Back to school also mean back to stress, do parents deserve a medal?

Dubai: There’s nothing quite like back-to-school season in Dubai to remind parents that stress isn’t just an emotion — it’s a full-blown financial thriller. Forget ‘new year, new me.’ For mums and dads, it’s ‘new term, new avalanche of expenses,’ complete with plot twists, cliffhangers, and the occasional silent scream into a pillow.

Let’s start with uniforms. A school shirt for Dh130, shorts for Dh110. Multiply that by five days, times three kids, and suddenly you’re convinced these threads are spun from unicorn hair.

And don’t get me started on the shoes — which, by the way, will mysteriously disintegrate by midterm even though your child swears he only “walks normally.”

Then comes the real kicker: fees. For my higher secondary kid, that’s Dh65,000 a year. For my twin boys, it’s Dh56,000 each. Do the math with me — or rather, don’t, because staring at those numbers too long feels like volunteering for trauma. Let’s just say it’s enough to make you question whether your bank account will ever recover before graduation.

Now, I’m not against education. Far from it. But sometimes, as a parent writing cheques in the tens of thousands, you can’t help but wonder: is all this expense really the golden ticket to success?

Case in point: just yesterday, I spoke to a young Omani game designer who has become the poster child of what I’d call YouTube University.

Yes, he has a degree in computer science, but every single skill that helped him go viral with his heritage-inspired video game? He learned from free tutorials online. The man literally built a career — and bought himself a Dodge sports car — thanks to persistence, passion, and a strong Wi-Fi connection.

Meanwhile, here we are, wiring money to schools like I’m funding a small country, just so my kids can sit through algebra lessons they’ll swear they’ll never need in real life. (Spoiler: they might be right.)

The contrast is dizzying.

On one side, parents bankrupting themselves on fees, uniforms, stationery drives, and “optional but strongly encouraged” extracurriculars. On the other, a YouTube-savvy twenty-something turning tutorials into a livelihood. It makes you question whether the traditional equation — big fees = guaranteed future — still adds up.

Of course, I’m not pulling my kids out of school and telling them to binge-watch coding tutorials instead. But wouldn’t it be nice if schools acknowledged the financial pressure? Maybe a discount for families with multiple kids (some do it for third and some do it for your fourth kid). Or a break on uniforms that don’t require a second mortgage. At the very least, a pat on the back for parents who survive September without losing their minds — or their overdraft limits.

So here we are: another school year, another dent in the wallet. Parents, let’s take a collective deep breath and remind ourselves that while the fees, forms, and shopping lists might drain us, the end goal — raising capable, resilient kids — is worth it.

Still, when you see someone making thousands off YouTube University, it’s hard not to chuckle and think: maybe my twins don’t need that second set of overpriced shorts after all.