DUBAI: Every summer, thousands of families across the Gulf make a decision that silently reshapes every relationship within their family. They do so in the hope of giving their children a different kind of summer. They separate so their children can reconnect with grandparents, cousins and familiar places, spend their days outdoors and experience the kind of summer that is difficult to recreate during the Gulf’s hottest months. For many expatriate families, work remains in the region. Remote work is not always possible, annual leave is limited and one parent stays behind while the other travels with the children. It is a practical decision made in the family’s best interest, although it quietly reorganizes family life for everyone involved.
Rita Figueiredo is the managing director of Peninsula Psychology in Dubai. (Supplied)
Once the family splits, every relationship shifts. The traveling parent becomes the main caregiver, balancing children’s routines, travel, family expectations and the emotional adjustment of moving between countries. The parent who stays behind keeps daily life moving through work, returns to a quieter home and misses the ordinary moments that give family life its rhythm. Children immerse themselves in grandparents, cousins and new adventures, strengthen their connection to their cultural roots or discover that those roots feel more distant than expected, and still miss having both parents close by. Their friendship circles change too as classmates scatter across the world and familiar routines disappear.
As roles change, emotional experiences become more complex. Partners may both feel exhausted while struggling to fully understand each other’s experience. Their challenges no longer unfold side by side, making empathy and connection more intentional than they need to be during the rest of the year. Parents can feel proud that their children are creating memories with extended family and, in the same week, feel lonely, overwhelmed or guilty. Children can wake up excited for the day ahead and ask at bedtime when the family will be together again. These emotions coexist because adapting to a different version of family life is emotionally demanding.
The couple’s relationship also needs to find a new rhythm. Conversations easily become dominated by flights, meal times, school forms and childcare across different time zones. The relationship itself needs protecting through conversations that are not about solving problems. Video calls help families to stay connected, although they cannot replace shared meals, bedtime rituals or the countless small interactions that create a sense of togetherness.
The environment amplifies these changes. Across the Gulf, cities become quieter during the summer. Roads clear, workplaces slow down, cafes empty and social circles spread across different countries. Many people appreciate the calmer pace, then discover that silence has a way of making absence more visible. Parents who longed for a little time alone during the year sometimes realize how much meaning lived in the interruptions, the noise and the routines they had been eager to escape.
The return home brings another transition. Families arrive having adapted to different responsibilities, rhythms and ways of living, and they need time to reorganize once again. The summer split asks families to keep one emotional home while living in two different places. The families who navigate this season best recognize that each person has lived a different version of the same summer. They make space for those different experiences, talk about them openly and slowly rebuild the shared rhythm that turns separate lives back into one family.
Rita Figueiredo is a licensed psychologist and the managing director of Peninsula Psychology in Dubai.
