[tearidrusydet]

What ails the Thai family?

Social problems mount as the traditional institution caves in to present-day pressures

Family bonds are fraying, nuclear households are taking over from traditional extended families, and family members are forced by economic pressures to leave for the big city, recent studies show.

"Our family institution is weakening more and more, and it leads to a number of social problems," Public Health Minister Mongkhol na Songkhla said last week.
The latest statistics revealed by the Public Health Ministry indicate that the social structure is shifting towards the Western pattern of nuclear families. The percentage of nuclear families has reached 60 per cent already. A survey by the National Statistical Office (NSO) confirms the trend, although with different figures.

"Growing numbers of kids and youths 'living alone', increasing teenaged mums and dads, and rising divorce rates" are the top three concerns, researcher Amornwich Nakhornthap told The Nation from the observations of his Child Watch Project.

One in every four primary students is living away from his or her parents, while for secondary students it's one in every three, and one in every two among university students, he said.

"More kids are no longer living with their parents for various reasons. Their parents leave them for work in big cities. They are sent for schooling in town. That puts them at greater risk of premature and unsafe sex and drug addiction," Amornwich said.

The disintegration of the extended family has seen the number of "teen" mums and dads exploding. In a year, the number of teen girls giving birth at hospitals is as high as 70,000, accounting for 10 per cent of all new mums nationwide, he said.

"The problem is they aren't ready to have children, or not mature enough to be good mums and dads. They need special counselling services to make them take care of their families," he said.

"In one case, I found a woman who already had grandchildren at the age of only 30. She raised her daughter the same way she had had been raised, and both had babies when they were teens," he said.

Thus the phenomenon of failed marriages may not come as a surprise. The divorce rate is alarming today. For every four marriages registered, one divorce is recorded, he said.

"This is a fact that we need to face with a strict conscience and not be frightened," he added.

Economic pressure is likely to be one of the main reasons for family ties unravelling, according to several surveys and research studies.

The report of the Public Health Ministry released to mark National Family Day yesterday stated that 36 per cent of families admitted that their income couldn't cover the daily expenses of the whole family. And 30 per cent of them are in debt.

The situation is little better for families in greater Bangkok, according to a survey conducted by Assumption University's Abac Poll Research Centre for the same occasion.

About 72 per cent of families in the metropolitan area said they talked to their family members every day. And 63 per cent of their conversation revolvedaround financial issues.

Health Minister Mongkhol said 62 per cent of the families studied had members drinking alcohol, 16 per cent had members gambling and 39 per cent had members committing domestic violence.

"It may be partly a consequence of economic stress," he said.

For families outside the capital, economic reasons have pushed members out to migrate to bigger cities for better incomes. According to the NSO, the number of migrant Thais is over two million for all reasons, and almost 80 per cent of them are of working age.

An NSO survey on heads of families has put the spotlight on women.

"Among those living alone, 52 per cent are women. For one parent living with children, 80.3 per cent are female. Among the families of grandparents living with grandchildren, 89.7 are female," the survey said.

Another big trend is society moving towards an "elderly" structure, said Pramote Prasartkul, a demographer at Mahidol University's Institute for Population and Social Research.

"While total population growth is less than 0.5 per cent annually, the growth rate of those over 60 is as high as 3 per cent per year. So society is going to face an elderly explosion in the near future," he said.

"We need to prepare for both the growing number of the elderly and their growing problems," he said.

As families splinter along generational lines, homes for the elderly are the first problem society needs to tackle, followed by the growing medical bill and their income, he said.

"Thai seniors living alone in 2004 were as much as 17 per cent, and 12 per cent of them were jobless living hopelessly in a home for the aged. About 80 per cent of them were still working both for themselves and for their daily expenses," Dr Yaowarat Porapakkham of the Health Systems Research Institute disclosed in her latest study.

"We found some elderly people were living with up to eight diseases. Many of those with geriatric diseases also have difficulty accessing state medical services," she said.

Dr Siriphan Sasat of the National Health Foundation said one sustainable way to reduce such problems was to promote local administrative organisations in taking a more active role to care for the elderly. Such community-based approaches should be a lot more efficient than pinning all hopes on the past policy of sending senior citizens to institutions.

Mongkhol said his ministry would launch an initiative to encourage healthy families among Thais, called the "warm and self-sufficient family" project. The ministry has set 12 criteria for such families and targets at least 80 qualified families per tambon or 560,000 nationwide.

"We hope it will improve things," he said.

Responding to the juvenile problem, Amornwich said the government should develop more "good" spaces for kids and youths in every province across the country. The Child Watch research head describes pub and bar areas as "bad" spaces for kids and adolescents while areas that provide creative activities are "good" areas. Exercise and sports spaces would also help.

"We have to face the truth that it is not feasible to decrease bad spaces; increasing the number of good spaces is easier and more practical," he said.

