Legal Question in Family Law in California

In your question you did not indicate if you and your husband and the father of the children were still living together. If you are not living together, you should consider filing for a divorce or legal separation and seeking a support order for the children. You may also consider applying for public assistance, if you yourself are not working or you are underemployed, which will trigger the filing of a child support claim against the children's father. While the support order will not "force" your husband to work, it will result in a judgment with on-going support requirement and the accrual of interests on any outstanding child support arrears.

Ms. Macklin is basically correct. The legal system leaves it to the couple to deal with family finances and support as long as the couple is together. Only once you separate and file for legal separation or divorce will the legal system get involved in whether a person supports their family or not. Once a divorce is filed, they still cannot make a man work, but the courts do have the power either to issue a find work order - requiring the person to either find work or show specific efforts toward finding work - or to impute income - meaning that the person will be ordered to pay support based on what they could be earning if they choose not to actually find work.