BPDFamily.com

I earn $10k more than him.  He is going to have surgery soon and will be laid up for a while.  Might I have to pay alimony?  I barely have enough for the kids.

Not likely, I made quite a bit more than exupd and even after a 16 year marriage did not have to pay him any. I doubt 10k is enough of a difference in income

Most states have a worksheet you can find online, or get from the court.  It's usually based on both parties' incomes, plus the % of the time the kids are with each parent, plus maybe some other factors.

Are the kids with you most of the time?

How old are they?

A large factor is who has the children more.  If you have the children more, then CS probably not an issue for you.  If he just gets the children on "some weekends" then he's the one more likely to have to pay CS to you even if you earn a little more than he does.

His surgery and recovery is a short term issue, probably won't affect child support calculations, they often look at the history of earnings, though these days with many without work it may be different.

During the divorce the court's social worker recommended I move up from alternate weekends to equal time.  Custody evaluator recommended that if 'we' tried Shared Parenting and it failed then I should get custody.  'We' settled for Shared Parenting and it failed a expected.  It took a long time but I got custody.  GAL wanted time to stay equal, partly in hopes she would be more stable.  Since ex never provided court with her earnings, they imputed her earnings at minimum wage.  I pay child support almost as much as when I had alternate weekends.  The GAL knows the problems but still is resistant to even recommending something in line with the county guideline, wants to give ex more than equal time during the summer, likely knows that if I get enough majority time they may recalculate and I would pay much less, perhaps nothing.