Do Luk Kreung Children Have Good Prospects?

[sukeroku]

If the parents aren't happy, the children surely won't be. One has to ask if they are themselves happy in Thailand. If not, move for you child's sake. That said, if you can't be happy in Thailand, you can't be happy anywhere!

As a parent, I'm perfectly happy with the love my children get here in Thailand and their emotional education is progressing just fine!

[chiangmaibruce]

Interesting topic but i think you have to qualify the answer ... good prospects ... where? and doing what?

If you are talking about in Thailand then I would say their prospects are not particularly good. Someone mentioned the TV and entertainment industry ... true but this is an anomaly. Look in politics and the senior civil service, CEO's, the military .. positions of real powers .... how many luk krueng there? any? any at all? or just thai-chinese? And this despite the fact that many luk kreung go to very good schools - the same ones attended by the children of the elite.

In fact in some of these positions it is actually a requirement that both parents are Thai. Or in another case (involving election to city government) the stipulated eligibility criteria were more stringent for those people who had one foreign parent. In this instance the matter was taken to court and found to be unconstitutional. Has anything changed as a result? Will it? Who will push for such change? Farang in Thaivisa?

Edited July 18, 2009 by chiangmaibruce

[bojo]

I think this is a very honest post. I feel that many concerned parents spend a lot of time asking what is best for their child, and naturaly so. But how many of them actually make the right choice based on that question alone? I think that many concerned parents end up making choices for their children based on what 'they want' as much as what is best for the child. You are in Thailand because you want to be and therefore will give yourselves as many reasons as possible to make choices for your kids based on that desire to stay. I am not pointing fingers nor am i saying everyone, i am just asking, are our choices for our children based on what we like to feel they are? I do not have any children, because i made a choice that i do not want to raise a child in Thailand, i made that choice before i was faced with the difficulty of dealing with a loved one so my situation is different. I would love kids but to do so means moving to a place i feel gives that child what i would like them to have and for me it is not Thailand. I am biased in that respect to me (for me) this is the wrong place to make a family. For you it might be perfect. But i get the feeling that a fair few people talk about what is right for their child then do what is right for themselves. The post i quoted strikes me as being a very honst look at the problem and a very honest solution, the kid comes first. Good on you and the best of luck.

How true, a very apt observation.

If the parents do what is right for them, then I think there is more chance that the child will fair better.

Regards Bojo

[SNGLIFE]

Interesting topic but i think you have to qualify the answer ... good prospects ... where? and doing what?

If you are talking about in Thailand then I would say their prospects are not particularly good.

Agreed. IMHO, I think as parents, WE need to start thinking outside the box. WHY would one even want their child to become someone's wage-slave in the first place? Is finding a good wage-slave job what we are teaching our children to do? Why not teach them to aspire to be entrepreneurs instead?

I recognized long ago that my daughter (full Thai) would have limited opportunities in this superficial and shallow society. I have worked for myself for all but the first 5 years after University (needed 5 years wage-slave experience under my belt). Since becoming a father, I am doing what I can to establish something that I can pass on to her so that she will be the boss and determiner of her own success. Specifically, I will be teaching her how to build, buy, and sell properties - a good profession for her even after I am long gone.

It starts with us, the parents. Mold the children to be wage-slaves for life, or mold them and give them a head start to be their own boss.

Edited July 22, 2009 by SNGLIFE

[wolf5370]

One of the main reasons I moved to Thailand was so that my kids would grow up here. They both started school at 2 in the Uk (private Pre Prep) up until they were well into primary education. They are both now in a good bi-lingual private Thai school (we did a lot of research before we decided).

They will go to University here when they finish school (a good one I hope).

Why? It isn't so much the educational standard in the UK, but the morality and behaviour of the kids there. They were protected in their good UK private school. However, private schools tend to have kids from further distances than a local catchment school would - this means that their friends lived miles away and so they play with local kids. This is fine - I'm no snob about it and the area in which I lived was middle class anyway. However, the language, attitude and respect the older children have there is unbelievable. I did not want my kids growing into these promiscuous, trampish, semi-drunk, violent antisocialites.

My 10 year old (just turned last week) is in a class with 12 year olds and my 8 year old is in a class with 10 year olds - this is because they were ahead in their educational levels (they were also a year ahead in the UK). I add to their education at home (especially maths and English) and when they are the right age I will coach/pay for private tutorship them for GCSEs and A Levels which can be taken independently - to give them both sets of qualifications.

There is so much more the schooling than just grades - kids spend most of their waking lives there, upbringing, culture and peer-group pressures can affect our children at least as much as education (and its much easier to add to their education than it is to erase bad habits and induced personality disorders).

[wolf5370]

Interesting topic but i think you have to qualify the answer ... good prospects ... where? and doing what?

If you are talking about in Thailand then I would say their prospects are not particularly good.

Agreed. IMHO, I think as parents, WE need to start thinking outside the box. WHY would one even want their child to become someone's wage-slave in the first place? Is finding a good wage-slave job what we are teaching our children to do? Why not teach them to aspire to be entrepreneurs instead?

I recognized long ago that my daughter (full Thai) would have limited opportunities in this superficial and shallow society. I have worked for myself for all but the first 5 years after University (needed 5 years wage-slave experience under my belt). Since becoming a father, I am doing what I can to establish something that I can pass on to her so that she will be the boss and determiner of her own success. Specifically, I will be teaching her how to build, buy, and sell properties - a good profession for her even after I am long gone.

It starts with us, the parents. Mold the children to be wage-slaves for life, or mold them and give them a head start to be their own boss.

Yes this is my thinking too. It may be that we are both long term self-employed and as such don't directly think that our kids will become 'wage-slaves'; maybe this comes easier to those of us that took that route ourselves - most of my family have been employees and that is the concept that is natural to them, they ask their kids "what do you want to be?" but thinking "Who do you want to work for?".

There are lots of opportunities here (and in complete disagreement with an earlier post) I believe more so than back in the west. At least from an entrepreneurial viewpoint - many untapped markets and badly strung together business models that could be vastly improved upon - and as a Thai national its much easier for our kids to take up this challenge.

[SNGLIFE]

There are lots of opportunities here (and in complete disagreement with an earlier post) I believe more so than back in the west. At least from an entrepreneurial viewpoint - many untapped markets and badly strung together business models that could be vastly improved upon - and as a Thai national its much easier for our kids to take up this challenge.

A Thai national with a western business mindset is pretty awesome to behold. It seems rare in the current 30-40+ yo generation and somewhat more in the 20-29 yo generation. The generation that "should" advance Thailand to where it needs to be will likely be the current 0-10 yo kids. In their lifetime, they will have been exposed to more universal and cross-cultural ideas and influences than the current misguided and ethnocentric bunch. The isolation days when it excited an entire village to see a foreigner are disappearing fast - for better or for worse...