Growing up in Dubai: Residents reveal what it's really like to be a 'Dubai kid'

Dubai: If you grew up in Dubai, chances are you’ve heard the assumptions before: you’re too sheltered, you’ve never faced hardship, you lack street smarts, you’re not going to know how to function in the real world. But how much of that is actually true?

We spoke with residents who spent their childhoods here, about the lessons, opportunities and misconceptions that come with being a ‘Dubai kid’. Here’s what they had to say.

Buying a dream home in the city of dreams

Lymaraina Gomes, an Indian management consultant who has lived in Dubai her whole life, said she has heard it all: “When visiting relatives abroad, I would sometimes hear comments suggesting that we were too comfortable, too protected, or not street-smart enough because of the lifestyle here.”

What most people don’t realise is that while Dubai offers comfort and opportunities, “it is also a very competitive and fast-paced environment. The reality is that growing up here teaches you a different set of skills that people sometimes overlook.”

One very specific skill is knowing naturally how to Dubai-it.

Gomes shared an example from her own life. When she turned 16 and started university, she made it her mission to work towards her first investment: becoming a homeowner. While people around her graduated, started new jobs and spent their earnings on buying a car or luxury items, she saved up.

Gomes met her goal at age 22.

But the achievement didn’t come easy for her – something people wouldn’t realise unless they knew her drive, and the hard work she put into making her dream come true.

She explained: “What made that goal different was that I didn’t just save towards it, I actively tried to understand the market. I spent a lot of time learning about Dubai’s real estate sector, obtained my real estate licence at the age of 19, attended property launches, researched different communities, and understood what drives growth in the city.”

Growing up in Dubai played a huge role in her decision to invest in a home. She said: “Having spent my entire life here, I had a front-row seat to the city’s growth. I watched new communities emerge, infrastructure expand, and entire areas transform over time. Seeing that level of development firsthand gave me confidence in the city’s long-term potential and made me want to invest in a place that I genuinely considered home.”

Her ambition and single-minded focus on achieving her goal is as much a Dubai state of mind, as is being comfortable around people from diverse backgrounds, or adapting quickly to different environments.

Gomes said her childhood in Dubai has left her with an incredibly useful set of skills, and it’s something she’s leveraging every day as an adult: “People often focus on the comfort and convenience of growing up in Dubai, but they overlook the skills that come with living in one of the most international cities in the world.”

Showing a piece of Dubai to the world

Growing up and adulting in Dubai is a very different reality from growing up in Dubai and adulting somewhere else – like Sweden.

Raghda Thabet, a Palestinian-Swedish career coach, has lived 31 of her 39 years in Dubai, and it’s what’s making her stand out in Gothenburg, Sweden, where she currently lives.

She said: “As a Dubai kid, I was fortunate to grow up in a place that was luxurious and comfortable and safe, and I am grateful for every bit of that. But what people miss completely when they make assumptions, is what Dubai actually [gives us] beyond the comfort.”

For Thabet, it’s the incredible diversity of the city, which is home to over 195 nationalities. She said: “Growing up there [in Dubai] meant I was surrounded by the entire world. During school, my classmates were from the UAE, Palestine, Algeria, Sudan, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon. At university, my friends were from mixed heritage: Arab, with non-Arabs, from Africa, Europe, and Asia. At work, I was in an international company where we spoke 25 different languages in one office. Where else do you get that? That exposure didn't make me soft. It made me fluent in people – in navigating differences, in reading a room, in finding common ground with almost anyone. And that is exactly what carried me when I landed in Sweden and had to start from scratch.”

She moved to Sweden with her husband for his work around eight years ago. However, her parents still live in Dubai, and have been residents here since 1969. It’s still home for Thabet, who brings her kids to the city every year, to spend time with their grandparents. She said: “Dubai will always be in our heart, no matter where we live.”

Apart from exposure to diverse cultures, Thabet said it’s the idea that you can achieve anything that propels Dubai kids towards success, as adults. She explained: “Dubai kids are tough cookies. Our role models are the leaders of the UAE, and I'm a millennial, so I literally watched Dubai and Abu Dhabi and Sharjah grow. We were raised to believe that nothing is impossible… that mindset has never left me.”

Thabet’s journey is testament to the fact that even if your choices, as adults, take you away from the city, you’re able to carry the Dubai-it spirit with you, wherever you go. She said: “So no, Dubai kids are not soft. We just know that comfort was never the destination. It was the launchpad.”

Dreaming big in a safe environment

Alex Astridge, a 19-year-old British resident who has lived in Dubai since he was six months old, knows exactly how Dubai can be a springboard for big dreams. He is the UAE’s first winter Olympian, and initially learned his craft on the slopes of Ski Dubai.

He said: “The superpower I developed from being raised in Dubai is an undying self-confidence in my abilities and the belief that nothing is impossible. I wholeheartedly believe I developed this by being raised in a city where anything is possible; a city that has proved, time and time again, that it can bounce back from anything; a city that has proved that the box of ‘possibility’ built around you is made to be dismantled.”

Astridge has participated in sporting events around the world, from the 2024 Youth Olympics in South Korea, to the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in Europe.

Part of his ability to adapt and interact in international settings comes from spending his childhood with people from different nationalities. Astridge said: “I believe ignorance is a person’s greatest weakness, and because of the multinational community that lives in Dubai, you are able to interact with people from so many different cultures and nationalities. That exposure from a young age gives you a much broader perspective on the world.”

It's a sentiment echoed by Abdullahi Ahmed, a 25-year-old Canadian national, who works in logistics in Dubai.

He said the image his family abroad had of him, was of a “bougie and spoiled person. It’s just the image they get from being in other countries looking in. It’s most likely due to how Dubai has a solution for every problem on a day-to-day basis that does not exist yet for them, or to that level, where they are from.”

The fact that kids are able to enjoy safe childhoods in the city, and “don’t have many worries or concerns” gives them the freedom and flexibility to dream big.

Ahmed said this translates into adulthood as ambition and drive: “As an adult, you work to achieve all the targets you set, and make your dreams a reality, with most of these dreams originating from your childhood.”

Sarah Sarvath, a 31-year-old Indian entrepreneur, who has been in Dubai all her life, said the city played an important role in shaping the adult she has become.

When she was a child, her family would travel to India during summer vacations to meet her grandparents and cousins. She said: “Sometimes, my cousins mocked my sisters and me, saying we were ‘too soft’ and that we spoke English more than our mother tongue… they would also comment on our physical appearance, which we just weren’t used to, living here. In my teenage years, I used to dread flying there, because I didn’t want to meet people who had this negative attitude.”

Her reality, in Dubai, was completely different from other people her age, who lived elsewhere, and Sarvath acknowledges that Dubai gave her “the opportunity to grow from a curious child into an entrepreneur, a mother, and a business owner. Growing up in a future forward country, with the amazing leadership, the kindness of people around you, interacting with people of different traditions and cultures… you learn a lot. I think that has had a huge influence on my entrepreneurial journey.”

Today, Sarvath runs a marketing agency and has also launched her own premium food brand, Aqina. She said: “Both businesses were built in the UAE, and I genuinely believe growing up here gave me the confidence to take those risks. When you spend your life in a country that is constantly evolving and creating opportunities, you naturally start to think bigger about your own goals as well.”

She’s raising her two children in Dubai, which has always been her home, and is now theirs, too. She said: “To be honest, I couldn't think of a better place. Whether you're building a career, a business, or a family, being surrounded by opportunity, diversity, and a supportive community can shape your outlook in ways you only fully appreciate later in life.”