The need is worldwide. Anna Dillon, a 42-year-old Irish mom living in Abu Dhabi, decided to start a mom in 2021 with Emily Winchip, 40, an American. Both are professors of education.
Ms Dillon has lived in the United Arab Emirates since 2013 but divorced her husband in 2019. In the first year of the pandemic, she said isolation has been crushing and looking after her two children – a daughter, 12, and a son, 13 – has been a challenge in juggling a social life and a full-time job.
Ms. Winchip, her colleague, faced a similar problem. She had lived in the Middle East for 13 years, but when the pandemic struck she was newly separated and alone with her now 12-year-old son.
“I told her I wish we all lived in a place where the kids could play together,” Ms Winchip said.
In September 2021, they began renting a three-bedroom apartment in a condominium, splitting the rent evenly and taking turns cooking and looking after each other’s children. The arrangement won’t last forever – Ms Winchip and Ms Dillon both have new partners and plan to eventually move out and start new lives with them – but after enduring a pandemic together in a foreign country, they say their partnership is dying passed essential.
“I wish we had done it about two years earlier,” Ms. Dillon said.
Back in Florida, Ms. Gilder and Ms. Batykefer also don’t intend to stay in this four-bedroom home in the Jacksonville area forever. The duo hope to be able to buy and convert their own repair facility in the coming year. To cut costs, they’ve signed a deal with a television producer who believes their new mom’s makeover could lead to entertaining reality television.