Abu Dhabi: Everyone saw the four-year-old on the stage.
Around 400 people in front of him. A small boy, completely confident, with a message: I was able to do this, and you can too.
Behind that moment, his mother said were days spent organising school and travel. Behind the book, a passing conversation. Behind the confidence, is years of listening.
“People usually see success once it becomes visible, but so many of the small things that came before it remains behind the scenes.” Mouza Al Darmaki said.
Saeed AlMheiri is now eight. He has represented Emirati children at international exhibitions and events and has been selected as a book ambassador in other countries. His story has reached schools and been included in educational studies and learning materials internationally.
But in the AlMheiri home, there are four children, not one. AlDhabi, Saeed, AlMaha and Khalifa. And one mother who said she never planned for any of it.
“From the beginning, we never planned to have an ‘exceptional child’, and we never wanted his childhood to revolve around achievement.”
The boy who kept asking
It began around the age of three, with questions. “Why?” “How?” “What would happen if...?” In the car, around the dining table, before going to sleep.
The first answer was rarely enough.
“Over time, I realised that his curiosity was not temporary,” Mouza said. If something interested him, he came back to it days later, asked about it from a different angle and tried to connect it with what he already knew.
There was never a moment when she thought she had discovered his talent, she said. Only small things that kept appearing in front of her.
The sister who showed him it was possible
Saeed grew up in a home filled with books, stories and conversations. And he had a role model close by his older sister, AlDhabi, who read and wrote and turned her ideas into stories, initiatives and projects.
“Saeed did not simply hear that a child could write. He watched his own sister do it when she was six.”
Yet Mouza was careful from the start. AlDhabi’s success must never become a mould for Saeed to fit into.
“What he took from her was the belief that a child is capable, and then he chose for himself what he wanted to do with that possibility.”
He chose the sea, animals and nature. Later came robotics, space and artificial intelligence.
Melting ice
When Saeed wrote his book 'Melting Ice' during COP28, his mother saw him connecting what he was hearing about climate change with the stories he wanted to tell.
His interest in marine life kept growing, particularly dugongs and other marine species. Today he is working on a project with support from the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund.
For Mouza, the clearest sign is not the project itself. It is that he keeps returning to the subject on his own.
“What I love most is that Saeed does not only talk about what he has already achieved. He talks about new ideas, research, and very big projects he imagines himself creating in the future.”
That, she said, is how she knows the passion still belongs to him.
She does not like to see him reduced to a label either.
“I am extremely proud of what he has achieved through writing, but writing is one part of who he is.” And perhaps a few years from now, she adds, he will discover something none of them has even thought about yet.
A bridge between two languages
Not everything was easy, and Mouza is open about it.
At four, Saeed had many questions about science, nature, animals and space. Many of the resources that answered them were in English. Over time the family noticed that he was storing scientific information and terminology in English, simply because that was the language in which he had first learned it.
She did not want to put a barrier in front of his curiosity. Nor did she want Arabic to become separate from his world of knowledge.
“So, we began building a bridge between the two languages.”
At home they spoke to him in Arabic, in their own language and local dialect. They asked him about what he had learned, discussed it with him and brought Arabic naturally into stories and everyday situations.
“Over time, it made a big difference.”
Success should not cost a childhood
The other challenge was different: how do you handle recognition that arrives so young?
From the day Saeed started school, Mouza made sure there was a clear plan between herself, the school and his teachers. When he travelled to represent the UAE, she wanted to know what his classmates were learning while he was away, so that he would not miss any foundations.
She also did not say yes to everything.
“I looked at his age, his education, his comfort, and whether he actually wanted to take part.”
“No matter how big an opportunity is, I do not want the price of it to be an essential part of his education or childhood.”
One question
There is one question Mouza has asked her children for years.
She is not the parent who asks, “What mark did you get?” She asks: “Are you happy with your result?”
If the answer is yes, the child knows what they did to get there. If the answer is no, they start to think for themselves: what could I have done better?
“I do not want a child to study because their mother is waiting for a particular number. I want them to understand that their education is their responsibility, and that we are there to support and help them,” she said.
She first used the approach with AlDhabi, when she was around six, and has continued with Saeed and his siblings.
Every child has their own voice
Mouza once took part in the Child Voice initiative with the Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority. It strengthened her belief in listening to children instead of adults always speaking on their behalf.
At home, she tries to make sure every child has a voice.
“AlDhabi, Saeed, AlMaha and Khalifa are not copies of one another, and I do not want them to be.”
She wants them to inspire each other, without comparison. “I want them to take courage from one another, not follow the same path.”
Mouza does not want her children to believe that successful people never fail.
“I do not want a child who is afraid to bring me a lower grade, hides an attempt that did not work, or avoids trying something new because they are worried about how we will look at them.”
So when something goes wrong, she often simply asks: “What do you think you could do differently next time?” A mistake becomes information, not a judgement of ability.
What she would tell other parents
“Do not rush to turn talent into achievement.”
Before asking how to make a child successful, she said, perhaps we should ask: what is my child trying to tell me about who they are? Watch them when nobody is asking them to do anything. What do they choose? What question do they keep returning to?
And if opportunities begin coming, you do not have to say yes to all of them. Ask whether it adds something meaningful, whether it is right for their age, whether they enjoy it, and whether there is still room for school, play, rest, friends and safety.
Today, at eight, Saeed remembers that moment on the stage and tells his mother how proud he is of the words he said. That, she said, makes her happier than the event itself.
