My little polygamist

I had a quiet chuckle this week when I saw in my blog stats that someone had landed on Circles in the Sand after asking Google: “Can expats have more than one wife in Dubai?”

Any Western men reading this, you know that the answer is no, right? It’s just Muslim men who, under sharia law, are allowed to practise polygamy – that is, they can have more than one wife at the same time, up to a total of four.

So I was having a little laugh at the expense of the hen-pecked Googler who was clearly curious about his chances of polygamy.

But then

I was putting the boys to bed tonight. We were reading an Enid Blyton story, and in it, there was a stepfather.

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Three’s a crowd: Son1’s wedding in 20 years’ time

“What’s a stepfather, Mummy?” Son1 asked.

I attempted to explain. “Well, if anything happens to Daddy [God forbid], and I ended up getting married again, then my new husband would be your stepfather.”

Son1 looked solemn. I probably should have stopped right there.

“And, likewise, if something happens to me, and Daddy gets a new wife, she’d be your stepmother,” I continued.

Son2 made a reassuring sound suggesting he wouldn’t want a new Mummy, but Son1 still had questions so I elaborated, using the example of my brother-in-law – also a pilot in Dubai, who is exceedingly eligible with flight attendants lining up to date him.

“You know your Uncle’s pretty friends who we meet. Well, if Daddy was to marry one of them [Note to DH: I would haunt you], she’d be your stepmum. But you wouldn’t want that, would you?”

“No,” said Son2, emphatically.

“Can’t I have both of you?”, asked Son1, with an unmistakeable twinkle in his eye. “A stepmum and a mum! Why not?”

Facepalm!

Will you marry me?

Marriage is on the six-year-old’s mind at the moment. To start with, he’s wondering if the school bus driver and bus nanny are married.

He imagines their marital home is right next to the school (similar to his notion that all the teachers live at school, upstairs) and thinks the bus driver takes Shabhina on ‘date nights’ by bus.

The memories: Before two kids, two cats and two international moves


At bedtime tonight, this led to enquiries about why people get married.

“Why did you marry Daddy?” he asked.

“Because I love him,” I replied, catapulted back to our wedding day eight years ago and wondering if this conversation could possibly sow the seeds for a lasting marriage when BB grows up.

“But why did Daddy marry you?”

“Well,” I responded, slightly taken aback by his enquiring tone and setting the book we were reading down, ” he loves me too.”

“Mummee, D’you know who I’m going to marry?” he asked, coming closer to whisper a secret in my ear and looking pretty pleased with his catch.

“I”m going to marry the toilet!” – followed by howls of triumphant laughter.

Small boys and their toilet talk, honestly. I had NO idea!