Summer Holidays

Memories Monday #4: Summer Holidays

It’s summer vacation for Dubai schools. A much needed break for  students and teachers.  

During these hot months, many families take the opportunity to escape the heat, often returning to their home countries to reconnect with loved ones. Airports, luggage, long-haul flights, itineraries spanning countries and continents, it’s not easy. But for families raising third-culture kids, summer can be a vital opportunity to connect children with their family, culture, and heritage. Parents use this time to help their children experience the things they enjoyed as children. To get them out of the Dubai ‘bubble’ and see a different world  - without nanies, drivers, airconditioning and delivery apps for everything.

Of course not every family has the chance to travel. In households where both parents work, extended leave isn’t always an option. Other times, travel may be difficult due to pregnancy, financial constraints, or larger global issues — such as the COVID-19 pandemic or regional conflicts. For those staying in Dubai, the challenge becomes how to keep children engaged and supervised. With outdoor play limited by the heat and screen time best kept in check, summer camps have become a popular, though often expensive, solution. More than just adult supervision; summer camps can be meaningful opportunities to explore passions and develop new skills, or for intensive training in sports or performing arts.

Growing up in New Zealand, my summer holidays looked very different from those I see in Dubai. Our break lasted about six weeks, from mid-December through January, which meant Christmas and New Year’s fell within them. We’d sometimes visit my grandparents who lived at the beach. If we were lucky our cousins would be there too. We’d built sandcastles, swim in the waves, and collect seashells. We’d buy fresh fruit from roadside stalls, feed ducks at the river, and play swingball in the backyard. Our biggest concerns were sunburn, stepping on prickles, and what flavour ice cream to choose. I’m sure it wasn’t as carefree for our parents. The six-hour drive seemed endless with squabling kids in the back seat. Delays and detours for road works. And never a public bathroom when it was needed. We always stayed with family and travelled by car. In fact, I didn’t fly on a plane or stay in a hotel until I was 18.

For holidays at home, we spent most of our time outside. My family had a large garden filled with fruit trees, swings, a slide, and a trampoline. We rode bikes with our neighbors, climbed trees, built huts, and made fairy food from leaves and petals. Here too, was the threat of sunburn and stepping on prickles. If it rained — which it often did — we shifted indoors to play with dolls, board games, or computer games. I read, painted, and practiced piano.

It wasn’t until high school that I began attending camps. There was kayaking, archery, ropes courses, crafts, and washing up. At 15 I became a volunteer leader, responsible my own team of children. Around this time I also started working at a local plant nursery to earn some pocket money, mostly for clothes or to attend music festivals. Some friends had cars at 16, which meant trips to the beach or camping on out on the farm.

Looking back, most of our entertainment was self-made. We didn’t have money for fancy activities, but we had the freedom, safety, and expectation to create our own fun.

How did you spend your summer holidays?

Do you have summer traditions you’re trying to pass on to your children?

Join the conversation. I’d love to hear about them.