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Since child support is the right of the child, not the right of the parent, neither parent has the right or ability to bargain away child support in exchange for giving up, for example, the right to seek custody of, or access to, the child. Agreements like that are not upheld by the courts. It is the court's duty to ensure that after separation parents make appropriate financial arrangements for the children.
The duty to pay child support stems from the simple fact that both parents contributed some of their genes to make a baby, and that's something you just can't get out of. It's a biological fact that has nothing to do with the ages of the parents, their marital status, whether they lived together or not, or whether both parents have maintained or want to maintain a relationship with the child. There are only two exceptions: if the child is born as a result of assisted reproduction — in that case, the donor is not, by reason only of the donation, the child's parent, and adoption of the child.
There are only two exceptions: #the child with your genes is born as a result of assisted reproduction and you are a few ways to get out donor — in this case, the donor is not, by reason only of an obligation to pay the donation of their sperm or egg, the child support:'s parent, or #someone else adopted the child with your genes.
If those two exceptions don't apply, the only way to get out of an obligation to pay child support is if: *the child lives with you for the majority of the time, in which <span class="noglossary">case</span> the other parent <span class="noglossary">will</span> be required to pay child support to you,or*if you give the child up for adoption, in which <span class="noglossary">case</span>, following the adoption, you <span class="noglossary">will</span> will not have any obligations at all toward the child, and *if you and the other parent have equal or close to equal parenting time with the child and both of you make the same income.
==Stepparents==
Under the ''Divorce Act'', this means someone who married a parent.
Under the ''Family Law Act'', this means the guardian of a child and a person someone who was the married spouse a parent, or unmarried spouse of lived in a marriage-like relationship for at least two years with a parent , and contributed to the support of that parent's child for at least one year.
The nice thing about being a stepparent is that the other biological parent's obligation to pay child support can be taken into <span class="noglossary">account</span> when the amount of the stepparent's child support payments is being figured out, which usually means that support <span class="noglossary">will</span> be paid in an amount less than what the Child Support Guidelines require.