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.

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!