Kamol Sukin

The Nation

[DownloadMan]

What is that supposed to mean?
How can things be different and an old time outlook at Thai familys when there is no structure for it anymore.
Used to be that the whole structure was different with young staying at home, working with the family and raised with some social learnings and responsibility's.
No more, as young people find that it is easier and more profitable to go off to the city and work in the tourist industry and make in a couple of days what they would make in a month by staying at home working in the family farm or business, Prostitution is still illegal, but it is not enforced and damn near every girl from a poor family sees that as her way out and as a way to help the family or just because it is easier to make a little money and because it is an accepted way of life and not really illegal because there is no enforcement of the existing laws, cops taking pay offs instead of enforcing laws then it will continue and only get worse, you can put any laws on the books, but without enforcement they are just wasting their time because with no enforcement there is no laws.
Thailand is becoming known the world over as a whore society where any form of depravity is an accepted life form whether it is bars full of whores or places where child molestation and pedophilia is an accepted way as long a you will pay a little money, it is available, most if not all are known to police, how can they not be when tourists come from afar and know where they are going before they ever leave home and how much it will cost and what they can expect when they get there and the police not know.
How does anyone think that they can expect an old fashioned society when they live in a lawless state where anything goes and still expect most if not all to hold on to a lifestyle that has disappeared in a corrupted society.
People talk about there being shame by the parents because of what their daughters are doing, NO way, they seem to be proud of it and even brag about it, maybe if it were really against the law and those laws enforced then they would be, but not by it being an accepted profession.
Thailand seems to be an accepted destination for sex tourists by the government, Walking street in Pattaya is an area where whores, pimps, sexual deviates, tourists and police mingle freely and no one ever gets in anyone else business, Disgraceful.
I do not really know where such areas are because I do not live that kind of lifestyle, but there seems to be plenty of them and more and more young people are going into that form of living,, Disgraceful is about all I can say.

But put the blame where it belongs, not on the poor or general population, there are those that will live that way if it is accepted, but put it on the grafting police, Govt. officials and anyone who is to busy to help and protect the ones in their charge because they are getting rich because of the deplorable conditions that they allow people to live in.

And the police have to be held accountable, not because they only start at 6000 baht a month, but because the accept that salary but then expect to do nothing to earn even that, if you take the pay, then expect to do the work.

[ibiDb4uu]

Bravo . FIP Your thinking ...and its good; really good.

[reervieltnope]

Interesting post Khun Don. It reads, with a few minor changes, like many concerns that have been voiced over the years about the fate of the American family. I smiled reading nuclear households are taking over from traditional extended families. Here we lament the dissolving of the traditional nuclear family. Our small towns in rural America have, for years, seen an exodus of youth to the cities and alas we are also a graying nation.

Seems to me that these issues are part more of a social and economic evolution (?) and not something that can be easily addressed by government intervention, if it ever could be.

I'm a little sad to read it in a context pertaining to Thailand.

[Caursedus]

I see a lot of improvements over the old Thailand, Not all social changes are bad ones.

[Knillagrarp]

I see a lot of improvements over the old Thailand, Not all social changes are bad ones. Can you cite any specific examples of what might have been wrong with the old Thailand and what recent changes comprise improvements? Specifically, how was the old situation bad, and what is it about the new situation that makes it good? I would sure like to understand your position better on this one.

[DownloadMan]

I am with you on this one VC, I can not see what he is talking about, I found the Thailand of 50 years ago to be far better than what is going on today.
But then I do not have the insight or vast worldly experience of our resident expert on all things Thai.

[Caursedus]

Can you cite any specific examples of what might have been wrong with the old Thailand and what recent changes comprise improvements? Specifically, how was the old situation bad, and what is it about the new situation that makes it good? I would sure like to understand your position better on this one.

The number 1 improvement is the Fact Thai woman have now got the financial capacity to be financially independent of men, meaning men don't need to pay for them from the day they go out on there first date to the day they enter the grave, relieving the financial; pressure off men, so men don't have to bare the burden, distress, responsibility and drudgery of working like a dog most of there lives, working a 14 hours day 7 days a week to pay for every one else's demands.

[DownloadMan]

I knew when VC asked that you would come up with something about women and paying for a date.
You are a very small minded person Paul, I sure would hate to be like you.
Your whole life revolves around how cheap you are and how everyone, even your parents, is trying to get in your pocket, and how you will not stand for it.

I feel very sorry for you Paul.And I hope that you have your burial suit already made with the pockets where you can put all your earthly possessions because I know how much they mean to you.

[Knillagrarp]

Yeah, I saw that same "improvement" here in the States. Unlike my father, who was able to support his entire family on his single income, we now get to have two people working full-time. On top of that, we can buy less. Heck of an improvement that one 5555

[ibiDb4uu]

Does anyone know paul personally? Could be he is a milionaire....Pointing out his perceptions about the use of money.

[DownloadMan]

I doubt it, he has lied about to many things, first he only goes with his own body guards, then he has none but his supposed girl friends family furnished him with body guards then it was a brother or something, no I will not believe anything he says, I have seen winos on skidrow that told the same storys.

But you know, if you will lie about anything then you are a liar..and so many people on the forums are there because they are not for real, we here use this medium for contact with other farang, but then we never see them and talk face to face.
I surely would not be on here if I could have coffee with someone I liked and could find interesting to talk to.
Maybe thats his problem, he can find no one that will talk to him in Sydney.
Can't say that I blame them. 555

[ibiDb4uu]

What the... whatever does 555 mean?

[Jeaxatoem]

Its a pun. The Thai numeral for No5 is "Ha", so if you type a lot of fives together it becomes "Hahahahaha".

[DownloadMan]

55555

[Caursedus]

Maybe you's lot like working a drudgery all day every day, but I'm semi-retired and I prefer the woman to go out to work while I potter around my home, giving me the freedom to do what I like when I like.

[DownloadMan]

NO Paul, I have been retired for 16 years, ya see I didn't waist my money either and I no how to hold on to it without acting like a skidrow bum and telling horseshit storys like a bigshot.
I have never new anyone like you befor tho.



Can you read that..55555

[reervieltnope]

Be careful FiP, you're beginning to affect a certain spelling style!

[ibiDb4uu]

Bassai from Northren California? 55555

[reervieltnope]

Yeah, go figure. Mom was an English teacher and daughters an English major.

222 posts to get to 555? õõõ