In today's economy, many parents who have been ordered to pay child support find themselves unable to make those payments, either due to the loss of a job, a home foreclosure or other unavoidable circumstances. If you find yourself in this situation, you may need to seek a modification of your child support order so you are able to continue making payments. What you should not do, if possible, is stop making child support payments altogether.

Recently, an interesting child support question was raised before the Ohio Supreme Court. In the case, a father alleged that two small monetary gifts given to his daughter, in the form of a gift card and cash, should suffice as child support.

According to court documents, the case was brought in 2008 after the father had failed to make his court-ordered child support payments for one year. With his $1,000 monthly payments, his total arrearage amount was $12,000 at that point. During that year, however, he had given his daughter a gift card and cash totaling $185.

When the mother's new husband sought to adopt the daughter, he alleged in his complaint that the birth father was not legally eligible to oppose the adoption. The stepfather claimed that the father's consent was not needed for the adoption because he had not made child support payments in the last year.

The father disagreed, arguing that the two monetary gifts that he had given his daughter during the year constituted child support, and that he had made payments during the year. The court disagreed, finding that the gifts did not count as child support because they were not court-ordered. Therefore, the father's consent was not required for the adoption.

Source: WKSU, "Supreme Court says small gifts don't equal child support," Karen Kasler, Jan. 25, 2012