From the courts stand point there’s no such thing as a true 50/50 split when it comes to living situations. The closest I’ve seen is literally 51/49 .
If mom seeks child support and she’s in that 51 side, you’re paying it. If it was reversed, she’d be paying it.
It’s not super common knowledge, but statistically if fathers are in as good of a spot or better in terms of life scenarios, the dad wins out more often on a national scale than the mother, if they truly are fighting for custody.
not saying there aren’t pockets out there that fuck dads over, believe me I’ve seen it. Good luck.
It's going to vary by state, but here in AZ the child support paperwork has three options - Primarily with Parent 1, Primarily with Parent 2, and Essentially Equal. You fill in Parent 1's yearly income from their primary job, and fill in Parent 2's, and then support is given based on a percentage of the difference to whichever parent makes less.
So lets say Parent 1 makes $5,000 a month, and Parent 2 makes $3,000, the total difference would be $2,000. If custody is set to "Essentially Equal" it's something like 8% per kid, so in this example Parent 1 would owe Parent 2 about $160 a month. Doesn't matter who is the mom or the dad, its all based on income.
Now, if you mark the kid as spending more time with 1 parent, things get WAY more expensive. Say you selected "Primarily with Parent 2", they basically subtract around 60% of that parents income as necessary childcare costs, so the $3,000 Parent 2 makes is now viewed as $1,200. Now instead of basing it on a $2,000 difference, they base it on $3,800 AND instead of the 8% they calculate at something like 25% per kid.
Meaning that $160 a month you are paying at "Essentially Equal" is around $950 a month PER KID if they are primarily with the other parent.
There are other things that go into it (like the child's age, or number of children), and those are rough numbers, but you get the gist.
