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VALENTINE'S DAY OFFER! Make someone's day by treating them to an extra-large card for the price of a standard size one from hephalump.com. This offer from the online greetings card company represents a saving of around 40%. All you have to do is use the code MUMSNET in the promo box at checkout. It couldn't be easier to show someone you care.

Hello from Mumsnet Towers...

Where we're very proud to be "rolling out" our new Work, families and childcare content. Check out our "mission-critical toolkit" on everything from pregnancy rights to choosing the right childminder/nanny to surviving the return to work.

On Monday (31 Jan, 1.15 to 2.15pm), we've a webchat with Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, and on Tuesday (1 Feb, 1 to 2pm), it's Kay Benbow, controller of CBeebies (thread opening soon).

We're updating our Gifts for mums so they're suitably inspirational for Mother's Day <scarily efficient>. Please come and review what's there already or add some great new ideas of your own.

Now for this week's parenting news...

Standard of living to plunge at fastest rate since 1920s: Families will see their disposable income eaten up as they "pay the inevitable price" for the financial crisis, says Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England. With wages failing to keep pace with rising inflation, he says workers' take-home pay will be, by the end of the year, worth the same as in 2005 – the most prolonged fall in living standards for more than 80 years. (Telegraph 25.01.11)

Men are getting a 'raw deal', says MP: Despite having some of the toughest anti-discrimination laws in the world, we are "blind to some of the most flagrant discrimination – against men", says Tory MP Dominic Raab. Writing on an influential political website, Raab says, "Men work longer hours, enjoy their jobs less, commute further and are more likely to get the sack," adding that "feminists are now amongst the most obnoxious bigots." (Politics Home 24.01.11; join the discussion on Talk)

IMAGINE THE WEBSITE THAT'S THE EQUIVALENT OF A GROUP HUG – and that gives the huggers amazing deals! Incahoot is the new free community which uses collective buying power to negotiate exclusive deals, only normally available for big businesses - across mobile, internet and energy.

Other stories in brief

• Nicole Kidman says playing a bereaved mother in the new Oscar-nominated film Rabbit Hole "was walking through something that is probably one of my biggest fears". "But when I read the script," she says, "I thought, 'Ah that's how this subject matter should be handled', and that's what drew me to it." (BBC News 26.01.11; sign up for FREE preview screening tickets)
• An 11-year-old boy is appealing to the US courts against being tried for murder as an adult. Jordan Brown, who is accused of killing his father's pregnant fiancée, could, if found guilty, face life sentence with no parole. (Guardian 25.01.10; join the discussion on Talk)
• If your children are terrified of spiders and snakes, it's your fault. So say US scientists whose studies suggest children are not "hard-wired" to fear creepy crawlies but learn to be scared of them in the first years of life. (Daily Mail 26.01.11)
• Central heating can make you fat. We are so used to being cosily warm at home, say British scientists, that our bodies no longer use up much energy warding off the cold – leading to weight gain. (Telegraph 26.01.11)
• Pushchair manufacturers Silver Cross and Phil & Teds have both issued safety alerts after reports of their prams trapping the fingers of some children and adults who used them. (Independent 26.01.11)
  
  

Hot threads

• Gobby Gary, Mrs Perp, Boiled Ham Face - have you got nicknames for your neighbours?
• Old gimmers, gather round - who's the oldest Mumsnetter, then?
  
• The TBH Confessional - come unload the things you can't be honest about in Real Life (No judging allowed!)
• Clamidia, Jack-Daniels, Sigh-Anne - and other baby names that make you gasp? (Judging allowed)
  
• "I've just done a massive poo" - the one about bowels, boxoffrogs and the text that went astray...
  
  

Quote of the week: MegBusset spots a new job-for-life baby-naming trend: "One of the models (10-year-old boy) in the new Mini Boden catalogue is called, um, Boden."

Competitions
Try your luck in 2011 with our January competitions. Here's what you could win:

• A Mark Warner family holiday to Sardinia, worth up to £5,278
• £200 Hilton Worldwide UK voucher
• A year's family membership at a Nuffield healthclub
• A laptop with a year's free internet access
• £150 Roof Box Company voucher
• A Gorenje washing machine, worth over £300
  

Don't forget to keep an eye on winners' corner to see if your name comes out of the hat...

JOIN THE MUMSNET PANEL: YOU COULD WIN A 32" HDTV FROM SKY! Sign up to take part in special surveys and product tests that won't appear on Mumsnet Talk (but will be sent to you via email instead) and you could win a new HDTV from Sky. Click here to sign up/find out more.

Aitch's TV round-up: Who Get the Best Jobs?, Wednesday 2  February, BBC2, 9pm
Well, here's some cheery news for you. Apparently, our young, working-class, comp-educated kids are every bit as likely to make it to the top jobs now as they were just after the First World War. That is to say not very likely at all. Turns out, says reporter Richard Bilton and former-Labour-cabinet-minister-turned-coalition-tsar Alan Milburn, social mobility went all immobile on us while we weren't looking. Sure, private-school children will be fine because someone's Daddy will do them a favour but, for the rest of us, it looks like the future is all about 'birth, not worth'. And before you say, "'Twas ever thus", it wasn't. Now it's worse. Depressing stuff...
Discuss this show (and others) on our Telly Addicts Talk board.

Recipe of the week: Indith's Perfectly squishy cookies
Properly more-ish melty-chewy biccies. Easy to make and much eaten recommended by RachelMumsnet's DH.
You can review this recipe here - or why not upload one of your own?

That's all from us. We're off to await the 360 degree feedback on our Work content...
Love, MNHQ

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