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Dubai: Lubna Eisa sits and watches her four-year-old daughter as she jumps around a playground vying for her attention. Since having her first child, Eisa chose to stay at home and raise her children, leaving behind six years of pharmaceutical education to become a full-time mother.
"The thought of leaving my children to the care of a nanny who I don't know just so I can go shopping or hang out with my friends makes me sick," Lubna says as her daughter calls on her to show her how high she can jump.
"Children at this age are so desperate for attention. If the parents are too busy or unavailable, the child is bound to grow up with some complex," Lubna says. After moving from Jordan three years ago for a job post her husband got in Abu Dhabi, Lubna decided that she would not leave her children with a nanny.
"I don't know why so many people here do that. It's very frustrating to see women walking while their nannies follow them holding their kids hands and toys. It almost seems like they are proud of that, when it's such a shame in our culture," Lubna says.
It is also common for parents to leave their children at home by themselves or to leave them with unauthorised nannies mostly homemakers trying to make some income.
"The spiralling costs make it mandatory that both parents work," says Chandrika, a working mother who explains why she chose to work rather than stay home with her two-year-old. "There are not many choices available to middle class families who struggle to make both ends meet. I enquired at several nurseries, which were way off our budget, before choosing to leave my child with a housewife who takes care of a few children at her home."
R.S, who works as a secretary at a private company says, "I leave my six-year-old daughter at home alone from 2pm to 5pm. It does not bother me much because I work two buildings away from where we live."
Explaining her daily routine, she says, "I drop my daughter to school in the morning and head to work. She comes back by bus at 1pm. I come home during my lunch break and before 2pm I go back after feeding her. I return at 5pm and she watches tv."
It also helps that we live in shared accommodation, so I don't have to bother about my daughter handling the house key, she adds.
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