Child Support For Two Children

[slippery when wet]

Can anyone pls advise...

I have 2 young children, aged 3 and 6 in Thailand.

My wife, or to be more precise ex wife demands £125.00 per week from me

I know that this is far too much. What do you think is an acceptable figure?

Thanks

[vont]

The expenditure for 3 and 6 are dissimilar.

However on the average:

food, milk, vita 100 per day x 2 pp = 200 per day, 200 x 31 = 6,200 per month

schooling ?

taxi/bus round trip?

after school tutorial ?

medication ?

health insurance ?

life insurance ?

mother/maid taking care of 2 kids ?

rental ?

water, gas electric ?

satellite ubc programs ?

weekly school supplies ?

There are many farang here who are doing just about the same things as you do,

it is not cheap to raise up children, especially if they are in larger cities.

Try to err on the generous side, if you would. Cheers :jap:

[pjclark1]

If you were married at the Amphur Office

Thai courts usually say 100 bht per day per child

But they don't enforce payment.

If you only had a village wedding (or none at all), they are not your children legally and you have no rights or responsibilities concerning them.

Make sure any money you pay is traceable (not cash)

I always agree with judges and courts!

As the previous poster said, how much it actually costs depends on where they are living.

In an Issan village a whole family can live on 100bht a day (and often do)

My MIL lives in a village (not Issan) quite well on 3,000bht a month the other villagers consider her lucky to have so much.

Edited March 19, 2011 by pjclark1

[slippery when wet]

They live in a very small village in petchabun province. Live with their grandmother, taken to school on a moorbuke/scooter 2 minutes away.

[pjclark1]

They live in a very small village in petchabun province. Live with their grandmother, taken to school on a moorbuke/scooter 2 minutes away.

My MIL lives near Lomsak (petchabun), it's one of the cheapest places in Thailand to live.

3,000 bht a month for the both of them, 5,000bht will keep grandmother as well.

Here's an idea

Get in contact with the grandmother, get her bank account number, pay her 5,000bht a month direct, cut out the former wife.

Maybe pay someone to go and see the grandmother, explain you are paying HER to support her and your two children.

Tell the grandmother the money stops if you don't have complete access to your children.

Best for you to set up your own Thai bank account to pay the grandmother from, don't give her lump sums (she is unlikely to have any money management skills) ,pay every month

[Mario2008]

A Thai court will set the ammount for child support on between 3,000 and 6,000 month for a child. Note there is no alimony in Thailand. Child support is only to take care of the child.

next you can expect to share the medical costs and costs for school.

[pjclark1]

Thai court costs a lot of money, the lady has to pay her own costs which cannot be recovered.

I am told by a Thai lady that the costs are so high up front, and the chances of getting money from the guy is so low.

That very few Thais make any effort to go to court for an award.

[MikeyIdea]

A friend of mine went through the courts in Bangkok with a 4 and a 6 year old early last year, that's a good match with what you have - both parties using 100,000+ bath lawyers. Thai - Thai case

Both children were counted based on the same formula (i.e., 4 and 6 are in the same bucket, the very young and older get more money), end outcome was 3,100 bath per month and child and mother and father share education and health costs equally, as ordered by a Thai Juvelile court judge.

$125 per week, that translates to 16,000 bath per month. I agree that it is a cheap area to live in Petchabun and that less than that should be paid. I still think that legal minimum and father pays for education (himself!) is reasonable = USD 210 per month. Education should not be the standard government school.

The western father has a responsibility for what he has created, why are the children staying with the grand mother upcountry? That is generally a perfect recipe for children who will get a difficult life -> personality and EQ suffers. Paying for better education than normal is not an acceptable substitute for a father and a mother, the children generally end up with better than normal schooling, and personality and EQ that does not live up to what is required to be able to compete with the competition

pjclark1 - Costs for a Thai to take the issue to court are not high. It's even possible to get free counselling at Tessaban before doing it. A Thai cannot OPEN the case without the lawyer but she can actually say thank you and go to the next following sessions without one if she wants to. Price to open a case: Less than 10,000 bath. And Thai courts do enforce payments, we have people on the pay-roll in our company that are treated separately at payment time - money for child support withheld by court order. The problem are parents who have no legal income and pay no tax, same everywhere. Apart from that I agree with everything that you say.

Slippery when wet - If the children are not with the mother, then they should be with you

[MikeyIdea]

My apologies slippery when wet, I did not know that you were denied access to your children

Get evidence of that the mother demand $125 per week or she will not allow you access to the children, present it to court and a Thai Juvenile court judge will clearly look down on the behaviour of that mother, steeply down too. It won't take you all the way but it will help

Good Luck

[Sunbelt Asia]

Assuming you are legally married to the mother, then when filing for divorce at the District Office (Amphur), the official would have inquired if you have children and if you agree on the custody and care for the children. If you do not agree then the case must go to Family Court.

In order for you to have custody over the children without their mother’s permission you would have to be recognized by the Thai Family Court and be appointed as the official guardian of the children. However, it is rare for full custody to be awarded if it is known that the children will be taken away unless it can be proved that the mother is unfit, such as drug or alcohol addiction. Staying with a grandparent is not proof of unfitness. If your children could read, write and speak (age is around 7 and over), the judge would directly ask that minor who they would like to stay with.

An acceptable figure for child support would depend on geographic and demographic factors that would be determined by the Court; the school that they would attend and costs of living. You and your wife would have to agree, and again, most likely in Family Court if it could not be agreed upon at the Amphur when filing for divorce.

http://www.sunbeltlegaladvisors.com

[ARussell]

Don't worry about chasing her or pandering to her demands, or who has legal custody.

Give whatever you feel is right. You are not going to be taken to court, and you don't have to go through the trouble and expense of taking her to court.

She might make threats, like, "I have DNA cert, so you have to rent house or I tell police!," and, "In Thailand man have to pay and lady keep baby," "you have to pay XXXXX or you not see baby," ...blah blah blah. My ex really did attempt to get the police involved, too. Didn't do her any good.

At the end of the day, she is going to let you have access to your children for whatever it is YOU decide to give her, because otherwise she is going to be paying to raise the child herself (unless she is very lucky and finds another stupid foreigner to pay for your child -and even then, she still probably won't turn down anything you have to offer). If she gives you crap, remind her you can leave at any time.

Personally, I give practical things like milk, diapers; pay medical expenses. If I gave her a lump of money each month it would most likely go to a pawn shop, card house or for a new phone, while the child eats rice and free soy milk from the local school.

Of course, everyone's circumstances are different, but this is Thailand. A lot of Thai women are lucky to get anything at all from a Thai man who knocks her up. A lot of Thai women will take a soft, stupid man for all he is worth. The rules from your home country no longer apply.

Edited July 9, 2011 by Mario2008
flame deleted