We are Dubai, rather than Abu Dhabi.
The driving is a bit fast and mad, but you are more likely to get a speeding ticket through keeping up with the traffic rather than be in an accident.
To be honest, there are way more near misses compared to actual accidents. If you stay aware all the time, you can stay as safe as possible.
Schools, some are excellent! I have one in senior school. Not sure if they'll go back and board later, but they are fine for now.
Mixture of nationalities in the UAE. Indians the biggest group of expats. Iran, Turkish, Australians, South Africans, British, other European. Lots of Scandinavians too. Lots of expat children at my children's school are bilingual and there are Muslims, Hindus and Christians. The atmosphere is multi cultural and everything is celebrated in Dubai, even Halloween, which I had no idea about.
Cleaners... You have to go through an agency to be legal, even for part time cleaners. Finding evening babysitters is near enough impossible as even officially illegal to use a teenager.
So yes, we went down a full time maid route after the first 6 months of scrambling around begging agencies to send people. Day time cleaning is no problem, but evening sitting is tricky.
Of course, there are lots of people that employ illegally, but the risks of getting caught and fined are there.
A typical weekend for me is driving the kids to activities (everything is available here!). Maybe swimming with the little one in the community pool. Going to the indoor dog park with the pup. In the cooler months, going to the organic food market in the park and spending the morning playing with the kids there.
Yes, there are the clubs, and yes I love a good brunch, but there's loads of normal family things to do too 
I don't much like expat woman forum. Once you are here, communities and expats use Facebook groups a lot.