When I first came here I was a bit like Marhabtain. I had 5 kids, the youngest under a year and NO WAY was I going to let someone else raise them. I did get a part-time cleaner as 6 bathrooms in a house is way too many for 1 person to handle! Now 5 years later I have mellowed and I might do it differently if I had to do it over.

1. There is NO ONE to leave your little ones with if you have dentist/doctors/ other important appointments. I am not talking about lunch. When all the other moms have nannies, who can you trade with?

2. I ended up putting my youngest in a nursery school at 3- a year earlier than my older 4 kids--because there were literally no kids in our compound during the day to play with--they were all at nursery school.

Sometimes it is true---when in rome......