Caucasian - Thai

[deethai]

Caucasian - Thai thread

Are there any other parents or parents to be where one of you is Thai and the other one Caucasian?

The Thai name for a mixed child is "Lug krueng", litterally translated means "Child half". I include it in this post in case someone does a search for it.

Some possible topics I could see to be discussed in this thread in regards to Thailand, Thai culture:

Language
I have lived in Thailand since early 2006. My boyfriend is Thai and I am pregnant right now. My native language is German, I speak English and basic Thai, can't read or write it though. My boyfriend speaks as good as no English. Not sure yet what will happen in terms of language later on.

Photos
Well, Thais are perceived by many as physically attractive and so are mixed Children, so that's a good thing.
If someone has got any photos of babies with a Caucasian and a Thai parent, it would be nice to collect links to them.

Culture
I would also be glad for my child to grow up in Thailand, since the culture teaches very polite and calm behaviour as well as respect for parents, older people and teachers to children. Nutrition habits in Thai culture are also often much better than in western cultures, many children I met, especially boys do not like chocolate or sweets for example, food is generally quite healthy here.
Life can be a bit dangerous in Thailand since children learn to ride 100 or 120 cc motorbikes alone as young as 7 , 8 years of age, without helmet, and nobody really minds that. Giving birth in Thailand is also a concern since the c-section rates at international hospitals can reach 90% (for profit reasons) and there are no midwifes that attend home births and no birth centers.

Learning
Many expats also worry about schooling options. There are international schools, but not everywhere in Thailand, and they don't always have the best image. Some expat children are being home-schooled. I don't know about unschooling parents in Thailand, I just only recently heard about this, I find it a very interesting option though.

[expecting-joy]

Just wanted to offer you "Good Luck" wishes. I am raising our daughters with English, German, Spanish and French, so I understand at least the language portion. We are also seriously considering unschooling. (Our dd doesn't like chocolate or sweets, either. We don't have them in our house. We have major issues with the amount of junk food thrust on children in the U.S.)

[limboland la la]

I'm having a luk khreung too Dee Thee. I've been in Thailand for almost 5 years now.

I'm American, my husband is Thai... we began our relationship with English Thai and Thai English dictionaries in the park 3 years ago.

Now he can speak as decent English as my Thai-- I have slightly more Thai vocabulary, but his grammar, reading and writing are much better than mine. When it became apparent to me that it was a long term commitment, he started studying English at the school I taught at.

Plan on returning to the states to raise our child for awhile. Mainly want some help from mum, and a yard. Also, planning on returning to school. But I agree totally that the respect for elders and family attachment culture in Thailand is much more appealing than in the West. Or at least than in America.

Hopefully, he'll be speaking Thai to the child full time and I'll be speaking English full time.

Good to see a fellow Thailander here! :treehugger:

[tempestjewel]

:wave

Neat to find some others here! I'm caucasian, my husband is Thai.

My husband was born in Lamphun, and adopted along with one of his sisters to his aunt and uncle. His aunt is his mom's sister, and his uncle is american and met his aunt during the Vietnam war in Bangkok. So, my husband has lived in Germany, Michigan, Kentucky, Florida, and finally Washington where we live now.

We travelled back to Thailand in March 06 before I was pg with my 2nd daughter. Everyone called us "falang" and my daughter "falang noi". My oldest has very pale skin, and more of my features, but dark eyes and hair. People were constantly touching her skin to see if it was real or painted to be lighter. They also calling my oldest the Thai word for doll, though I'm not recalling it at the moment (thukatah?).

I don't speak more then very, very, basic Thai. My husband understands most Thai, but cannot read or write because he left Thailand just as he was learning and he was so eager to learn English he lost most of his Thai. It still bothers him to this day. I've taken a Thai language class but my understanding is very limited.

I absolutely loved the food when we were there. My husband's mother would go out to the garden and pick fresh greens to cook with meals. Eating a mango straight from a tree was so unbelievably delicious and nutritious! We eat a mixture of foods at home- we probably make traditional Thai food only a few times a month (usually sticky rice and papaya salad, phad se-iew, or red curry). My oldest DD became allergic to peanuts at the age of 3, but she is no longer testing allergic. We are doing an oral challenge at the allergist in June. I'm really hoping the peanut allergy really isn't a problem because it would make traveling back there much more scary. It would also mean we would have freedom to dine at more Thai restaurants around here!

I did see evidence of traditional nutrition going down-hill in my husband's village. None of the mom's breastfeed, though all the older women in the village were very supportive and said it was very good I was still nursing my oldest DD (who was 27 months at the time). They kept buying us sweets and bags of potato chips even though its not the food we eat at home. They just assumed since we were "American" we'd eat that stuff. I much prefer their tradtional diet! My husband has almost no taste for sweets because he didn't grow up on them. I predict a huge increase in obesity, heart-disease, diabetes, and the like the more the traditional diet is abandoned, which is really really sad :(

I will have to get some pics to a public site of my DD's so I can share them!

[tempestjewel]

I hope this link works- I uploaded pics of my family:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tempestjewel/2436581907/in/set-72157604694495762/

[Mali]

I see its been awhile since this thread was started but I just came across it now and am quite excited! I'm American and my husband is Thai. I lived in Thailand for 4 years which is when I met him and we were married and had our first daughter in Bangkok. We moved to the US when DD #1 was 1 1/2 and have been here for a little over 2 years. We had DD#2 about a year ago. We were back in Thailand for about 2 months over the winter and it was the first time since we moved that we had been back. We spent most of the time in the South with my in-laws.
I think Thailand was a wondeful place to begin a family and I love that our girls have this as part of their experience and culture. DD #1 loves telling people that she is from Thailand.
I would love to hear more about anyone's experince since moving back to their native country. DH had never left Thailand before we moved to the US and it has been very challenging for us. We definitely think about moving back or, ideally, of finding some way to manage both homes for periods of time each year. I have also struggled with schooling issue. The expense of the international schools is quite high but I also know that, unfortunately, many of the government schools are not the education (or lack thereof) that I want my girls to get. That of course leaves me with home schooling although I think the socialization of school is also an important aspect of children's development. Anyway, great thread, I hope there are more of us and the chatting can continue. Thailand has such a huge palce in my heart that I always love finding others who have found a home there too!