Raising 'street smart' kids in the city of gold

I first left for Dubai way back in 2001, my head buzzing with one ubiquitous advice doled out by anxious relatives : “Make sure you come back in a few years ... it’s just not possible to raise kids out there”.
Quite a lot has changed then. Dubai’s skyline and economy burgeoned; the place became more popular; and companies started cutting down on the outrageous ‘expat’ packages they traditionally lured employees with.But the misconceptions about raising kids here still remain.
Dubai has never been considered a suitable place for bringing up kids, in the manner of, say, some of the popular suburbs of London and New York. It has long been dismissed as an ‘outpost’ with few amenities. In fact, I’d spent my first few years heartily concurring with the general verdict.
Not any more, however. With two children, plus a dozen years in Dubai behind me, my concerns are quite different now. Far from worrying about my children’s safety, I now tend to worry more about their ability to cope in less salubrious environments.
For contrary to its ill-deserved repute as an unsafe place, Dubai is, in reality, a safe place to raise a family in.
For starters, alcohol is restricted. Drugs are taboo. I do not spend nights worrying if my 13-year-old would, in spite of my hawk-eyed vigilance, be enticed to try drugs as an experimental form of recreation. Internet is censored for explicit content – and while this might be a guaranteed put-off for many, it does mean my children are not easily exposed to predators and perverted ideas. Crime rates are pretty low. Of course, there are break-ins and thefts, but not to levels that basic precautionary measures would not prevent.
Not that serious situations do not happen here. They do. Much like other cities, Dubai too, has witnessed notorious crimes against women and children. A couple of years ago, there was one case of child molestation in a school bus that sent shockwaves through the entire population, and the Indian community in particular (the victim, perpetuators and the school all being Indian). The case was later sorted out, with the men being acquitted, but not before spreading an air of eerie distrust through the community. For months after, most of us were uneasy around every strange man in the vicinity, and doubly uneasy around familiar men working for/with us. To our apprehensive eyes, domestic helpers, drivers, security personnel all took on shades of child abusers. But the immediate preventive measures – mandatory women conductors, GPS monitors in all buses, thorough background checks – went quite a way in alleviating some of the paranoia.
The rules and penalties are generally on the stricter side, and often end in deportation (though there certainly isn’t any head/hand chopping, as popularly believed!) The more stringent rules might be stifling for some adults, but they do provide a safer environment for children. So much so that the biggest concern for many parents here is whether our offspring will take kindly to being transported to alien soil.
For instance, with my son contemplating a college education in India, I spend considerable time worrying if he’d find the keen competitiveness there too much to handle. My friend from the UK, on the other hand, worries if her children would be able to adjust to the greater freedom that comes with university life in the West. Neither of us, oddly, worry if the current life here is safe for our kids. We know that, for a large part, it is.
Children in Dubai do not suffer from a lack of educational amenities or ill-qualified faculty. There are world-class schools here, with teachers who extract the best out of students, including admissions to top universities around the world. Kids here are not endangered by turbaned villains straight off a Hollywood movie either– that’s a myth.
No - the real danger lies in the tendency to churn out Peter Pans and Pollyannas who believe all is well in the world. It isn’t, and my job as a parent is to ensure my duo are aware of the fact, and to ensure they turn out as “street smart” as possible. I often repeat the Scout Movement’s motto as one of the important rules they ought to follow…though true to their Dubai leanings, my sons recognize it better from one of the Disney songs they are forever listening to – “Be prepared”.