US-Iran war anxieties, exam pressure and uncertainty: How UAE parents can help children recover this summer

When the alerts rang out in March, Dubai-based mum Niyati (name changed on request) didn’t quite know how to reassure her eight-year-old son at first. “He would just run to another room, every time there was an alert,” she recalls.

 Confusion and disorientation doesn’t have an easy language, after all.

Over the course of the next two months, while reading headline after headline, distance learning followed by a switch back to school, she had to look for different ways to tell him: Everything would be okay.

And now it’s the summer, a break from school, even though there’s always the looming worry of regional tensions in the background. Maybe, just maybe, this might be a chance for her to ensure that he feels relaxed, and safe again.

It’s a long summer, but just like other mothers, she intends to make it a memorable one.

Perhaps the reset won’t come from just camps and activities. Maybe, what they need is: Time just to be children.

 Elite athletes don't train at maximum intensity all year. They improve through cycles of challenge and recovery.

And, according to psychologist and performance coach Dr. Scott Whitfield from LightHouse Arabia, children aren't so different. After months of exams, extracurricular activities, social pressures and, for many families, a backdrop of regional uncertainty, summer offers something every developing mind needs: Recovery.

There’s a lot to recover from, and it includes the demands of the academic year. For instance, Dubai-based grandmother Sreelata K. Kumar says that her grandchildren are content just with spending the first week at home, reading, waking up late, and a little occasional ice cream. "It has been a rough year for them till now, so we aren't trying to immediately force them into studies or summer camps. Children need to just enjoy their childhood," she says.

The pressure of the year needs to ease. The school year places children under a particular kind of sustained pressure, be it academic deadlines, social dynamics and extracurricular obligations, explains Dr. Diana Maatouk, Clinical Psychologist at The Hummingbird Clinic. “It’s often a rigid daily structure that leaves little room for unstructured downtime," she explains. "By the time summer arrives, many children are carrying an accumulation of stress they haven't had the chance to process, even if they seem outwardly fine."

The summer can be valuable, because it removes something that children rarely escape during the school year: Constant evaluation. “During the school year, children are regularly being assessed, compared, and measured, whether through grades, social standing, or performance in activities. That evaluative pressure, even when mild, keeps the nervous system somewhat activated,” she says.

 Whitfield believes that recovery deserves as much attention as achievement. "For many children, summer offers something that's psychologically very valuable: recovery. Months of academic demands require sustained concentration, emotional regulation, and constant evaluation. A break from those pressures allows many children to relax, recharge, and return to school with renewed energy."

 And stepping away from grades doesn't mean children stop learning. "Reducing pressure doesn't necessarily reduce learning," Whitfield explains. "Without the focus on grades or performance, children often become more curious, creative, and willing to explore interests simply because they enjoy them."

 Dr Maatouk also points to the importance of something modern childhood often lacks. "Second, unstructured play, something increasingly rare during the academic year, allows children to process experiences symbolically and creatively, which is genuinely restorative for the developing brain."

 Perhaps most importantly, children regain a sense of control. "Third, summer often restores a sense of autonomy. Children get to make more choices about how they spend their time, and that sense of agency is protective against the helplessness that chronic stress can produce."

According to psychologist and performance coach Dr. Scott Whitfield

Children don't need to experience a crisis firsthand to be affected by it. They overhear conversations about regional tensions, notice worried expressions, catch snippets of television news or headlines on a parent's phone. Even if they don't fully understand what's happening, psychologists say they often sense that something has changed.

"Children are far more attuned to ambient emotional atmosphere than adults often realise," says Dr. Maatouk.

They may not understand the specifics of a geopolitical conflict or an economic downturn, but they register the emotional tone of the adults around them, the tension in a parent's voice, the frequency of hushed conversations, the changes in a household's rhythm.

This process, she explains, is sometimes referred to as emotional contagion. Even when children are shielded from the news, fragments still find their way to them.

Without the context adults possess, those fragments can become even more frightening. "As children often lack the full context, these fragments can become more frightening than the reality, since their imagination tends to fill in the gaps with worst-case scenarios."

Rather than trying to shield children from every difficult reality, Dr. Maatouk believes parents should focus on providing emotional stability. "Children take their emotional cues from the adults they trust around them. When caregivers can acknowledge that difficult things are happening in the world without becoming overwhelmed themselves, it communicates to the child that the situation, whatever it is, is being held by someone capable. That containment is often more protective than any amount of explanation."

