PA Child Support Enforcement Unit

Support Enforcement Conferences are kind of what you would expect. This is where you're told to go to 27 South 11th (I believe it's the 3rd floor). They send a paper in the mail about enforcement for support. You know, when they think you aren't paying. I've always paid but I got two in the mail. Well it wasn't because I failed to pay it's because the arrears I'm in (the ridiculous reason for being in arrears will be for another post entirely, much too long to discuss here) are over $2000 and the way support is set up and because some months are longer than others, it's really easy to fall behind. In fact, there's nothing you can do to not fall behind... unless of course you have the money and pay it in full.

This section of the whole support thing is actually it's own floor. There is no lobby in this section either, you sit on rickety old benches in a hallway, right where the elevator leaves you off. You sign in... fill out forms... sound familiar? Yeah. The same bullshit you fill out the floor above or below. Then you wait. Finally when it's your turn you follow in the woman (no surprise there) AND a security guard. Yeah, a security guard escorts you in to a giant office filled with cubicles and sits there and watches you. If the effort put into this was put toward equality, I wouldn't have started this website. With no privacy, your financial information is blurted out for all passing by to hear. My first thoughts were that the security guard, for all I know, could be some scumbag thief on the side. Hey, I'm pre-judged by these people so why not return the favor?

And again... the tone and condescending look you get are priceless. The whole time I sat there thinking how much she's paid to talk down to fathers. Like every other woman in the building she doesn't care about anything you say. She prints up her slip and gives her card telling you what you already know, then schedules a follow up appointment in a couple months to check up on me. What am I in fucking grade school? About ten minutes into this slap in the face of a conference, the security guard gets up and leaves. He basically wonders off and roams the halls until the next dad is brought in to be sodomized. The woman, whose emotionless face never breaks character, barely makes eye contact. As if her tone wasn't a kick in the dick. This is the stigma fathers have in Philly's family court. We're looked at and treated like such scumbags a lot of them don't even bother looking at you. Us fathers should start treating them the same way.