: Maybe the number of cars the father buys for himself? As far as visitation goes, well I have no idea who these people are. But every 8 weeks doesn’t sound much to me. But how often did the father see his children during the marriage, and how involved was he in their education? I guess that’s the kind of question a judge must answer. :shrug:
Visitation rights can be difficult to comment on as we do not know the role the father had in the childrens life previously. There could be a variety of rasons it is set so infrequently (although if previously it had been a ‘normal’ family with ‘normal’ interation between father and children, with no associated ill health or similar, then one week iin every eight is very limited IMHO)
As for the shild ‘support’ that seems ludicrously high, especially considering how little contact he is legally allowed. Support should be for support and to hel out the now single parent family with providing for the kids. providing should cover food and shelter and clothing, anything on top of that should be dependant on botht he income of the father AND the mother (who in this case is a CEO of a rather lucrative company i believe). Now if income has been taken into account, then yes this guy is going to pay more than my dad who was working as a low paid office worker, but should be balanced by what the mother can provide on her own. In this case it is also necassary to judge the financial impact of the aparent long term relationship the mother is in.
now for the cars … why? can you realy justify the cars? i can’t!
It also sounds like very little time with their father, which is sad. I know Mr. Simmons is a busy man, but I’m sure he would like a little more than 1 week every 8 with his girls.
It does sound like a lot, especially since Kimora is wealthy in her own right too, but so is the life of celebrities. Us regular people just don’t understand.
The point of child support is not to help out the single parent. It is to provide support for your children. Sure she could afford support by herself, but should she have to? They are his children too, and therefore a certain percentage of his income should go to his children. Now the car thing is somewhat ridiculous, but is probably what would happen if they were still together. But I do agree that he gets very little time with the children. I got to see my dad every other weekend and that’s more than he’s getting.