Why the UAE Is Home
Once a UAE kid, always a UAE kiddo.
It’s a feeling so many parents talk about. One day they’ll move to different countries, build different lives, speak different languages. But a little part of them will always belong here.
Whether you’ve lived here three months or ten years, the UAE has a way of making you feel like you truly belong.
A childhood where fifty nationalities shared one playground. Where differences weren’t something to notice, but simply… life. Where home was never one place, but the people around them.
That is what the UAE gives them, and us. Safety. Openness. The freedom to run outside at golden hour and forget the world exists.
Backyards That Become Kingdoms
Neighbours from everywhere. Afternoons that stretch because nobody is rushing you home.
What a beautiful way to grow up. How lucky they are. And how lucky are we, to raise them in a place that asks nothing except that they be themselves.
There’s a contest that runs in Dubai every year: the Flame Tree hunt. Honestly, we didn’t think much of it at first. But it gave us the most beautiful excuse: step outside, bring the kids back to the park, let the city itself become the game.
We didn’t plan a photoshoot. We planned an afternoon. That distinction matters.
All the Wonder Came After
The feeling of having gone out with the children into the open air, watching them run, listening to them describe a stick that would become a sword.
Wandering without caring about the time or the heat. A ball bouncing in the distance. A bicycle bell. The laughter of two kids playing. This is what the UAE gives you, if you let it.
We gave them the afternoon, unhurried and unfiltered. And they gave us back something we didn’t know we had lost.
I Was Once a Kid
Once a UAE kid, always a UAE kiddo
That feeling never leaves.
Should we have the opportunity to win the contest, the prize goes to the children, because for us they always come first. But I think we already won.
We took them out of the house, gave them wings, and forgot about the screens. And we remembered why we chose to raise them here.
Thank you for this experience. From the UAE, for the kiddos who will carry a little piece of this place wherever they go.
I was once a kid. Never forget to be a kid!