Are modern parents getting the support they need?

The UAE’s decision to designate next year as the Year of the Family carries a powerful message: that the strength of society begins at home. For me, as a mother of three young children, it was an invitation to pause and reflect on what family life really looks like today and how different it is from the experience of our parents.

My own mother raised five children while working long evening hours teaching adult learners. She would return home late at night, rest briefly, and still be fully present with my siblings and I the next morning before school. Her generation carried a remarkable resilience, one that often came without the support systems we take for granted today. But their challenges were different too. Life was simpler, expectations were fewer and communities were more intertwined. Parenting was more communal, and no one expected a mother – or father – to be everything at once.

Today, mothers face pressure that is not always visible. Our responsibilities have multiplied: careers, school follow-ups, extracurriculars, emotional and mental health, digital supervision, nutrition and the constant sense of needing to do everything perfectly. The opportunities for women are greater – and we’re proud of that – but those come with a heavier emotional load that previous generations simply did not have to navigate in the same way.

Before writing this article, I asked my siblings and several colleagues who are working mothe