In Beijing, a couple who is getting divorced is in a custody battle, instead of fighting to win the custody of their 4 year-old son, they fight to lose it.
The mother claimed that she has no ability to raise the child and asked the court to award the custody to the husband. The husband however, said it’s bad for his job to have a kid around and it would be better for the young child to stay with his mother. Two of them then decided to put the whole thing to an end with an auction: the higher bidder can get rid of the child.
This couple is sure not the first who decides to lose their custody by bidding. In 2000, in a divorce case in Zhejiang province, both sides refused to take the custody of their 9 year-old daughter. Both swore that they would pay child support on time. The judge, left with no choice, set up an auction to settle the issue. The mother finally outbid the father with the final price of 250,000 yuan.
In 2005, a couple in Hebei Province was getting an divorce. In their custody battle, they fought to lose the custody of their daughter who has brain paralysis. The reasons for not taking the custody were more or less similar to what the first couple in Beijing has said. The couple claimed they did love the daughter and promised to pay child support after the divorce. The judge then came up with the idea of bidding for the custody, only that the highest bidder will lose the custody. After more than ten rounds of bidding, the mother outbid the father, again. The mother said after the case, "I offered the higher price for child support. But it’s far from enough for my daughter’s illness. My daughter needs money for her treatment and I’ll do my best to offer it. " (What a hypocrite !)
Money can never make up the time you missed spending with your children. The children may be too young to understand all these fuss now, but when they grow up and realize what their parents had done, it’s hard to imagine what kind of impact it will have on them and how they will feel about their parents. I’m really curious about the result of the Beijing couple’s custody battle, considering that in the first two previous cases the women seem to always win the auction to lose custody.
