Child Support Custody

Although the concepts in this article do make legal sense, in a Western country, I really wonder how accurate the premise the writer is making is? He asserts that foreign men can be successfully pursued for child support by Thai women, even when those men leave Thailand, and go back to their Western homeland. Even when you step back and consider he is claiming the odds will only turn against the men in “12-18 months”, I really doubt his claims.

First, Thailand doesn’t move that fast, and there has been little in the press to indicate the Thais have even started to think about this subject. This may be an exception, but I highly doubt it. Can the writer provide any evidence that Thailand even plans to sign onto the “Hague convention”? And better yet, does and will this make implementation of international child support payments (between Thailand and Western nations) a reality? I highly doubt it will. I really think this is a lot of legal talk with no real basis for practical reality in the next 5 years, or even 10 years. Again, I’m not an expert on this matter, so I will await any farther information on the matter if it’s forthcoming.

Second, unless I am misreading the writer, he has made a clear contradiction in his article. At first, he writes, “All that will be looked at is how much money the mother makes / earns each month. That amount will be converted to the currency of your country.”

Next, he continues by saying, “How much can you expect to pay? Figure an "average" of 20% of your net monthly income — in other words the amount you take home after taxes. For example, if you have a net income of USD $4,000 per month — at today's exchange rate, you would end up paying 31,900 baht each month (USD$800.00). “

Now, I have to ask, if the monthly payout amount depends on the mother’s earnings, than how is it going to be a straight percentage of the father’s earnings?

If the monthly payout is stipulated by the mother’s earnings, most Isaan women will not be able to document anything near 30,000 Baht in monthly income. The only ones that will likely come close are bargirls, and as their income is most illegal, under the table, and undocumented, the monthly payments would likely come closer to 3,000 to 10,000 Baht per month. Even then, I am being generous I think, given 3,000 to 10,000 Baht would be the mother’s monthly income, and not what would be required (in addition to that) to take care of a child.

This oversight, I hope, is because the writer meant to say it is based on a percentage of the father’s earnings and nothing else, and not that the writer is simply confused while purporting an article to be legal truth.

Finally, like Stickman, I highly doubt the potential collection of most of the paternity suits between overseas farang and Thai girls will happen. I suspect most would stem from bargirls, and even if the prostitutes start having the nerve to claim paternity, most will be lying. They will simply fail the DNA tests. For those that can achieve 96% to 99% proof, any good Western lawyer will definitely point out that a 1-4% potential for the man NOT being the father is exponentially higher given the girl is a full time whore! How so? Because, if I suspect correctly, the odds of him being or not being the father are calculated based on certain estimated factors, including the assumed disbursement of men with certain genes / traits and the likelihood of a given woman meeting that man in sexual intercourse. Now, when those odds are calculated for “normal people”, then we try to apply them to a full time whore, everything gets skewed and out of whack, doesn’t it? If there are any trained gene specialists or qualified doctors out there, maybe you can lend insight into this matter!

Let me close by saying I never purported that men should not pay child support to support the children they fathered with Thai bargirls. What I did mean to say and did say is that most won’t win their suits, in my opinion, even if they have the nerve to sue. I say this, because I believe that most who attempt to get support for a child are simply lying or randomly guessing about paternity to try and scam a farang for more than the fee for sex they originally received. I consider such nerve to be the audacity of a brazen schemer. For those that actually did have a child from a given customer, if they do have the nerve to pursue the farang father (ex-customer) for child support, I think it is a fair request and the action may actually reflect courage. The difference is in if they have a moral right to request that support.

However, if the support is provided, the farang will have a hard time guaranteeing the money is actually going to the child’s benefit and not to the mother or her family or husband’s benefit. It would be better if he could get the mother to release full custody to him, so the child can be brought away from the environment of a prostitute and those that benefit from her trade. I am not saying this hypocritically, knowing full well that the man benefited from her being a whore, but simply out of recognition of the fact that such an environment would do nothing but bring to this child’s life the same drug, abuse, poverty, low education, and other potential problems his mother already faces as a Thai whore. Given the monetary motivations of so many Thai prostitutes, the man would have a good chance of getting the child’s custody with a one-time payment. I am not saying all Thais are like this, but consider that so many will actually settle murder charges or accidents (resulting in the death of someone they purportedly love dearly) with one-time payments! We read about these stories all over the Bangkok newspapers. Sure, it may make the mother distraught to lose custody of her son/daughter, but how about the father’s same desire to be in contact with his children? And most importantly, shouldn’t the welfare of the child be taken into account in considering who should be the one to have custody? I am not talking laws here, but about what is best for the children.

Stickman says:

You'll get no arguments from me on this and I especially like the start of the last paragraph. Knowing these girls, I doubt much of the money would even go to the child. For anyone caught out, 5,000 baht a month would be fair, though you would want to verify, from time to time, that the child is doing ok, and that the money is actually being spent on the child.