Hypothetical: You are a one car family with primary aged kids. How do you manage transport? | ExpatWoman.com
 

Hypothetical: You are a one car family with primary aged kids. How do you manage transport?

687
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EW GURU
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 05:16

OK, here is the scenario:

You are a one car family with kids in primary school and a DH who works in the office. You are a stay-at-home-mum. [b]Who gets the car? [/b]Surely it is the SAHM? You need it to run the chores, get to the school if there is an emergency, do your daily "thing" etc.

If it is the SAHM who gets the car, [b]how does DH get to and from the office?[/b]

Do you drop him there in the morning after the kids are at school? How does he get home when you have after school activities, homework, kids to get to bed by 7.30 or so since school over there starts 7.30-ish?

How do other families manage this? Do you bite the bullet and get 2 cars? Seems silly when one sits at the office every day...

TIA

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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 06 February 2011 - 12:08
Hi there, We've only got one car here and after dropping the kids at school, I drive my husband to work. At the end of the day, he just takes a cab to drive him home. When we arrived 3 years ago, finding a cab was not so easy as Dubai was quite "crowded" but after the financial crisis it is not a problem anylonger ! So my husband used to have a limo driver but honestly they are not really reliable...
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EW GURU
Latest post on 06 February 2011 - 11:37
If your DH is willing to contemplate hiring a driver for 30,000 AED per year (assuming he found one), why doesn't he just go out and buy a second hand car for that amount of money and drive himself? He can get a decent five year old Toyota or Mitsubishi for about that much money and it'll be fine for getting to/from the office each morning. Thanks for the data on the driver. For some reason, he is telling me he can get a driver for for about 30,000 AED ($8,000) per annum - live out. So I will need to sanity check that one now.
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 06 February 2011 - 11:00
I think you should have a the car as it sounds like you will make more journeys each day. If DH doesn't want the hassle of the "public" RTA taxis to get to and from work, he can find a private "limo taxi" company (nicer cars, leather seats, but a bit more pricey). You can arrange a monthly contract with them to have e.g. a morning pick-up at 8am from home to work, and an evening pick at a time to be confirmed by your DH each day from work to home. Having a monthly contract is cheaper than paying individually for each journey, you often get the same driver each day so they get to know the route etc and you don't have the hassle of the driver being your employee/responsibility - this is what my workplace arranges for some of our temporary employees without cars. There are loads of different limo companies around. I think the one we use is called gulf radio taxis.
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EW EXPERT
Latest post on 06 February 2011 - 09:06
BMAP - sounds to me like your husband is in information overload. I can't imagine how we would be able to work everything with 1 car. You can lease a car cheaply here which might be an option. If you get into Greenfields then your best bet would be to live Green Community, Green Community motor city, Arabian Ranches or Victory Height. All of those are easy commute to Internet city - around 20-30 mins depending on time/traffic. It's what we do and its absolutely fine........ I'm like you - I love my journeys to school - it's a good time to chat with the kids about school. work, activities etc. My little boy reads his reading book on the way in every morning so we all get a nice story. You say someone has mentioned something not so great about Greenfields school - if you speak to enough people you'll get negatives about virtually every school - so come over - take a look at the schools and go for it! I agree with CP - you may well be able to get places for April far easier than in September - I think I said this to you before. I know some people who are leaving in April and I have heard of a couple more who have just lost their jobs so may have to leave too - there must be many more and this is when you may well find you get into a great school because you are coming into Dubai and are not already in a school here. Deep breath - I feel sorry for your DH. Get the package confirmed and you'll know whether it's a good thing for you guys to come over or not. Good luck!
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EW EXPERT
Latest post on 06 February 2011 - 09:00
One of my most recent jobs has been a nightmare because the wife (no kids) does not drive! She wants to live by a bus stop or the metro, in a quiet villa within walking distance of the shops/gym, short commute for DH and the villa to be furnished to their taste! Errr yes, I am about to send them my invoice......impossible wants and no compromises, even I have had to say enough is enough! BMAP - Glad to have helped someone today! Oooooh nightmare client!
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EW EXPERT
Latest post on 06 February 2011 - 08:34
One of my most recent jobs has been a nightmare because the wife (no kids) does not drive! She wants to live by a bus stop or the metro, in a quiet villa within walking distance of the shops/gym, short commute for DH and the villa to be furnished to their taste! Errr yes, I am about to send them my invoice......impossible wants and no compromises, even I have had to say enough is enough! BMAP - Glad to have helped someone today!
