Spousal Maintenance: Confronting the Emotion

In negotiations, as in mediation, many divorce attorneys find spousal maintenance to be one of the most difficult areas of conflict to resolve. This may be because spousal support often represents something entirely different for each spouse, and for each couple: Is maintenance meant to compensate for pain and hurt when the other party is leaving the marriage or having an affair? Is maintenance required to reimburse one party for past contributions to the career of the other party or to the family? Is maintenance viewed as an entitlement to one party or a source of guilt or failure to another? Was spousal support part of the "social contract" created within the family, which determined that one parent would stay home with children? Or were the parties never able to agree on such a social contract in the family during the marriage but one parent stayed home anyway? Is maintenance a source of anger because the receiving spouse is not working to his or her full "potential"?

16 minute read March 29, 2004 at 09:43 AM

By

Amy Carron Day