TSA Turns Away Dad of 2 Going on International Vacation Due To Back Child Support

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Children need a lot to thrive. They need time, attention, care, nurturing. But they also need some tangible things as well. Food, shelter, and money. Far too often, when one parent doesn’t live with the child, they underestimate just how much money it takes to raise a child. It’s the reason so many parents end up in the court system, having a judge dictate how much they need to pay their co-parent to take care of the child they made together.

One father learned that there are consequences for shirking his financial responsibilities, when the TSA found out about his back child support.

The former couple divorced two years ago.

A father of two — an 8-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter — has been divorced for two years. He had an affair and his wife ended the marriage. Despite his infidelity, he fought the divorce process. His ex explained on Reddit that she was awarded full custody and he was to be responsible for paying child support.

But, he’s never paid it. While the ex-wife says she doesn’t necessarily need it, it would be nice for her to have to save for the kids’ future needs.

“I don’t badger him about it- I know to him it’s a way to try to get me to talk to him, I just let enforcement do their thing,” the mother of his children wrote. Since he’s so far behind, the government has suspended his assets. His ex said they send him notices but he doesn’t open them. The issue came to a head when the ex-wife wanted to take the children out of the country. 

He gave her permission to travel with their children.

The ex-wife needed her former husband’s permission to travel with their children. She had her lawyer draft a document stating so, even allowing him the ability to revoke the permission up to 72 hours before the trip. He did not. Instead, he decided that he would go with them.

“The day arrives for us to leave,” the ex writes. “I get to the airport with the kids 3 hours before our flight. Things go smoothly and I take the kids to a diner to grab breakfast. Ex arrives much later, and as we’re finishing up, I get a call from him. Turns out his passport was revoked due to lack of child support payment.”

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He claimed she tried to kidnap his children.

TSA did not allow him to check in and told him his passport would not be reinstated until his back child support was paid in full. It would have been unfortunate, but things took a turn when the ex-husband said that because he couldn’t go, he no longer wanted to grant permission for his children to travel.

When the ex-wife protested, he said he would tell the officer she was trying to kidnap his children. Officers showed up, but she had the notarized agreement, so he was unable to prevent them from leaving. 

The ex-wife did not take it well.

But the ex-husband was not happy. He spammed his ex’s phone the entire time until her flight took off. She turned it off in response, so he contacted her brother. The brother had introduced the two and they remain friends. While the ex-wife’s mother thinks she did nothing wrong, her brother thinks she should not have gone on the trip without her ex. On Reddit, people decided that she did the right thing. 

People decided she did nothing wrong.

“Some people hate that there are consequences to his actions,” one user wrote. “The fact he got his passport revoked is entirely on him.”

Someone else pointed their finger at the brother in the middle. “Maybe remind your brother all the money his buddy should be paying for his niece.”

Another person pointed to another level of his irresponsibility: “Ex needs to put on his big boy pants and read his mail. You aren’t his mom.”