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EW GURU
Latest post on 06 February 2011 - 08:16
Had 4 months of being a 1 car family, because of visa issue i still cant buy car. Daily text messaging my DH "Pick up milk on your way home from work, Pick up DD from school she has after school activities on your way home from work, Collect us from swimming on your way home from work, More milk milk milk please" DH did suggest buying a cow last week but got me a rental car instead :) Cheap, Insurance covered, Unlimited milage only snag is I have to get the ruddy milk!
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EW GURU
Latest post on 06 February 2011 - 07:55
Cornish Pixie I *heart* you!
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EW EXPERT
Latest post on 06 February 2011 - 07:34
Everyone in offices in Dubai are always delighted to tell newbies where they should live, where their kids should go to school etc. Quite often it is here-say more than factual! I have been doing relocation in Dubai for over 5 years now and can not tell you the number of families who tell me they only want their kids to go to JESS or Jebel Ali PS, sadly in reality the chances of this happening are very slim, but because so and so at the office has told DH that is the best then they can't see any alternatives! I too would have found home schooling a tough option, many kids do leave in the middle of the school year here so don't give up hope for an April place they are often easier to find than September ones. It sounds to me like you are 'on the case' and well researched on all aspects of living in Dubai, you will gain a lot from your look-see trip in February and go back to Australia with a clearer picture of how your life will be here! Good luck, and try to enjoy the next few months and not get too stressed with everything, or DH!
687
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EW GURU
Latest post on 06 February 2011 - 07:07
I think I read that the Greenfields Community School at the GC can take your kids - great school, very friendly - hard to beat, think about living that way too, good value villas in Green Community, Victory Heights and Sports City and an easy-ish commute for DH too! Arabian Ranches is more expensive but really popular with families. There are many people on here who are ready to help with information and support, we look forward to welcoming you to Dubai soon! Thanks CP, and everyone else. We've not yet been formally accepted into GCS. Reading between the lines, I think both boys will get in for September, but the issue is going to be the April - July term. We should be arriving in Dubai late March I think, so I need to ideally get them into a school for the final term of your school year. I really don't want to homeschool. I just don't have the competencies and they will already be 5 months behind their peers over there. Anyway, I'm trying not to stress. I just had it all worked out in my head about where we'd live, school etc and DH came home yesterday and mucked it all up by saying he wanted to live 5 mins from work and didn't want me driving the kids a long distance to school either as the roads were so dangerous and he didn't want his kids sitting in a car for an hour a day. For me, I find the car trip home a good way to debrief on the day. Once they get home it's hard to get them to sit still and tell me about their experiences. The whole business has not been helped by colleagues over there suggesting GCS has some issues (though what, no one has said) and trying to encourage him to get the kids into DIA which has a relationship with his company. At the moment it's a bit of "he said, she said". And while I see that it is helpful to get over there on a school tour, I am somewhat cycnical too that you would get the PR spiel and not the "real deal". I would prefer to listen to mothers on the internet than some HR guy who has not necessarily had first hand experience of either school. And there-in lies our problem... Thanks for the data on the driver. For some reason, he is telling me he can get a driver for for about 30,000 AED ($8,000) per annum - live out. So I will need to sanity check that one now.
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EW MASTER
Latest post on 06 February 2011 - 06:21
SAHM gets car. DH uses taxi. This is currently our scenario. dH car is broken.
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EW EXPERT
Latest post on 06 February 2011 - 06:18
Hi BMAP, I have not read through the whole posting but I just wanted to add a few things about having a driver vs a second car! Drivers earn around AED 3000-4000 per month, and get accommodation/allowance on top I think. They will not work from 7am-11pm every day, their hours would probably be 7am-7pm 5 days a week so late dinners/late in the office might not be easy to work round. A second car does not need to be flash, there are lots of smaller cars secondhand that would not cost much to run. Fuel, servicing and insurance are not too expensive here either. Trying to make all your decisions before you arrive here is very difficult, it sounds like your DH needs to relax a little and go with the flow - nobody lands here and starts running straight away, it just can't and doesn't happen, obstacles will come your way and you will have to fire fight sometimes, the first 6 months are the hardest I promise but work around school places/work location and you'll have some some idea of the best way to plan! I think I read that the Greenfields Community School at the GC can take your kids - great school, very friendly - hard to beat, think about living that way too, good value villas in Green Community, Victory Heights and Sports City and an easy-ish commute for DH too! Arabian Ranches is more expensive but really popular with families. There are many people on here who are ready to help with information and support, we look forward to welcoming you to Dubai soon!
