Cats who don't have kids aren't really qualified to speak on this.
Let me explain the ugly truth
Once you have a kid with a woman, you are at her mercy.
Keeping a 2 parent household.... do you really think you have complete control over that?
What are you going to do if this woman one day decides that she doesn't want to be with you anymore and take the kids?
Do you really think you're gonna win custody of the kids? And yes, they will make you pay child support while you are in court for this.
And just because a father pays child support doesn't make him a dead beat or irresponsible. I could give this woman money all day long to take care of my kids, she can still go to court and ask for child support. This is what some of you fail to understand, and I know it's because you don't have children.
Courts don't care what you've done. If you don't have receipts, it didn't happen. Then some of you will say "That's cause you picked the wrong women"
Once again, you say this because you don't have kids. Women change once they have kids. This is well known to all of us who have kids, who went from the priority to "oh my baby comes first".
Once that women decides to leave, you are at her mercy. It's that simple... and you will be paying child support. You'll be kissing ass to make it work, and to avoid child support, which sadly is what most dudes do.
Of course, we would all like to have great relationships and raise our kids as a family. But if you and that woman split, you gotta think really hard about being able to handle supporting the kids without getting the courts involved. Will she never flip on you? Can you just take care of your kids without giving her money and will she be okay with it? Are you paying her straight cash? Are you keeping receipts? 9 out of 10 times, when the parents aren't together it never ends well, meaning that you'll probably be on child support... feeling betrayed that you held it down for your kids and still got screwed.
I just feel it's better to avoid all of that upfront. Yall could still have an understanding, but she can't legally hurt you because it's all settled. And as a man who really cares about his kids, you will have an innate desire to take care of your kids regardless.
I pay child support, and I still spend bread on my kid, and I spend way more than she gets for child support... but I don't have to give that money to her. She gets her measly $700 a month. She can't ask for anything else or hold anything over my head.
I'm more stressfree than those dudes walking on eggshells hoping she doesn't put them on papers or the dude unhappy at home, but afraid to leave because she'll put him on child support.
Not me.
I celebrate brehs