“Child Support Ain’t Support — It’s a Setup”

In this raw and unfiltered episode, Johnathan Wayne Meadows breaks down the twisted game of child support — where one person pays $200 and another pays $1,000, and falling behind just two grand can turn you into a felon.
He shares a piece of his own story: how after getting a raise and having child support bumped up to $918/month, he got laid off just two weeks later. Then came the fight with unemployment, a judge who ignored the layoff, and a system that punished him for trying to do right.
This episode is real talk about the courts, the government, and the traps they set for working people — especially fathers.
If you’ve ever felt like the system was built to break you, you’re not crazy — and you’re not alone.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to the Grind, Real Talk, Real Life. I'm
your host, Jonathan Meadows, and today we're pulling the curtain
back on something that messes up a whole lot of
people's lives. It's called child's support. Now, before you roll
your eyes, let me say this. I ain't talking about
deadbeat dads. I'm talking about the real ones out there,

(00:24):
trying to survive, tryna provide, trying to do right. But
the system it ain't built for fairness. It's built for punishment.
We're talking about how one man's paying two hundred dollars
a month, another's paying a thousand dollars a month, and
both are getting chewed up. And when you fall behind,

(00:48):
the hammer comes down hard. Let's talk about this child supports,
posed to help the kids. That's what they say, But
what they don't say is how rigged it is behind
the scenes. I've seen guys paying two hundred dollars a month.

(01:09):
I've seen others stuck with one thousand dollars plus, same
job type, the same number of kids, different courtrooms, different judges,
different counties. That's all it takes. They act like they're
doing math, but really they're just putting numbers out there

(01:30):
in the air. Some dudes get up, get by, some
get crushed. Ain't no logic, ain't no balance, And the
best part, none of it's based on what the child
actually needs. It's based on what they think you should
be making. Here's where it gets real stupid. You fall

(01:57):
behind two grand on child support, just two grand, and
now you're looking at a felling charge. They call it
non flagrant support or flagrant non support. Feeling you could
be going to prison, not because you refuse to pay,
but because you couldn't. And it don't matter how fast

(02:18):
you got behind. If you know one thousand a month,
you're two months from being a felon. If you owe
two hundred, it might take ten months. But either way
it's the same charge, same record, same reced life. They
ain't charging you based on how long you've been behind.

(02:42):
They're charging you based on how big the check you
used used to be. Let me tell you how this
shit went down in my life. I had one job,
not to just one, but it paid well. I went
from making twenty five dollars an hour to thirty two
dollars an hour. I was grinding, putting in a time,

(03:03):
putting in the eyes long shifts, tough work, but I
was holding it down. Fell out two jobs the way
they ran me. So what do they do. They run
a child's port review, see the new thirty two dollars

(03:23):
an hour and bump me up to nine hundred and
eighteen a month, like that money was permanent, like life
doesn't change. And guess what. Two weeks later, I get
laid off, just like that, not my choice, not my fault,
just gone. I thought unemployment would be there to hold

(03:47):
me down while I look for something new. The state
it said I was approved, but I ain't computer savvy, savvy,
swabby whatever like that. I didn't know all the online
bullshit they wanted to log in portals, file this click
that I missed a step and boom, they denied my unemployment.

(04:14):
I fought that unemployment for two months straight, but the
child support it didn't wait. It just kept adding up
like I was still making thirty two dollars an hour.
No mercy, no break, just debt, stress and that pressure
sitting on your chest like a damn brick. I showed

(04:35):
up to court thinking they'll see how I got laid off,
they'll work with me. No judge, asked the mama what
do you think you need to raise your child a month?
She said five hundred and fifty dollars should be Okay,
that's what they said. It that never mind that I

(04:58):
ain't working, never mind that I didn't quit. They just said, well,
he used to make twenty five dollars an hour or more,
so we're going to pretend he still does. It's not
about fairness, it's about control. And look, that's just one
slice of my story. I ain't even started on the

(05:21):
crooked probation officers. I ain't told you all how some
judges already got their mind made up before you even
walk in the room. I had a cop one time
tell me I already shot one person this year. I
don't care to shoot another. That ain't justice, that's intimidation,
that's dirty. And not every cop wears a body cam.

(05:45):
Not every rate is legal, not every traffic stop is fair.
You think the courtroom is where the truth comes out, No,
that's just where the story gets twisted. The whole was
built on fear, silence, and paperwork. You'll never understand unless
you lived it. Listen, if you're going through the right,

(06:10):
going through this right now, I see you ain't crazy.
You ain't a deadbeat. You're in a system that wasn't
made to help. It was made to trap. Document everything,
show up even when you're tired, keep fighting, speak up,
don't let them break you. Don't want them break your spirit,

(06:33):
because once they do, it's over. This episode is just
the beginning. There's more to tell. But if this hits
you in the chest, if it sounds familiar, then you
already know. The grind is where we talk about the
stuff they want you to stay quiet about. So this

(06:54):
is Jonathan, This is real talk, real life. Signing off
for now. Stay strong, stay woke, and keep grinding.