[QUOTE=ProfCrash;2551684]I am not a big fan of Winer/Summer relationships but it seems like this is excepted in Thailand and in some ways beneficial. You are describing a large family that is connected. More likely then not, the child is playing with Aunts and Uncles and cousins even if he/she is not playing with his/her father. [/quote ]
Yes, that's what happens. Many kids are raised by Grandma.
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The entire clan is being supported. I would assume that the family is provided for when the man dies.
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There is money as long as the guy is alive to collect his pension. Once he dies and the pension stops, everybody is up the creek until someone can latch on to another rice bowl. Usually, mother goes back to being a bar girl.
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Is it possible that our more western idea of hat a family is, mother, father, child(ren), is what is causing this reaction?
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No doubt about that. I putting western values on a different culture that doesn't need them.
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If in Thailand the family is mother, father, child(ren), aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents then it is more then likely that the child is not looking for Dad to play catch.
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Yes and no. While the extended family is there, it's still mom and dad who take first responsibility. Thai kids like to have both around but put up with them being gone only because of necessity.
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It sounds like the Western Dude with a little bit of money is happy to find companionship and start a fmaily late in life. The Thai women is happy to find someone who can care for her family. The child misses out on an active Dad but is being raised in a culture with a different idea of what family is then we have in the US. It sure sounds like a financial arrangement for the Thai woman and a sense of something for the Western Dude.
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That is exactly what it is; a contract to provide for both parties. Each knows their role. She gets the financial security and he gets companionship of a very young woman. Something he could
never get back in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, etc. And she WILL treat him like a King, waiting on him hand and foot, catering to his every whim and wish... so long as the checks keep rolling in. Her only other option is prostitution. It's the only occupation that pays enough per week to support a large family if no one else is working due to old age or illness. It's only the children who suffer for it in the long run.
[quote]Not a big fan of it but it seems to work in some way for all the parties involved QUOTE]
That it does. But it still bothers me to see it.
Stitchawl