just a thought- if you guys are working 12 hour days @ 6 days/week- and the traffic is a pain....is there anything left in the tank on your day off?- when do you get to see the kids?...so the money/ package has to be damn good.

Need to do homework on a possible move...can anyone tell me how any of the following: Bahrain/ Abu Dhabi/ Qatar, rates with expats, compared to Dubai? Dubai seems to be the 1st choice for expats?

Depends if you're single or married. If you're single, Dubai is great. If you're married the shallowness and fakery will rot your soul and may well destroy your marriage.

As for the 12-hour-day, 6-day-week, it's getting rarer. Depends on your profession.

thanks mate, yeah, it sounds like a slippery slope, love to get some of the action in the building industry though...i'll persevere for now I think....

All our evenings and weekends strictly with kids. We never ever leave them alone in the evenings or on the weekends and go off on our own - we would feel very guilty otherwise.

yeah I know the feeling- its the expat way of life- not having the luxury of grannies close at hand! Sometimes I do miss my mother-in-law but as they say here down under- good on ya!

So does that mean you and your husband never go out for a meal together or go and see a film?

We've been out for one meal alone together since we came out, and that was when Grandma was in town.

Well, if you are both happy with that that's ok.

Mr MH and myself usually go out together once a week for a meal and a bit of shopping without the kids... and we tend to go out with friends on Thursdaynights.

So does that mean you also don't go to any of the concerts?

No - kids are included in all our outings - dinners...etc. Don't see films.

Concerts - only if suitable for children, otherwise not.

The only times the kids don't like to go out with us is when we have to visit the doctor or dentist

The younder one is too small, but once she is older and she prefers not to go out with us (like the older one prefers not to sometimes), then may be. Right now she loves to go out with us any time we step out!

I didn't say I was happy with it. We just don't feel comfortable leaving our kids with complete strangers.

I understand that, I would not leave mine with complete strangers either.

I wasn't suggesting that you did, if that was what you thought I was implying. We've been here less than a year, and don't have a maid, so we're not really in that position of trust yet.

Ok, that's great if that's what you all want.
For us, we like to go places with the kids and that's what we do during the rest of the week and in the weekends, but those 2 nights we like to spend with other adults and friends or just the two of us. We like live music and go to a lot of the concerts. We might take one of our kids to the Shakira concert this Friday.

That's ok, I was not thinking you did. I just feel one needs to take some action because otherwise the potential babysitters will always stay complete strangers if you see what I mean. I agree that here you don't have your normal backup of family and old friends so you may need to find other ways. We don't have a maid either but in our case, our youngest went to nursery and she was totally crazy about her teacher. We felt we could trust her and she and one or two other ladies that work at the nursery became our regular babysitters. Our daugther is no longer at nusery now, but the same ladies keep on babysitting our kids. So yes, they started out as strangers but are now part of a very reliable back up system that enables us to go out and have some 'adult only' time.

my hubby and I have been out about twice since Rachel was born. He has been to see a couple of bands. I been to the odd hen night. We just don't feel comfortable leaving madam with anyone. It is better when one of the Nanna's is around as we have had the odd meal out. Went home for Christmas so had a couple of nights out but nothing to write home about.

Lornorder - Dubai is great, give it a shot but make sure you get a fantastic package!