In the limited amount of time I spend on MN I sometimes need practical advise:

[Mum2FunkyDude]

So does anybody else feel that apart from spending time "vegetating" on mn while lo's asleep you sometimes need some really good practical advise without having to start a whole new thread. Is there a dimension of MN that I've missed that actually do host this? For example:

Any recipes for finger paints, play dough etc that can be looked up
How about apart from just top tips, actually categorise them, for example How to successfully potty train, how to handle public tantrums or again did I miss the link?

It doesn't have to be professional advise, just plain firsthand experience from mums, I thought that this was part of MN?

Sorry must run ds awake now...

Have you tried playing with the search function, see if that brings up what you're looking for? After all, you know what they say, there's nothing new under the sun.

There's The Big Issues section?

And the product reviews might have the sort of info you're after too.

I guess that I can always find a playdough recipe using the search function.

There are (at least were) some sections that you could access from the homepage on eg how to teach a child to swim. But in a lot of areas of life things change - new products and services are available and I think that that is part of the joy of something like MN - you can be one of the first to hear someone's firsthand experience of using a bumbo or a doula or trying BLW or whatever. But it would be hard to try to capture that all in nice categogories - and goodness knows we've had a number of topics to try to do that!

How do you use mumsnet? Do you just go to 'active conversations'?

Because on the second page on from the home page (if that makes sense) there is a whole board re nappies, potty training etc. Dealing with tantrums is likely to be in the bahviour/developement board (or a few others actually).

Or click on 'search messages' and go from there. Eg. type in 'playdough recipe' and it should bring up various conversations discussing this.

hth

HI Mum2FunkyDude

Looks like you've had quite a few useful suggestions - and yes usually the answers are in there somewhere, you just have to know where to look!

We are hoping to overhaul the big issues guides very soon to include more topics and more from the real experts (ie you lot!) so watch out for that.

Thanks for the feedback though and hth

Speaking of big issues - I emailed MNHQ 4 years ago complaining about the education section on ly being about English Primary and Secondary which kind of alienates a few million of the UK - totally different system in Scotland for example.

I know this isn't really the right place to mention it, but if I don't do it I'll forget for another 4 years

Thanks for the response, I do have a need for a kind of "Dictionary on how to raise your first child and survive" or "How to entertain children while being a SAHM".

I will make some time and thoroughly look through the topics, although the search facility on the threads always boul me over as I never get what I search for. I suppose I'm a bit spoiled with Google.

Wll said bobsmum. I've mentioned that on threads before.