Anyone relocated/moved to DUBAI or UAE

[shhhh]

Dh is self employed and there is an opportunity for us to move to Dubai to live.
Good wage and benifits and having holidayed there before we are ken to persue this opportunity.

Im a sahm so I have no real commitments and obviously dd (2.3 years) and ds (6 months) will come with.

Anyone offer any advice,suggestions etc.? What is life like there as a resident...life style...schooling....life as a sahm in dubai as well as the medical side of things. ( we would like for lo's at some point).

Dh is looking into things now but I just wanted to get some advice from others.
BTW I would love the chance to go.

[dangerstrawberry]

Hi there. Try expatwoman.com. It's got a very active info section on Dubai and living in the UAE. Dubai is very well geared up for the expat lifestyle - particularly with young kids.

[AbuDhabiMum]

I have been leaving in the UAE for 5 years, gave birth to DD (nearly 2) there but not in Dubai. I find it great with kids : lots of activities, lots of sahm to spend time with and people are really kids-friendly. Even breastfeeding in public has never been a problem (and this is a muslim country !). Local women are encouraged to have 6 kids each, so

Dubai has pretty good medical care, but I cannot judge on the schooling yet.

Plan you budget ahead, though, because the housing is getting really expensive, not really the dream expatriation money-wise anymore...

[shhhh]

Thanks ds, After posting my message I searched for more info on mn and came up with lots of mner's who were in the process of moving there etc....some were over a year old etc so not sure what the outcome was...


ADM,thanks for your post as well. From reading more on mn it seems that ad is better than dubai with regards to lo's. Also slightly cheaper I believe..?

Its good about the sahm bit...tbh atm I find here in the uk sahm's are a minoroty..well in my circle of friends anyway.

LOL about "women having 6 kids" That should suit us fine, we would love 5 in total.

Any more advice..?

[Starmummy]

Hi

We made the move. Love Dubai. It has its moments but doesnt everywhere? Traffic is chaos, the drivers think indicators are for beginers(?), but the weather and things to do are fab. It isnt the most cultured city in the world but they do have theatre, pop concerts (Pink was here last week), drama groups and stuff. Obviously all there are gyms and restaurants, play areas, parks, shops etc. I wouldnt say it is a hard life here, however I would echo ADM rent is v exp. You could easily pay 250k AED (7 to the £) for a 3 b3d villa in a nice area. All areas are nice some are just more convienient. also rent is paid upfront for the year so you will prob need to take a bank loan. It is possible to buy. 3 bed semi starts at about 2.5m AED.
School are exp but by no means as exp as private school in the UK. Nurseries are v exp apparently (DS is 12 so no idea of current costs). Schools have waiting lists and are a very hot topic at dinner parties (no change there then) as is buying.
Any more questions please ask away.

Def second strawberries expatwoman.com has a fount of information and they are always please to help a newbie with the smallest of questions.

HTH
starmummy