It goes without saying that your children are a daily delight, giving you a reason to smile and feel glad every single day. Family life should be a pleasure, right?
Unfortunately, kids are also gifted in being a constant source of worry and frustration. And opportunities to take a break from your tight-knit nuclear (or worse, single-parent) family are scant. Then there’s the pressure to be a better parent, as if merely surviving sleepless nights, the terrible twos, tweens, teens and everything in-between, with everyone physically intact, were not enough.
Expectations of a happy family life in the 2010s is putting parents and their increasingly stressed-out kids on the rack: the family’s breadwinner is either working late or permanently on call, thanks to the blessing of mobile tech; grandparents are long-distance, elderly or less on-message about nut allergies and the like than parents might wish; the main carer is organising a daily three-ring circus of school, homework, after-school activities and play dates, and is face down in a box of doughnuts by 5pm. Where’s the joy? Satisfaction? Sense of fulfilment? If any of the above describes your home life, it’s time to seek out some fun. Seriously, here’s how.
Move to Sweden
It can only be described as fortunate that couples planning a family don't spend much time Googling the term "parenting happiness gap". The results would almost certainly cause them to reconsider – survey after survey has shown that new parents rate themselves considerably less happy than non-parents. Take, for example, a 2015 study of 2,000 parents in Germany published in the journal Demography, which found that, on average, the effect of having a child on parental well-being in the first 12 months is worse than divorce or even the death of a partner. It doesn't have to be this way, however. A 2016 study of parents in 22 European and English-speaking countries by the University of Texas showed that places with family-friendly social-care policies, such as paid sick and holiday leave, and subsidised childcare, have parents who are just as happy as non-parents. So itinerant UAE folk, when you're considering your next move, Russia, France, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Hungary and Portugal have the happiest parents. The United States, Australia and Britain the least.
Be selfish
Being with baby 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is an extremely dull business. When you’re not changing nappies, wiping up food spills or trying to reason with a small angry face, you’re mashing food and sterilising bottles. Throw in sleep-deprivation and daily repetition, and it’s enough to turn anyone into a basket case. Taking time out minus baby (or toddler or 10-year-old for that matter) is not a self-indulgence, but a sanity-saver. In the beginning, this may mean nothing more than having a hot shower for 30 minutes without the sound of a baby crying or someone shouting “mummy”, but longer-term, it’s about regularly setting aside time to put your own likes, health and hobbies ahead of your family’s.
Be active, not stifling
It’s important to differentiate between active parenting and micromanaging your children’s every move, motivated by a fear that somehow they might become less brilliant people. Even better, forget parenting styles completely and just hang out with your kids, undistracted by phones, work deadlines or putting the dinner on. This is when you realise your 4-year-old says hoppypitamus instead of hippopotamus and parenting becomes (whisper it) fun.
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Read more:
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Let them play
Demanding that your kids go upstairs to play with their toys allows them to be creative and develop social skills while giving you time to focus your attention elsewhere. Relax. What’s not to like?
Harness the help of others
I was once beckoned into the darker recesses of the car park beneath Sun and Sky Towers on Reem Island to help wipe sick off a stranger’s back. A slightly fraught mum, holding a small baby, asked me if she had milk stains down the back of her dress. She did, so I commiserated while offering to mop it up with a baby wipe. Did I mind? Not a bit. Parenting requires help from wherever you can find it. Don’t be shy about asking anyone and everyone from grandparents to teachers, or even strangers in car parks, to help lighten the load.
Laugh it off
I learnt long ago not to judge the behaviour of anyone else’s children. Every time I would inwardly roll my eyes and say a prayer of thanks that it wasn’t my child throwing sand or pulling hair, a few weeks later one of my offspring would be the guilty party. If I hadn’t developed a thick skin and a sense of humour about such growing pains, I would never have gone out, let alone had a social life. Nowadays, so long as nothing’s broken – or on fire – I laugh and commiserate with my friends about family ups and downs.
