I LEFT THE UK FOR DUBAI – WE HAVE A LIVE-IN NANNY BUT MISS PARKS AND ROAST DINNERS
Around half a million people left the UK to live elsewhere last year, and it’s not just retirees. A survey of more than 3,000 young people by the British Council showed that 72 per cent of 18- to 30-year-olds would consider living and working abroad, with destinations in Europe, the United Arab Emirates, Australia and South East Asia proving popular.
Many expats are seeking a better quality of life, and cite varying factors – cold weather, high cost of living, extortionate childcare, stagnant wages, dwindling opportunity, lack of work-life balance and even poor romantic prospects – among their motivations for leaving the UK. The i Paper’s Expat Files follows Brits who have taken the leap and settled elsewhere, detailing the ups and downs of their journey. Peach Everard, 38, tells Sophie Wilkinson about moving to Dubai with her husband, three-and-a-half-year-old daughter and two-year-old son.
I wake up at about half past six, and me, my husband and our nanny team up, three against two, on the kids. Me and my daughter are out the door at 7.15am, I walk her six minutes down the road, then come back to walk my son to his nursery for 8am. It’s a cute little eco nursery on the corner of our house run by a British family. I then go to the office for about three hours, although sometimes it can take an hour to drive there, Dubai traffic can be pretty full on!
Education is really good here. We selected a British school so our kids would learn a British curriculum. A slight issue is that while they’re young, the kids finish school at midday, which means they need a nanny – it’s impossible to do a job without having one. That’s why all the houses in Dubai have a nanny’s room.
Our nanny lives in our house and has a separate door, bathroom and kitchenette. After work, I pick up my daughter at half past 12, the nanny picks up my son at the same time, then he goes to bed while my daughter chills out and plays. Later on we go on a play date or after school club.
My nanny is so good with the children and she also does cleaning, some cooking and ironing. Nannies work for about six days a week for about 3400-4860 dirhams (£700-£1000) a month, which is really reasonable and cost effective.
That said, she doesn’t do everything, and no matter where you go in the world as a parent, you’re still parenting. But it is very easy here. It’s really safe for the kids, so we can go to the mall and they can kind of run along or lick the floor (because that’s just what kids do!). Everyone is really amazing with children and so friendly towards them.
At the weekends, the kids go to tennis and swimming clubs – we’ve got the beach on our doorstep – and we even go and camp in the desert and see the camels. When family visit we do the touristy things, like seeing the fountains at the Burj Khalifa.
The doctors are really good here, too. When you tell them you’re pregnant, you’re assigned a doctor from the very beginning who’ll be there for all the scans and the labour. And the hospital is like a hotel – immediately after my daughter was born I was served delicious spaghetti Bolognese!
The doctors here follow the same protocols as the NHS when it comes to childhood vaccinations, and what’s great is you can get an appointment within about an hour and most doctors are available on WhatsApp. My son recently got hand, foot and mouth disease so I had to send them photos and then we got a prescription delivered to our door that day. It’s a misconception that kids can’t get colds here like in the UK – there are so many people moving through the city that they’re bound to pick something up.
Weather-wise, it’s really good for kids from about early October until the end of May. In June it gets pretty hot, and while everything is air conditioned, there are some fairly clammy times at school drop off, and it’s just a bit harder for my son to run around when it gets so hot. We definitely get through a lot of SPF in the summer. But our biggest workaround is that we exit in early July to head back to the UK to see family, returning by late August to get ready for term time. Luckily the company where I work gives us a work abroad allowance of 25 days and then I use annual leave and a couple of weeks of unpaid leave. Around the same time, our nanny goes home to the Philippines, too.
I know not everyone is in the same position; plenty of mums I know don’t work because it doesn’t make sense, money wise. And a friend recently quit her job because it was so inflexible. A lot of offices are a lot better, paying for kids’ schooling and allowing employees flexibility for early school pick-ups and and joining kids on school trips.
As easy as it is here, I do feel like I’m rushing around a lot to keep up with all the play dates and children’s clubs. I can get everywhere, really, in 15-20 minutes, but I do have to cram a lot in. I also don’t have grandparents or aunts around here, so when my kids are sick, it is harder to rely on family, and I do have to lean on the nanny more for help. There’s a big mental load to having kids (what’s in their lunchbox? Have I ordered nappies?) but I do think one of the easiest solutions to that is an international one – buying stuff online is a game changer.
Dubai can feel like a bit of a bubble. I first moved here 10 years ago so have loads of friends here now. At first I was really swayed by the change of scenery, getting some sunshine and beach life. I could also earn more and the tax situation is far better here. That said, with kids now, it’s not that different a financial situation to back home; food is expensive, living is expensive, there are hidden taxes.
We live in our friends’ pockets and are sort of raising our family in a village. But when I look back on this time, one of the most amazing things about living here is the travel we can do. We’re four hours from Zanzibar, six hours from Thailand so we can do a lot of travel to places that we otherwise just couldn’t afford to in cost and in travel time.
I do miss the parks in London, going for cosy roasts and, of course, my family. There’s a huge element of me that wants to bring my children up in England. We probably won’t stay here forever, as we’re thinking of having the kids in British secondary schools so will be rethinking in about five years’ time. But right now, because we can do so much time in the UK, we do get our UK fix, and it is a lot of fun here.
2026-02-03T06:19:04Z