Ahh, bureaucracy. The bane of existence for everyone who lives in the so-called civilized world. Though, red tape is very capable of driving any person so mad, it’s anything but civil.
But then there’s people who complicate an already complicated mechanism of conduct even more by not giving a gaw-giggity. For whatever reason. And the only way to untangle this mess is a combination of patience, legalese, money and a spoonful of pettiness for flavoring. Oh, and make it public.
More Info: Reddit
If you’re gonna be traveling, you will need a passport. But getting one might prove difficult if that depends on your very absent(minded) dad
Image credits: sean hobson (not the actual photo)
This one dad could never be bothered to put one signature down, so his wife’s current love interest made him regret it tenfold
Image credits: GoSimpleGoNow
In the end, the dad not only lost full custody of his kids, but was now also forced to start coughing up very neglected child support
Image credits: Parekh Cards (not the actual photo)
Reddit user u/GoSimpleGoNow recently celebrated his 10-year anniversary with the Mrs., and they remembered the challenge they needed to overcome to get married in the first place.
The story goes that OP wanted to marry a lovely woman who had twins from another relationship. They decided to have a destination wedding. And this means they’re going to need proper documentation, including the kids.
You’d think getting the kids passports would be easy, but nope, red tape shall be your guide throughout (and for good reason, more on that later). And if that wasn’t enough, the soon-to-be wife’s ex was shoving sticks in the spokes with his inactivity.
You see, in order to get a passport for a minor for the purpose of travel, at least in OP’s predicament, this has to be agreed upon, approved, verified, whatever by both biological parents. However, asking the dude to do his part was a bit of a predicament that the Greek mythological figure Sisyphus was in. It just went nowhere.
The mother eventually filed for full custody of the kids, to which the actual father didn’t bother to show up, and she circumvented the whole both parents requirement. However, this entire situation was a waste of time, money, and left a petty taste in OP’s mouth. Luckily, there was a conduit to channel this pettiness through.
Turns out, the dad of said twins had some overdue child support payments. Years worth. And it was actually perfect to cover (as it turned out in the end) half of the amount of money the couple spent on bailing the kids out of the dad’s custody.
Image credits: Massachusetts Office Of Travel & Tourism (not the actual photo)
OP engaged bounty hunter mode and started tracking the dad down. It seems that he managed to elude most of the institutions that would enforce any bit of justice, but OP got to him. Using social media. Yet another example of why social media hygiene is a must.
Anywho, OP found out the dad was a part of a local sports league that was scheduled to have a game in a nearby park. Perfect. Fast forward to the fateful day, the stage is set and the plan is set into motion. OP wasn’t at the game, but he got first-row-seat feedback on how it all went down.
“The story we hear a few days later is that the county sheriff showed up to the park on the date and time we provided, stops the game, walks onto the field and serves bio dad with the paperwork,” explained OP in his post. And the rest is history. Those support paychecks started coming in soon.
Commenters had a lot to say about this whole predicament. Many pointed out that the guy had it coming as child support is something that’s nearly impossible to avoid. Most make the mistake thinking that once the kid turns 18, the support doesn’t magically go away, but actually continues to pile up as a late fee of sorts.
Others explained that this is a bit of a multi-layered bit of revenge as it not only got things done—the dad was served over overdue payments—but also it was done publicly, shaming him in front of his entire team, which may or may not have had some dire consequences, on a social level at the very least.
And yet others shared stories of people they knew who would avoid child support payments, or avoid children altogether. All in all, folks felt like this isn’t petty revenge as much as it ended up being deserved justice. Whatever the case, folks loved it enough to net it over 4,600 upvotes (with a 97% positivity rating) and a single Reddit award.
Image credits: Free Gaza movement (not the actual photo)
Now, that red tape we’ve touched on a bit earlier. Bureaucracy is a universally hated concept because of how useless and unproductive it can feel to anyone who has to directly deal with it. It makes very simple results become very hard to attain. And for what?
Well, this one master’s thesis elaborates that red tape can be a good thing as it adds a layer of protection, deterring anyone who might try to abuse the system and it increases accountability for, if not everyone, then at least for the end user. Depending on the industry, the presence of red tape might also promote higher levels of quality (whether operations or products) and increase performance.
In OP’s case, kids are a delicate topic, and having grown-ups jump through all of these hurdles is a safeguard against human trafficking of vulnerable groups of people. Not that the parents themselves would ever do that, but the overall mechanism is in place to make it every bit impossible for human traffickers to abuse loopholes.
At the end of the day, bureaucracy is essentially a set of rules folks agreed upon for this to run smoothly and efficiently, i.e. the way it’s supposed to in an objective and clear manner. There is also the added benefit of equality and egalitarianism involved, as it’s all based on logical and impartial guidelines devoid of emotion.
I won’t go into detail about why red tape is a pain where the sun don’t shine, but know this that government institutions, companies and organizations would not make use of red tape if it didn’t serve a good enough reason. Otherwise, their functions as entities would be impossible. So, it’s a necessary evil.
But do you know what else is a necessary evil? The comment section. You know what to do. But don’t be evil in the comments, we’re all friends here.
Folks online praised the author of the post for his ingenuity and detective work, garnering the post nearly 5K upvotes
The post “All We Needed Was A Signature”: Guy Can’t Get Wife’s Ex To Sign Documents That Would Let Him Travel With His Kids, Makes Him Regret It first appeared on Bored Panda.
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