‘Should’ means ‘must.’
Stroud ’2k [John F Jr; July 7; Judge on the Court of Appeals of Arkansas; Westlaw, “Guest v. San Pedro,” 70 Ark. App. 389]
The interpretation of this section, which appears to be a question of first impression, turns upon the meaning of the word “should” in the phrase “[a]ny partial abatement or reduction of child support should not exceed 50% of the child-support obligation during the extended visitation period.” In Little v. State, 261 Ark. 859, 554 S.W.2d 312 (1977), the supreme court ruled that the trial court, giving an instruction on circumstantial evidence, had not misled the jury by using the word “should” instead of “must” in stating that circumstances should point to and be consistent with guilt but should be inconsistent with any other reasonable hypothesis. The Little court opined that use of the word “must” would have been preferable to the use of “should,” but the court noted that the *396 words are often synonymous. 261 Ark. at 884, 554 S.W.2d at 324, citing Rodale, The Synonym Finder 780 (Special Deluxe Ed.).
Similarly, we hold that the word “should” is equivalent to the word “must” as used in the phrase “any partial abatement or reduction of child support should not exceed 50% of the child-support obligation during the extended visitation period.” We hold that the 50% limitation in Administrative Order No. 10 is mandatory: abatement or reduction of child support during an extended visitation period cannot exceed 50% of the child-support obligation during the extended visitation period.