A how-to manual for custodial parents in the legalities of acquiring and keeping child-support payments. The author, a Boston attorney and regular contributor to such magazines as Cosmopolitan, Working Mother, and New Woman, is basically addressing women in this guide, as they comprise by far the overwhelming percentage of custodial parents in divorce cases. Takas assists the parent in utilizing the services of the Office of Child Support Enforcement, outlines just how one goes about collecting across state lines, describes how to find a missing parent, and coaches mothers on how to legally establish paternity. Other chapters describe how to go about establishing a family's financial need, sleuthing in the area of locating hidden, unreported income of the supporter, and even go into the disturbing matter of family safety and how to avoid violence from the noncustodial father. The book seems thrown together with a minimum of organization. (For example, Chapter 13, covering the subject of child custody, would have seemed to be the obvious choice for an opening chapter.) However, Takas has provided a valuable service in a land where over one-third of new families end up being torn asunder. The book also serves as a good research stepping-stone, as it closes with a state-by-state list of legal resources for the parent seeking child support.