Please come talk to MNHQ about Special Needs topics: better with fewer of them or not?

[HelenMumsnet]

Hello.

We're looking into streamlining/reorganising our Topics list to make it easier for people to find the best topic for their thread, and to make it easier for everyone to find their way around Talk.

And, following on from some of the points raised on this Site stuff thread, we wanted to ask you folks about the range of SN Topics in Talk.

Currently, as you know, we have...
Parents with disabilities
Special needs support sessions
Special needs: children
Special needs: education
Special needs: legal/financial
Special needs: recommendations
Special needs: teens and pre-teens

Do you think it might be a good idea to lose some of these, given that some of them (legal, education, recommendations, in particular) are quite underused?

Would it be better to have fewer topics, so that every OP was more likely to get replies to their threads?

Or do you think the balance of Topics is fine just as it is?

Please do let us know...

@devientenigma

Well thats one down, how many more mn's eliminated to get the balance in SN right. For all those not in the know and want a teen/post 16/post19 section try SK.

Oh dear. We're definitely not in the business of 'eliminating Mumsnetters to get the balance right'.

The idea of reshuffling the topics within SN a bit was purely to make sure people's threads were getting answered.

We interpreted 2shoes and you, devientenigma, as saying no one answers posts in SN teens, so, going by some of the suggestions here, we thought making one SN children and young adults topics would be more inclusive and, hopefully, mean threads started about teens/post-16s do have more chance of being seen - and posted on.

Apols if we've got the wrong end of the stick. But the intention was very much to integrate you MORE, not 'eliminate' you. God forbid.

It is heartbreaking for many of us with young children but long in the tooth wrt they system to inform new parents with recent dx but hope of support that there is often very little without a fight or resources, but we do it because we have learnt the strategies that make a difference as well as from our mistakes.

Why would this be any different for parents of older children. God my heart breaks when I see a new poster with a forthcoming dx.

But there ARE posters with older children who share their experiences and talk about forthcoming battles I.e the post 16 education funding issue recently posted about. I was able therefore to a) begin thinking about what I'd have to sort out for DS myself and b) sign the petition.

It was valuable for me and for the poster who raised it.

and yet again my post gets quoted, singled out, victimised...........................not entitled to an opinion, feeling, voice!!!

oops that wasn't to MNHQ.

All I am trying to say is everyone needs a place as life at home is crap and for some this maybe there only release.

This is getting fucking ridiculous now.

I cant be arsed I really dont need the bother of it TBH.

devient - agree that everyone needs a place.

I am still confused as to why this place needs to have a different name. especially since, from the time the topics were separated out, there have been complaints that the teens (and other separated out SN topics) don't get enough traffic, that the posts are never replied to, that it's like a ghost town etc.

surely the only sensible solution is to put all the topics back together, where there will be more people to see them?

I said upthread I have posted about my (adult) stepdaughter before, and chose to post on SN children because that is where the traffic is. I don't get why the fact it doesn't specifically mention post 16, or post 19 in the board title means that anyone feel sthey cannot post there.

yes and so do many others Amber

It's just a shame that some feel left out. I hate to think of anyone who doesn't feel supported or needed. That said I think I may bow out too..............and then some wonder

yes and so do many others Amber

?

I dont know why you are taking such an issue with me replyng to what you have said?

This is a forum, its a discussion.

I am replying to you! but you feel victimised by it? of course you are entitled to an opinion, but so am I too!

This is so ridiculous, some people here are trying to reach out to those that feel excluded yet still its the same thing.

It doesnt make any sense.

I haven't posted on this thread, because I have no strong opinions either way, other than I like the fact that people can ask questions or scream or share good stuff without the rest of the world being judgemental or getting the wrong ideas about what is a concern or a success.
I post anywhere and everywhere, although I've got a 17 year old, I'm still a primary teacher and so sometimes I might be able to say something useful or not from that perspective.
I do have concerns about my privacy, so I have namechanged a few times, and if I think sharing something very specific might help another poster, I pm rather than go into details on the open forum.
I do think those with younger children are often helped and encouraged by a glimpse of the future. Even if it's a different sort of tricky, it's not as if most of us aren't going to get there at some point, and knowing that others have coped is less lonely.
So whatever is the outcome, I'll probably still be here, under one name or another.
I just want a solution that the majority if not all are happy with, and I'd like 2shoes to feel she's a part of it all still.

not need the bother

victimised by you, take a look through the thread, no need to explain my life to you and if thats what you call support I'm off

That's it really for me. He's going to be my child always and forever, however huge and mature he becomes. I'll always appreciate someone who understands that when I describe my worries or some of the hysterically silly bits, I'm not talking about an NT teen. Someone who will laugh, or pass the wine bucket with understanding and acceptance.

Am I woffling in the middle of a bunfight and a flounce?
Aren't there enough people out there in RL waiting to kick our arses and be unpleasant to our children without it happening here?

Which is why I started this thread...

Come on ladies we are all in this together on this SN site don't lets scrap our DC's come first and we all have opinions. devientenigma and 2shoes give good advice.

Devientenigma I have done nothing here but try to reach out to you including the PM I sent you the other week when you were having a bad day [as said in your posts on this thread]

If that has made you feel victimised and not supported then im sorry.

I shant ever bother trying to be supportive to anyone again.

I have enough of being made to feel shit for trying to help/do the right thing in real life so sod it im out.

You both sound as if you've had a shit time in the real world and are short on patience and thick skin and all the rest of that stuff.
Sometimes the journey is a bitch.

I wish I could get this across , But I seem to fail every time, maybe it is my wording , but will try again.
my dd is 17, we are facing 19 plus, it will be the biggest step we have ever made.
someone with a 5 year old for instance will not be facing this, they will not know anything about it, anymore than I can now really advise someone with a 5 year old.
so I suppose I was looking for a new home,
I did hope the teens(sn) topic would work, but sadly it pre teens and teens.(strange that in the nt part of mn these are separate)
I just wish there was a topic for people like me with older "children"
sorry but I don't like the "oh well they are all children"
if that is the case why so many topics on mn as a whole. it could all go in one topic.

My DS is 23. I still post on SN Children

If you posted asking for advive on SN Teens, I wouldn't see it because I very rarely look there.

You could take that as lack of support. I just see it as not having time to click on every variant to see if there are unanswered threads on which I could share my knowledge.

I started this thread because SN Education threads frequently go unanswered. That's all I was looking for a solution to.

Is it a Carers of disabled teens/adults type topic you are seeking as I don't think that exists or is the 19+ issue seperate for you?

WetAugust I was thinking of starting a thread in the teens topic(not the sn one) would be great to talk to you, would you?