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EW GURU
Latest post on 06 February 2011 - 05:26
From your previous posts your package is not small, just get another car, a company car or an allowance like everyone else has to do. Welcome to Dubai, it's a VERY expensive place to set up and live in. We don't know what our package is yet. But regardless, DH is being stubborn. No second car. In our home country we have 2 cars. We need it becaue of the social engagements and extra curricular stuff. There is no chance of him doing public transport, he just doesn't want to arrive at the office all sweaty *sigh*. I think I married a Diva... What is he proposing? Good question. I told him last night he is being problem-oriented and not solution-centred, LOL. I am just not prepared to uproot the children in the evenings and go and collect him given it will probably be during the dinner-bath-bed routine. Happy to drive him there in the mornings though. He is talking about getting a driver - fulltime! That means kids and I will be driven to/from school, grocery shopping, playdates, gym, etc etc by the driver. Sheesh, I don't know how I feel about this. I like driving, it soothes me. Mind you, by the sounds of it, driving in Dubai might be the opposite. If anyone's going to kill this family on the road, I want it to be me. I like that taxi idea Dubaistar and Sue62. Have mentioned that to him. Perhaps if he starts like that, while we "try and find a driver" he might actually find that suits his needs just fine. Thanks for all your comments. They've been very helpful in clarifying this situation.
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 15:57
BMAP, if your husband is working in Internet City, the Nakheel station is very close - about 5 mins walk, and there is a bus which runs from Marina Mall/JLT (think its the F37/39A) which drops off outside the Siemans building. There's also the 88 which runs from Deira City Centre along and stops at various points enroute. Suggest you look at the rta website journey planner http://www.rta.ae/wpsv5/wps/portal once you know where you're living, and plot him a route. Buses and metro are really cheap - he could go that way, then ring a taxi for home - he can load their number on his phone, call them and the nearest one comes and picks him up - only costs an extra 3 dirhams. If he has an Etisalat phone he can order pickup over their website, but their system doesn't work with Du phones. YOU should defo have the car for all the reasons other posters have said, and in fact I use public transport and taxis all the time, as do others here and it is probably the easiest and cheapest place to get around if you are on your own and not carting pushchairs, car seats etc. so he will get used to it in no time and the great benefit for him is it gives him time to adjust from office to home life and an up-close-and-personal look at another aspect of Dubai.
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EW MASTER
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 15:49
we had the opposite problem - i didn't want a car and was terrified to drive here...but it just wasn't practical for us with him having more than one office here and getting both boys to school on time was a real strain for the few weeks he had to do it...
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EW MASTER
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 15:44
So how is he proposing you deal with it? If it was my DH refusing to buy a car each I'll tell him it's up to him to sort out logistics.
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EW EXPERT
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 15:37
From your previous posts your package is not small, just get another car, a company car or an allowance like everyone else has to do. Welcome to Dubai, it's a VERY expensive place to set up and live in.
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 15:28
OK, here is the scenario: You are a one car family with kids in primary school and a DH who works in the office. You are a stay-at-home-mum. [b'>Who gets the car? [/b'>Surely it is the SAHM? You need it to run the chores, get to the school if there is an emergency, do your daily "thing" etc. If it is the SAHM who gets the car, [b'>how does DH get to and from the office?[/b'> Do you drop him there in the morning after the kids are at school? How does he get home when you have after school activities, homework, kids to get to bed by 7.30 or so since school over there starts 7.30-ish? How do other families manage this? Do you bite the bullet and get 2 cars? Seems silly when one sits at the office every day... TIA What solution would you have in your own country?
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 15:16
Think he will only wait once in the heat for a taxi and you will have 2 cars....lol
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EW MASTER
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 15:13
Buy me a Pony, how does your husband imagine it working with one car? You drop the kids at school then drop him at work. You pick the kids up from school then you and kids head back out to pick him up when he calls for a lift home? Really? He'd rather you (and possibly your children) are spending much more time in the car than you need to because he doesn't want to get a bit of sand in his eyes waiting for a taxi? And what if he has to work late, are you just on standby waiting for his call? Sorry, but I'd tell him to get another car or man up and deal with public transport...
