(BlackNews.com) — 1. WHAT CAN I DO IF I THINK I AM NOT THE PARENT?  If you have been served with a complaint or petition for child support and you believe that you are not the child’s parent, you have a right to request a blood or DNA test. It is important that you request a blood or DNA test immediately. Should you fail to do so, you could still be liable to pay child support. If the test results are negative, the court will dismiss any case against you.  2. THE SHERIFF HAS PERSONALLY DELIVERED A SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT TO MY HOME. I AM BEING SUED FOR CHILD SUPPORT, WHAT CAN I DO? You or your attorney must answer the complaint for child support within the specified time period for answering the complaint. Failure to do so could result in a default judgment against you. If a default judgment is awarded against you, you could be responsible for paying support even though paternity has not been established. In some jurisdictions, failure to answer the complaint automatically establishes you as the parent.

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Compare the hours you spend with your children to their hours at school.  Now be concerned.  Better yet; get informed.  Children are our greatest assets.  We nurture them and want them to do well in life.  Unfortunately, today’s Georgia public school system doesn’t support our desires.  Our schools are in major need of educational reform and our children are suffering.  Here’s some overflow effects that may directly affect you financially.

You Assume More Financial Risk. Our children’s lacking connection to education often leads to riskier behavior in school and with peers.  Many unconnected students turn to crime, make babies, depend on you longer and often drop out or stay in college longer.  Parents – think bail, court costs, formula, diapers and prolonged tuition. Among your current educational efforts, look for ways to give your kids supplemental education that reduces your new areas of financial risk (your home, car, increased health coverage, etc.)

You’ll Pay For Lack of Engagement. Administrations are disenfranchised and our teachers are disrespected and ignored.  Today’s teacher is a spinning wheel; adjusting to reform, doing more, receiving less and being pressured to raise our kids.  Teachers normally manage two hundred; but meet six parents on average during the school year.  They also teach in fear, restricting their engagement.  Their massive turnover fuels a lagging local economy and a deteriorated generation of future local employees.  Become more active in the changing school environment to prepare.   AND SUPPORT OUR TEACHERS SINCE THEY KNOW WHO’S LEARNING.

You’ll Pay For Educational Messes. Messy educational systems equal personal and financial messes for you too.  Most of Atlanta knows the scandals surrounding our schools.  Whether legitimate or not, the community loses.  Many kids are preyed upon by teachers who recognize their lack of self esteem.  Nobody’s rooting for these children, opening them up to be taken advantage of.  School staff must continually adjust to legislation that threatens their job security daily.  This creates conflicts of interest that compromise our children’s educations.  The domino effect equals more taxpayer dollars wasted on public investigations.  Consistently lobby for accountability in schools and become knowledgeable of where your taxpayer dollars are going.

You’ll Pay In Extra Educational Costs. Colleges want kids who’ll make good students and alumni.  Many enter high school unable to read, write and do math proficiently for their age.  This uphill battle accelerates their uneasiness with school.  Lagging teens often come from lackluster primary school preparation.  This forces students, per the sweat of already overworked teachers, to “catch up” on the basics.  These “catch up programs” are primarily publicly funded.  In addition, high school diplomas don’t cut it, adding to the pressure.  They escape school but can’t get jobs.  So guess who’ll be joining you for dinner after graduation?  Set the educational tone early.  Look for ways to supplement their educational needs outside of school time with free tutoring/educational mentoring options.

You May Have To Move Your Kids. You’ve questioned the teachers.  You’ve harassed administration and the School Board.  You’ve inquired on redistricting school zones.  Or haven’t you?  New resources are openly thrown at children whose school can’t cut it academically.  Maybe Michael should be transported to another district?  Budget the costs of new higher tax-bracketed friends and extracurricular costs while you’re at it.  While public schools test new school improvement models, the only immediate option is paying for their education.  Until school vouchers come into play; you’ll have to pay.

You’ll Pay In Future Deterioration of Wealth.  Let’s face it.  You love your children but don’t want your hard work and earnings squandered.  Generational wealth is the goal.  It’s to our advantage when our children are happy, successful, educated and financially knowledgeable enough to carry our torches.  Children who don’t learn in school often become adults who make bad decisions financially with their money (and sometimes yours).  The work you put in today may prevent you from paying for it later.

Jemal Webb is a leading Independent Financial Asset Manager in Atlanta, building a community based on Abundance, Protection and Education.

Children are remarkable little bundles of joy, and they can also be bearers of great misery. Honestly, they ask for a lot and don’t give much in return.  In fact, they probably won’t thank you for your hardship until they’re in their thirties, and that’s only if you’re lucky.  Now that I’ve finished telling you the good part, let’s get on to the bad news.

What’s most interesting about kids is that they are always going to keep coming.  The fact that something as exciting as sex can produce the cute little human beings who follow us around all day has to be one of the cruelest jokes to ever be played by Mother Nature.  When you meet that Hot person who makes you want to get naked, do you ever really consider the possibility that you might end up creating life together?  I thought not.

But beyond the stress, joy and contemplation of child rearing, there’s also the financial hurdle of raising a child.  According to BabyCenter.com, if you live in the suburbs of the Northeast, have a two-parent household, and earn between $38,000 and $64,000 per year, it will cost you roughly a quarter of a million dollars to raise the baby you might decide to create during the year 2010.  The number doesn’t assume you want to send the baby to Harvard or Yale.  It actually factors in a public university.  Throw in private university tuition and you’re talking about a cool $330,000.

The cost of raising a child can be analyzed in a few ways.  First, it assumes that you only have one child.  So, if you decide to imitate Claire and Cliff Huxtable, you need to increase the number to an even $1.25 million.  That doesn’t count taking care of Denise’s husband Martin, little Olivia, Sandra’s husband Elvin, and her two kids.  Now we know why Cliff was working all the time and had to keep wearing the same tacky sweater – it was all to save money.

Beyond the financial commitment that children require, there is also the investment of time, love and attention.  In fact, those assets are far more valuable than money.  So, the irony of child rearing is that the astronomical cost of raising a child causes us to have to work more, but by pushing harder to take care of our kids, we deny them the time they deserve.  Raising a child is a beautiful, complex and essential process.   In fact, it is the reason that we exist.

Another point to consider when analyzing these numbers is that these results assume you have a two-parent household.  Many families in the African American community don’t have both parents, so this increases the challenge of rearing kids.  The baby cost calculator I mentioned argues that a single parent would pay $340,000 to raise a child, even if they send the child to a public university. This is because the cost per person rises when you are doing everything by yourself.  This also creates a scenario in which children are fighting that much harder to get a finite amount of energy from their custodial parent that they need in order to become successful.  So, when you choose to lie down with the guy you met in the club, understand that he could be a husband, father or “baby daddy” to your kids some day.   If the other party doesn’t hold up their end of the bargain, you could be getting good service one night and footing the bill for the next 18 years.  Keep that in mind when you choose to “get busy.”