Most states, including Texas, calculate child support using a model called Income Shares, which aims to give a child roughly the same share of parental income they’d have if their parents were still together. It’s a reasonable-sounding goal, but critics argue it can produce results disconnected from a child’s actual costs — especially when one parent has significant time with the child, since most formulas assume, in effect, a single custodial household.
The core criticism: when support is set well above a child’s real costs, it can function more like alimony than child support, and it doesn’t account for a non-custodial parent’s own household costs when that parent has meaningful time with the child. Advocates for reform argue that support formulas should focus on covering a child’s actual needs, factoring in both parents’ time and contributions, rather than equalizing living standards between two households.
This remains a genuinely debated area of family-law policy. If you believe your support order doesn’t reflect your actual time with your child or your household costs, raise it directly with your attorney — Texas law does allow deviation arguments, even though courts don’t always grant them.