Company Profile
Name: HyveGeo
Started: 2023
Founders: Abdulaziz bin Redha, Dr Samsurin Welch, Eva Morales and Dr Harjit Singh
Based: Cambridge and Dubai
Number of employees: 8
Industry: Sustainability & Environment
Funding: $200,000 plus undisclosed grant
Investors: Venture capital and government
The five pillars of Islam
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Almouneer
Started: 2017
Founders: Dr Noha Khater and Rania Kadry
Based: Egypt
Number of staff: 120
Investment: Bootstrapped, with support from Insead and Egyptian government, seed round of
$3.6 million led by Global Ventures
Match info:
Real Betis v Sevilla, 10.45pm (UAE)
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
TWISTERS
Director:+Lee+Isaac+Chung
Starring:+Glen+Powell,+Daisy+Edgar-Jones,+Anthony+Ramos
Rating:+2.5/5
Dengue fever symptoms
High fever (40°C/104°F)
Severe headache
Pain behind the eyes
Muscle and joint pains
Nausea
Vomiting
Swollen glands
Rash
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Klipit
Started: 2022
Founders: Venkat Reddy, Mohammed Al Bulooki, Bilal Merchant, Asif Ahmed, Ovais Merchant
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Digital receipts, finance, blockchain
Funding: $4 million
Investors: Privately/self-funded
Confirmed bouts (more to be added)
Cory Sandhagen v Umar Nurmagomedov
Nick Diaz v Vicente Luque
Michael Chiesa v Tony Ferguson
Deiveson Figueiredo v Marlon Vera
Mackenzie Dern v Loopy Godinez
Tickets for the August 3 Fight Night, held in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, went on sale earlier this month, through www.etihadarena.ae and www.ticketmaster.ae.
Get Out
Director: Jordan Peele
Stars: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford
Four stars
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km
Price: Dh380,000
On sale: now
ICC Awards for 2021+
MEN
Cricketer of the Year+– Shaheen Afridi+(Pakistan)
T20 Cricketer of the Year+– Mohammad Rizwan+(Pakistan)
ODI Cricketer of the Year+– Babar Azam+(Pakistan)
Test Cricketer of the Year+– Joe Root+(England)
WOMEN
Cricketer of the Year+– Smriti Mandhana+(India)
ODI Cricketer of the Year+– Lizelle Lee+(South Africa)
T20 Cricketer of the Year+– Tammy Beaumont+(England)
Wydad 2 Urawa 3
Wydad Nahiri 21’, Hajhouj 90'
Urawa Antonio 18’, 60’, Kashiwagi 26’
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
Indika
Developer: 11 Bit Studios
Publisher: Odd Meter
Console: PlayStation 5, PC and Xbox series X/S
Rating: 4/5
The Specs
Engine: 1.6-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 118hp
Torque: 149Nm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Price: From Dh61,500
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Revibe
Started: 2022
Founders: Hamza Iraqui and Abdessamad Ben Zakour
Based: UAE
Industry: Refurbished electronics
Funds raised so far: $10m
Investors: Flat6Labs, Resonance and various others
Company profile
Name: Yabi by Souqalmal
Started: May 2022, launched June 2023
Founder: Ambareen Musa
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: undisclosed but soon to be announced
Number of staff: 12
Investment stage: seed
Investors: Shuaa Capital
KEY DATES IN AMAZON'S HISTORY
July 5, 1994: Jeff Bezos founds Cadabra Inc, which would later be renamed to Amazon.com, because his lawyer misheard the name as 'cadaver'. In its earliest days, the bookstore operated out of a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington
July 16, 1995: Amazon formally opens as an online bookseller. Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought becomes the first item sold on Amazon
1997: Amazon goes public at $18 a share, which has grown about 1,000 per cent at present. Its highest closing price was $197.85 on June 27, 2024
1998: Amazon acquires IMDb, its first major acquisition. It also starts selling CDs and DVDs
2000: Amazon Marketplace opens, allowing people to sell items on the website
2002: Amazon forms what would become Amazon Web Services, opening the Amazon.com platform to all developers. The cloud unit would follow in 2006