Few holiday complaints worry parents more than hearing, "I'm bored." Yet psychologists say boredom has earned an unfair reputation.

"Many parents see boredom as something to avoid, but short periods of boredom can be developmentally valuable because they encourage children to draw on their own imagination, curiosity, and problem-solving rather than relying on constant external entertainment," says Whitfield.

Research, he explains, consistently links unstructured play with creativity, independence and emotional regulation. "When children have to decide how to spend their own time, they practise making choices, managing frustration, and discovering what genuinely interests them."

Rather than rushing to fill every quiet moment, parents can see boredom as an opportunity rather than a problem. Children don't need to be entertained every minute of the holidays, says Whitfield.

"Providing a safe environment, access to books, art materials, outdoor spaces, or sports equipment is often enough."

Sometimes, he adds, the most valuable response to "I'm bored" is simply: "What do you think you might enjoy doing?"

 For many families, summer camps, holidays and organised activities offer a solace, more so than entertainment

 According to Aziza Sobh, Counseling Psychologist at The Hummingbird Clinic, these experiences can help restore children's sense of security after a demanding school term. Play, travel and summer camps provide a sense of safety.  Predictability itself becomes reassuring. "Consistent schedules, clear rules, and repeated daily patterns create a sense of containment that reduces anxiety and supports emotional regulation,” she says.

 These environments also provide important emotional support. "Within these settings, supportive adults and peers provide co-regulation, helping children feel emotionally held and understood. From an attachment perspective, these stable relationships can offer corrective experiences that rebuild trust and security."

 Play serves a deeper purpose than just time wafting by. It allows children to process emotions, while learning social and coping skills, and allows them to try something new. And these experience build a sense of mastery: They start feeling as if they can handle challenges.

 And it’s alright, if you don’t have a holiday or a summer camp to attend. 

Sarkis Gudjelian, Psychologist at The Hummingbird Clinic, says a meaningful summer can happen at home with a thoughtful balance of routine, learning and family time.  He recommends creating a loose weekly rhythm. "Planning a weekly schedule that includes a variety of activities tailored to the child's interests helps maintain structure while preventing boredom."

Keeping children's minds engaged without creating pressure is equally valuable. Parents can set aside a short period each day for educational activities, such as reading, puzzles, creative writing. It helps reinforce what they learned during the school year, and ease their transition back to school.

 Moreover, they need to be surrounded by friends. "Encouraging children to spend one or two days each week with their friends through activities such as sports, going to the movies, or eating at a restaurant also supports their social development,” he says.

The summer isn't a project to get 'right'. It's the time where children need to recover, process the year and just find ways to unwind.  "The most common mistake I see is treating summer as another season to optimize rather than a season to recover," says Dr. Maatouk.

 She often sees well-intentioned parents filling calendars with activities designed to help children get ahead. Parents, often with good intentions, respond to a difficult school year by trying to make up for lost time, enrolling children in back-to-back camps, tutoring sessions, or enrichment programs meant to build skills or 'get ahead.' "The logic is understandable, but the effect is that the child never actually exits the state of being managed and evaluated. The calendar changes, but the nervous system doesn't get the pause it needs."

If there is one message psychologists hope parents take into the summer, it is this: children don't need every hour planned.

"The most common mistake I see is treating summer as another season to optimize rather than a season to recover," says Dr. Maatouk.

After a stressful school year, many parents instinctively reach for back-to-back camps, enrichment programmes and activities designed to help children get ahead. "The logic is understandable, but the effect is that the child never actually exits the state of being managed and evaluated."

She also cautions against rushing to eliminate boredom simply because it makes adults uncomfortable. "But boredom is not a problem to be solved. It's often the exact space where a child's own regulation, creativity, and initiative develop."

That doesn't mean abandoning routine altogether. "The goal isn't the absence of structure," she says. "It's the absence of pressure."

Perhaps the most important reminder, however, has little to do with schedules at all. "What children need most after a stressful term isn't a perfectly curated summer, it's proximity to a calm adult."

After months of deadlines, expectations and, for many families, a world that has felt uncertain, perhaps the greatest gift parents can offer this summer isn't another activity on the calendar. It is the space to slow down, reconnect, and remind children that recovery is every bit as important as achievement.