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EW GURU
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 14:56
SAHM has car - non negotiable! In an ideal world you both would have a car but if you only have one then it should be with you. If he makes you guys move to Dubai then he should bite the bullet and get on the metro and use taxis where possible. It is not feasible for you to do that well not with taxis anyway. What about car seats etc etc. Also, say to him if there was an emergency with the kids he wouldn't want you waiting around for a taxi or bus would he?
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EW EXPLORER
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 14:53
We did it for ages, DH taxied to work, sometimes dropped DS at school on the way, but mostly I do the school run. Off site meetings, his company always uses a driver. Yes he will have to wait a bit for taxi's - his choice. It's either that or a second car....which you can lease quite cheap cars here...nothing flash. We called ours the Sh*t box, about 1500 a month from diamond lease, you renew on a monthly bases. We found ultimately one car difficult, but thats b/c on weekends DH would want to take DS to do something, and I would need to do groceries. So we leased (again on a monthly basis) a better car, still not a wonderful car and not an SUV (Very expensive), but safe, reliable and with a bigger engine than the Sh*t box. You can't have the kids waiting at school b/c you can't get a taxi, not fair on the kids and the school will loose tolerance pretty quickly. Other option - which I am sure will go down like a cup of cold sick - 1 car, he does both school runs, but then he gets to drive to and from the office.......
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EW MASTER
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 14:45
if you find a taxi driver you like he will give you his mobile and you can book him whenever you want - my eldest did this on his first day here lol (was quite sad to say good-bye to "my mate Mustafa" when we moved !!)
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EW GURU
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 14:42
Hmmm, thanks girls. Several options it seems but he is not buying any *sigh*... Bus to school is a no-go. At least at the moment. Wouldn't even let them do that in Oz yet. Doesn't want to buy another car just to get to work - I think he and I need to talk some more about this particularly given the weekend issues Lesley65 pointed out. DH is not a public transport guy and has poo-pooed finding someone to get a lift with - doesn't like to be dependent on people. He only has one office and no off-site meetings as far as we know. I swear this man was born to make my life difficult. The only solution I can think of now is he is going to have to work out something with a taxi driver to get home. He is not happy about this - he had to stand outside the office a couple of times for 15 mins or so, apparently in sandstorms, trying to hale a taxi while over there. But would it be possible to set something up with a local taxi driver or other driver to be on standby at a particular time? Obviously you'd have to pay them something extra for this. Unfortunately he's been spoiled for the last 5 years by being able to work from home.
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 13:49
1. kids bus, sahm taxi, father car if father has to attend many meetings. 2. sahm & kids car, father taxi if father has an office job, no meetings. 3. sahm car and taxi the whole family if father has an office job and mother has nothing else to do. 4. sahm & kids taxi, father car if father has to attend many meetings.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 13:09
You need two cars. Rent them or buy.
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EW EXPERT
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 12:58
I don't drive, and hubby needs the car for work. Most of the men and women I know working here, and I guess that depends on what field they're in, are not located in just one office/site/location all day everyday. My husband at least, splits his time between at least 4 offices in Abu Dhabi and one in dubai. Our schools bus system is excellent, and I taxi for what ever I need to do, or walk or ride my bike or bludge a lift off a friend. perfectly do able.
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EW MASTER
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 12:53
sorry but imo school buses are h*llishly expensive, can be poorly supervised, take ages and many of them are driven by maniacs (as i see myself when on the roads). Personally i would view them as a very last resort..
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EW EXPLORER
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 12:11
Is the school bus an option for you? DS rides the bus and on days I plan on being out of the house w/ DD (2.5), DH leaves the car seat at home and we take a taxi (or the private shuttle that links the FC residential projects w/ the mall).
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 05 February 2011 - 10:18
It is possible. My husband can't drive so we only have one car. He goes to work either with someone he works with who lives nearby, or on the bus - where we live and where he works aren't near the Metro. It's not the fastest way to get there but the buses are a viable alternative. The only problem, I would think, would be if your husband needs the car during the day for work.
 
 

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