That said, without using the MDI mechanism you can still put forms inside other forms/controls, to do this set the child forms .TopLevel property False and add the form instance to the .Controls collection. It's something you could try out. Example:System.ArgumentException: Form cannot be both an MDI child and MDI parent.
dim f as new childform
f.toplevel=false
me.controls.add(f)
f.show()