The American moved to Dubai with his family and says there is a better mother there

My husband and I had to find it a place where we could both work and have care for our two children who were 6 months and 4 at the time. I also saw it as an opportunity to explore a new place. We thought about New York and San Francisco, but then we thought this might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take and go somewhere further and decided Dubai.

i had I worked in Dubai in 2013 and enjoyed my time there. My husband is a contractor and has had opportunities to work there. So, we thought, “Why don’t we just go to Dubai?”

Our trip was supposed to last three weeks, but it turned into eight, then 10. My husband started working on his startup in Dubai, while I commuted between the US and Dubai, applied for work and prepared our house in Washington, DC, to be rented.

In March of this year, I found a job in Dubai and we were able to move there permanently.

I love who I am as a mother in Dubai

As a mother in the US, I didn’t have much support. I worked, did laundry, and ran to my kids’ activities. I didn’t have as much quality time with my kids anymore because I was running the household and working full time.

In Dubai, however, the culture is built around quality time with your family. When I come home from work, our part-time nanny, whom we pay AED 4,000, or $1,089 a month, has already done the laundry, cooked the food, and bathed the kids.

At 6 in the evening I’m done with work. I don’t expect to check my emails. So when I come to my kids, they don’t get yelled at because they don’t get a distracted parent. They get the best version of me.

I’m more relaxed here

In the US, we were often overscheduled. i knew three or four weeks before, what we would have done every weekend – spontaneity died at the door.

But in Dubai, we don’t stress over restaurant reservations or worry about a place being too crowded. We figure it out as we go.

Because of this, I spend more quality time with my spouse, new friends and children. My weekends are really relaxing. When I go back to work on Mondays, I am the best version of myself in the corporate environment.

In the workplace, face-to-face relationships are valued. As a result, the lines between professional and personal can be easily blurred. A lot of networking is done through WhatsApp. And so you can set up a date and at the same time send memes or talk about travel. There is no facade where everyone has to be very serious all the time.

It’s also easier to make friends

Making friends was much harder in the US as people mostly had their friend groups from school and were not inclined to include new friends. Because everything was so scheduled in the US, it was even more difficult to find someone to watch our kids and take time for ourselves.

But making friends was never a concern in Dubai. Living in an expat city where 92% of its population of 3,655,000 is non-Emirati, everyone is very open to meeting. Once you’re connected to a network, you’ll also meet all the other people there. And there are so many interesting and new people to meet here with different perspectives than we are used to.

We travel more as a family

Before we moved to Dubai, we already were passionate travelers. But with Dubai a global hub, we travel more now. Many affordable destinations such as Kazakistan or Beirut are within a five-hour flight. These vacation destinations were only within reach when I lived in the US due to the cost and length of flights.

A decade since I last lived here, Dubai has expanded its footprint. Now, you can find people from all over the world and eat different cuisines – it’s truly a cosmopolitan city.

Everything here is also designed to make life easier. Anything from anywhere can be sent to your home in 15 minutes if you need something delivered.

For now, we plan to come back to the US to visit every summer, but we will continue to live here as long as Dubai will have us.

It’s strange to think how a freak accident changed the rest of our lives.

Have a story about moving abroad that you want to share? Connect with the reporter, Erin: [email protected].