1. Show the expense is reasonable

If you're the parent asking for special or extraordinary expenses, you have to show that the expense is reasonable.

When deciding if an expense is reasonable, the court looks at your family's financial situation. This includes things like:

• both your incomes
• the basic monthly amount of child support being paid
• the number of extracurricular programs your children go to
• the total cost of these programs
• whether these expenses were part of your family's spending pattern before you separated

This means the court looks to see if you and your partner can afford the cost.

It also looks at the spending patterns of the family before you separated to see if the expense was something the family paid for. For example, the court will want to know whether your child went to private school or summer camp before you separated.

Even if the expense was not part of your family's spending pattern before you separated, the court can still decide to allow the expense, because:

• it is in your child's best interests, and
• you and your partner can afford it.