What is a Deadbeat Dad?
“Deadbeat dad” is the gender-specific slang term used to describe a father who willfully ignores and evades a court order to provide financial support for his children. Unlike typical slang terminology, deadbeat dad is a term that is used freely in and out of court. The term is predominately used by those employed in child support enforcement agencies throughout the United States. Consider the fact that even deadbeat dads, as despicable as they are, understand the term’s connotation and attach no pride to its stigma. To the mothers of the children whose fathers “opted-out” of their parental responsibilities, a no more appropriately descriptive term has ever been coined. In all fairness, it is important to make note of the word “willfully,” or any word meaning the same, as it may appear in deadbeat dad definitions. Deadbeat dad exceptions do exist and might include, for example, a father who would like to pay child support but, for some oddly legitimate reason, can not hold down a job,
