I had lunch with my daughter and her friend in Abu Dhabi last month. We ate in Yas Mall, at one of those US-based chains where the servings are big. And so are the prices.

The two are teachers there, and take note as parents interact with their children. They’ll comment that children’s behaviour in the classroom is a reflection of that which they live with and learn from at home.

As we were enjoying our catch up and going through the checklist of asking about relatives and friends, a rather large party came in. There was a bit of a commotion, in that several tables had to be pushed together to accommodate the group.

There was a mother, and five children.

And five nannies.

As children go, they were well behaved, and obviously a credit to their parents.

And the five nannies.

What was nice to see was that the children had good table manners as the food was ordered and eaten. There were no tantrums, no tears, no screams of “I want” or other such annoyances that can ruin a restaurant visit for everyone. We’ve all been there, when the screams are so loud that you’d swear mass murder was being committed, and the parents seem to lack any means to control their kids, or are willing to let their nannies deal with the tantrums.

And the five nannies were also fed. Sometimes, nannies are forgotten, left to look on, left to starve as others eat.

Not these five nannies.

What was interesting too, my daughter noted, was that each of the children had their own iPad. Her friend chimed in that teachers now can take a course to show parents the best way for children to get the most out of their iPads, to use them for educational rather than for entertainment purposes.

How times have changed.

I am old enough to remember chalk and blackboards and exercise copy books that had blue and red lines drawn horizontally across the page. When you learnt your letters, they had to be between the blue lines, and when you wrote a capital letter, it had to touch the red line above. The same thing when it came to ascending and descending letters — both had to go to the red lines.

Then there were squared exercise copy books that were used to learn mathematics and you wrote the numbers in the boxes and it all had to be kept very next.

As we got older and progressed through the grades, there was almost an art in how the exercise books were kept. At the start of the school year, some kids would cover their books with brown paper covers. Others even used wallpaper to cover their books.

When you started secondary school, you were old enough to get a compass set in a metal box. They were deadly weapons and you felt really mature having a compass and dividers tucked away in your schoolbag.

And when you started doing things like calculus, you were allowed to use a book that had all sorts of formulas and Greek symbols and cosigns and stuff that I never really understood. I guess that why I because a journalist.

I had a brother who was studying to be a surveyor in college. He had a slide rule. Does anyone have a slide rule any more, or are they case aside in our march for progress. Then there were scientific calculators that had all sorts of signs and buttons that seemed to be able to launch nuclear weapons if you pressed them in the wrong order. What’s it that Nasa says now? It landed men on the Moon with computers that had less power than is found now in a pocket calculator.

My daughter turned out just fine; Me too, and my two brothers and sister too. Just Mum and Dad. No iPads.

And no nannies.