A child support order is a mandate by the court which requires non-custodial parents or parents who have joint custody to pay a certain amount of child support, usually monthly. Most child support orders are created through the analyzation of several different factors - including the amount of salary or wages earned by the non-custodial parent, the number of children he or she will be supporting, whether or not the non-custodial parent is currently making other court-mandated child support payments and more. The child support order should be taken very seriously and non-custodial parents should try not to default on the order, or stop making payments. If they do, the custodial parent has the right to have their wages garnished or file an income withholding request so that the money comes directly to the custodial parent from the non-custodial parent's paycheck. If the child support order has been ignored for a period of time, the non-custodial parent may owe the custodial parent back child support.