A Way to Help Your Children While Helping Yourselves After Divorce

My soon-to-be ex-wife ... hey, waitaminute here! I wrote that back in October too! Ha, the joke's on me! But I digress...

My soon-to-be ex-wife and I have been at an impasse over some medical treatment that our sons have been receiving. It's elective treatment and, frankly, I cannot afford my share of the co-pays. A solution is to cover the children under my and my ex's medical  insurance. By doing so, our sons will have primary and secondary insurance, and the secondary insurance will cover co-pays! And guess where the increased health insurance costs are deducted from - wait for it - they come off of my child support! (Or at least that's the case in Washington state where I live. Your mileage may vary.)

Explore this option; your children will win because they get the quality medical treatment they need, not only now but in the future too. Your ex will win because she (or he) doesn't have to pay co-pays either. You will win because co-pays are eliminated or reduced, and because your child support payment is reduced. This approach will also likely reduce opportunities for conflict between you and your ex over medical treatments and expenses.

This is a win-win-win-win! How often do you see one of those?!?

Review: Hot Wheels Wall Track System

I posted previously about my sons' first Hot Wheels racetrack, and how it was a hit with them and with me. While looking for it, I searched Amazon for "Hot Wheels track" and was surprised to find wall tracks, something I had not heard of previously. I immediately liked the concept and made a mental note to purchase a starter set for my sons for Christmas.

A promotional photo of a Hot Wheels wall track

The Hunt

Money was very tight for me this holiday season and I put off buying the wall track until the weekend before Christmas. When I went to purchase it online, the starter set I wanted was not available for Amazon's Prime 2-day shipping and so would not have arrived in time for Christmas (it turns out that it was a previous year's model and Amazon proper was sold out so it was only available from Amazon merchants).