2003: Amazon turns in an annual profit of $75 million, the first time it ended a year in the black
2005: Amazon Prime is introduced, its first-ever subscription service that offered US customers free two-day shipping for $79 a year
2006: Amazon Unbox is unveiled, the company's video service that would later morph into Amazon Instant Video and, ultimately, Amazon Video
2007: Amazon's first hardware product, the Kindle e-reader, is introduced; the Fire TV and Fire Phone would come in 2014. Grocery service Amazon Fresh is also started
2009: Amazon introduces Amazon Basics, its in-house label for a variety of products
2010: The foundations for Amazon Studios were laid. Its first original streaming content debuted in 2013
2011: The Amazon Appstore for Google's Android is launched. It is still unavailable on Apple's iOS
2014: The Amazon Echo is launched, a speaker that acts as a personal digital assistant powered by Alexa
2017: Amazon acquires Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, its biggest acquisition
2018: Amazon's market cap briefly crosses the $1 trillion mark, making it, at the time, only the third company to achieve that milestone
Herc's Adventures
Developer: Big Ape Productions
Publisher: LucasArts
Console: PlayStation 1 & 5, Sega Saturn
Rating: 4/5
TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: SmartCrowd
Started: 2018
Founder: Siddiq Farid and Musfique Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech / PropTech
Initial investment: $650,000
Current number of staff: 35
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Various institutional investors and notable angel investors (500 MENA, Shurooq, Mada, Seedstar, Tricap)
PROFILE OF STARZPLAY
Date started: 2014
Founders: Maaz Sheikh, Danny Bates
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment/Streaming Video On Demand
Number of employees: 125
Investors/Investment amount: $125 million. Major investors include Starz/Lionsgate, State Street, SEQ and Delta Partners
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Terra
Started: 2021
Based: Dubai
Founder: Hussam Zammar
Sector: Mobility
Investment stage: Pre-seed funding of $1 million
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Kill
Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
Starring: Lakshya, Tanya Maniktala, Ashish Vidyarthi, Harsh Chhaya, Raghav Juyal
Rating: 4.5/5
Euro 2020
Group A: Italy, Switzerland, Wales, Turkey
Group B: Belgium, Russia, Denmark, Finland
Group C: Netherlands, Ukraine, Austria,
Georgia/Kosovo/Belarus/North Macedonia
Group D: England, Croatia, Czech Republic,
Scotland/Israel/Norway/Serbia
Group E: Spain, Poland, Sweden,
N.Ireland/Bosnia/Slovakia/Ireland
Group F: Germany, France, Portugal,
Iceland/Romania/Bulgaria/Hungary
8 traditional Jamaican dishes to try at Kingston 21
- Trench Town Rock: Jamaican-style curry goat served in a pastry basket with a carrot and potato garnish
- Rock Steady Jerk Chicken: chicken marinated for 24 hours and slow-cooked on the grill
- Mento Oxtail: flavoured oxtail stewed for five hours with herbs
- Ackee and salt fish: the national dish of Jamaica makes for a hearty breakfast
- Jamaican porridge: another breakfast favourite, can be made with peanut, cornmeal, banana and plantain
- Jamaican beef patty: a pastry with ground beef filling
- Hellshire Pon di Beach: Fresh fish with pickles
- Out of Many: traditional sweet potato pudding
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Company Profile
Company name: Hoopla
Date started: March 2023
Founder: Jacqueline Perrottet
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment required: $500,000
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Nomad Homes
Started: 2020
Founders: Helen Chen, Damien Drap, and Dan Piehler
Based: UAE and Europe
Industry: PropTech
Funds raised so far: $44m
Investors: Acrew Capital, 01 Advisors, HighSage Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Partech, Precursor Ventures, Potluck Ventures, Knollwood and several undisclosed hedge funds