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There's a moment most mums here know well. You're standing at the gate at 6:50am, your child is climbing into a car, and a small voice at the back of your mind asks the question nobody wants to say out loud: do I actually know who is driving my child today?

In this episode I sit down with Lauren Hamilton, founder of Ride Skipper UAE — and a mum who asked that exact question and couldn't find an answer she was happy with.

Lauren didn't set out to build a company. She set out to get her own child from A to B safely. What she found instead was a system that wasn't built for families: drivers on commission-only gig contracts, cars without the right seats, and a different face at the wheel every week. So she built the alternative — a chauffeur service where vetted, salaried drivers take your child in your own family car, with the same familiar person doing the run each day.

We talk about:

• Why "who is driving?" is one of the biggest unspoken worries for families in the UAE
• What a proper vetting process actually looks like — and why Lauren believes trust can't be automated
• The difference a salaried, secure driver makes to how someone drives with your child in the back
• What families relocating to the Middle East should ask before they book any transport
• The hidden hours the school run takes from family life — and what parents do with that time when they get it back
• Lauren's honest account of building a business while raising a young family

This one is for every parent who has ever sat in traffic on Al Khail Road wondering how the day got away from them — and for anyone new to the region trying to work out how the school run really works here.

At Heather Harries Education Hub we've spent ten years walking alongside families across the region — from FS1 through to university applications, school selection for relocating families, careers guidance, SEN support and home schooling. The school run may not appear on a report card, but a calm, safe journey to school shapes how a child arrives at the classroom door. That's why this conversation matters.

Find Ride Skipper: [Instagram @rideskipperuae] | [https://www.rideskipper.com/]

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https://www.heatherharries.com