Australia on top of the world for expat kids
 

http://www.smh.com.au/executive-styl...0312-q2h4.html

Overall, expat parents believed their children benefited by moving to a foreign country, with an average 48 percent of expat kids adapting well to a new culture, half making new friends easily and 49 percent adapting well to new schooling.

The UK ranked top on cultural adaptation, while cultural differences saw the UAE ranked last.

Can certainly attest to that. We sent our kids home very quickly.

Re: Australia on top of the world for expat kids
 

But the survey states that the UAE ranks 4th overall, not bad really.

Re: Australia on top of the world for expat kids
 

We'll be getting ours home in another year or so - back to Cain Toad country and the best climate on the planet.

Re: Australia on top of the world for expat kids
 

for all it's problems the UAE is at least fairly safe to raise kids than most places... as long as they don't try to cross the street.

Re: Australia on top of the world for expat kids
 

English translation, please...and you must be one of the very few who can actually plan that far ahead. Job security is an issue for many.

Re: Australia on top of the world for expat kids
 

Oz is perfect for kids, it's fantastic.

Re: Australia on top of the world for expat kids
 

Difficult to believe. Would never bring my kids here to live, they'd end up with an incredibly warped view of life. The entire place has been built on slave labour. As Westerners we're fairly high up the pecking order, but the fact that there is a pecking order is the issue--I aspire to living in a culture which is as egalitarian as possible, and not where your hopes and opportunities are determined almost solely by a combination of your nationality and your wealth. Kids will inescapably be influenced by those with whom they mix, and so much of the expat community out here revel in rather than are repulsed by the fact that they're near the top of the pecking order.

Just as the current Mercedes advert on the radio goes: If you buy a Merc you automatically get power, prestige, admiration, influence, respect. Look at us, kids, we live in the UAE and your dad gets paid loads of dosh and can afford to keep you apart from all those other nasty nationalities--just remember to be proud and that you're better than everyone else, and take those prejudices back home with you and help to make the UK even more divided than it is now.

(Sorry, no offence intended to those of you out here with your families who must send your kids to elite private schools--I know you have no choice--yet still try to instill in your kids a sense of social responsibility and world vision. I just hope there's more of you out there than I fear there is.)

Re: Australia on top of the world for expat kids
 

Queenslanders are known as Cain Toads - I have three little Cain Toads of my own and Brisbvegas (Brisbane) has great weather, really mild winters and summers. You really can be outdoors all year round. My husband is self employed and can do his job from anywhere in the world really (and has Australian and British citizenship, same with kids) so the timing of things is up to him.

Re: Australia on top of the world for expat kids
 

My kids went to private schools in Australia and in my opinion, most of the "elite" private schools here don't even match up to our good Government schools at home.

Re: Australia on top of the world for expat kids
 

The international schools in Dubai are diverse places. I have several teacher friends at the better schools and they all have statistics like 24 students to their class, 15 different nationalities.

The disadvantage to raising children in Dubai is that you need to constantly entertain them because one can't just turn them outside with a warning not to come back indoors until six o'clock. It's expensive to raise kids here, the quality of the education isn't terrific outside the top handful of schools, and for all its expat hub stature, Dubai is strangely disconnected from the rest of the word. I was more aware of political, social and economic events at school in the UK than working out here.

If I had kids and still lived here, they'd be sent to boarding school back in the UK.

Re: Australia on top of the world for expat kids
 

Miss RK has virtually been raised here. 13 years old and spent 7 of them in Dubai, 3 years before in the psychotic environs on Holland. She is, IMHO, one of the most well balanced, polite and cosiderate kids I know (I amy be slightly prejudiced).

My fear is that she lacks street smarts, although that won't be an issue as there is no way she will ever school in the UK.

Dubai, and the Middle East, is what you allow it to be, keep yourself well grounded and your kids will be too.

Now excuse me, the champers should be about chilled enough and I need to go yell at the maid...just on principle.

Re: Australia on top of the world for expat kids
 

My kid has grown up as a Western Expat in the Middle East. He went, and is still going to a private school. There are different nationalities in his class including Arabs, Asians, South Americans, Canadians , Europeans. We have an Asian person employed in our home. He sees poverty and wealth, sometimes extreme in both cases. We talk about all aspects of Expat life, lifestyle, opinions, nationalities, religion politics. He can experience / see some of the things we talk about "hands on". He has a lot more knowledge about many things than children at home do, simply because he actually sees them. He sees people doing good, people committing atrocious injustices etc. He is very balanced, eco conscious , hates waste and injustice.

I can't say it is not good for him to grow up here, one thing is for sure, he spots a "wanker" from a mile away. lol

Re: Australia on top of the world for expat kids
 

yup, they don't have street smarts growing up here. And I also will NOT let my kid go to school in Europe, UK, US , no way.

Re: Australia on top of the world for expat kids
 

sorry, who let you onto my PC...is that champagne chilled yet?

Re: Australia on top of the world for expat kids
 

Don't know, why don't you go and check...and get the glasses while you are at it.:)