Better for kids to be raised in pueblo with population 60k in Santa Fe with extended family, or in Buenos Aires

[QuilmesSlo]

Thanks. Not sure the intent is for me to be involved, as she already makes it virtually impossible to do videocalls etc..

Is $2K enough to live on in Buenos Aires?

Got it. Then, I'd offer her 2k to STAY PUT and give you the kids for the summer. I don't have taste for the drama.

 

[Millie]

Thanks. Not sure the intent is for me to be involved, as she already makes it virtually impossible to do videocalls etc..

Is $2K enough to live on in Buenos Aires?

If she makes it difficult for you to do videocalls…I am sorry to hear that. The kids need to have both parents involved in their lives as much as possible.
I hope you get to see them/ communicate with them often.

 

[Fiscal]

$2K for a woman and child is more than enough in BA (especially since you are going to pay school as well). That’s around $600K pesos. 100K for a good 1 BR apartment. 130K if the kid needs a bedroom. I can’t imagine spending more than another 150K-200K on food and household supplies. Chalk up another 50K for obra social and misc expenses. That leaves at least ~200K in what I would consider disposable income. And believe me, my calculations are quite generous. I’m assuming she is going to be living in a quite nice place (though not extravagant), buying all the meat and good quality food the two can eat (cooking at home mostly).

Obviously that is all dependent on her exchanging at the blue rate or WU rate.

My advice would be agree to it with the condition she signs something saying she won’t ask for more per month in the future. A kind of “I’ll give you everything you asked for, but this is the upper limit permanently”. Maybe you can leave a carve out for if the kid needs something like medical treatment or something expensive like that.

Just my two cents though. If you can work something like that then to me it’s worth not ever having to spend time in this pueblo again.

It is two kids (3 and 1 years old). She originally told me she wanted to put the kids into Lincoln, which I thought a bad idea (beyond it being like $6k a month once they get to high school) because Lincoln, St. Andrews etc are for like the super elite of Buenos Aires, not people from the interior with random American ex husbands. An assumption on my part.

 

[on the brink]

Much better for the kids to grow up in a small town surrounded by a loving family, than to be snubbed at Lincoln school by the children of diplomats and highly paid foreign executives. Your children wiil be seen as the outsiders - hicks from the boonies.

I have friends who live in estancias and small towns in the interior. Their children attend local schools, and move to Buenos Aires when they enter University. The arrangement seems to work very well.

 

[perry]

Children when

Much better for the kids to grow up in a small town surrounded by a loving family, than to be snubbed at Lincoln school by the children of diplomats and highly paid foreign executives. Your children wiil be seen as the outsiders - hicks from the boonies.

I have friends who live in estancias and small towns in the interior. Their children attend local schools, and move to Buenos Aires when they enter University. The arrangement seems to work very well.

In my opinion its best to grow up young children in the campo as their values and respect for others will be stronger . Yes they can come to the city when they are grown up but their identity is already formed and this will create a more well rounded individual

 

[PaulBee]

Of course part depends on the particular extended family. Sometimes they are good, but not always.

 

[on the brink]

Of course part depends on the particular extended family. Sometimes they are good, but not always.

Good point. But even so, it is better to grow up being accepted by a mediocre family, than to grow up feeling rejected by an upper crust gang. For young children, it is crucial to feel they BELONG, wherever they happen to be.

My two cents......