GCSE '18s (20) - half term beckons!

We're going to Birmingham on 20 October. Warwick's going to have to wait until next year.

DD had to sit a test to be able to study further maths, managed to prise out of her she has passed :-) she is doing discrete and statistics, she wanted to do mechanics. Anyone explain to me what, if anything this all means

Forgot the rest. Ds is also looking at Oxford, Bath, Nottingham and Southampton. He can't decide if he wants to look at Cambridge (no Stats in the Maths courses) but is being a bit seduced by school encouraging him.

Ooh how exciting! I'll be carrying The Guardian though . Maybe a secret sign? DS is looking at Maths and maybe Physics (to keep dh happy). What are you looking at?

Kilash we are going to Warwick on 20th! Maybe we should wear a red carnation or carry a folded copy of The Times .

We went to Durham last weekend. Where else are you thinking of and for what subjects?

Nope. Sometimes she adds rice for a little more carbohydrate. I think this fails every nutritional guideline imaginable (unless she added Nutella).

DS (History essay due Wed, English presentation due Fri, Philosophy essay due Tues) has admitted that being taught at school seems nice and relaxing compared to working on his own at home!

DS is making his own lunches. He asked me if this year he could have the weekly ammount I used to put on his smart card for lunch added to his allowance and he would sort his lunches out. I thought this was quite reasonable. He's turned into a canny shopper (always did love money!) and buys sandwich stuff and takes 4 sandwiches and some friut plus tortilla chips into school - and eneds up saving himself about £5 per week . lets hope he keeps it up when he goes to uni.

We have booked our first Open day at Warwick in a couple of weeks (eek!). The other Uni's he wants to apply to don't have 2019 Open days advertised yet except Oxford, so to avoid a hectic summer it makes sense to get at least one out of the way. It's a bit too real though.

Was it meant to have hummus in perhaps?
(typical vegan combination)

Dd has now started to have the veggie falafel wrap (no mayo as she doesn’t like it?

Oh no. That makes 3 with Chas or Dave and which ever Chuckle Brother it was.

DD's lunchtime wrap today was filled with carrot & cucumber. Nothing else whatsoever. Weird.

Oh no! Geoffrey (as in Bungo and Geoffrey /Rainbow) has died! All the TV and pop icons of my childhood are dying off. It implies that I'm getting old, which is obviously a completely unacceptable suggestion!

Probably a time thing too - when your so busy and taking in all sorts of new things it must be so tempting to grab the quickest thing.

Yes, we definately think comfort eating a bit.

Could she be comfort eating, AH? She's had to deal with a lot of change. Nothing compared to your DH, but DC can be a bit self-centered sometimes.
You might not think a packet of supernoodles is comforting but carbs like that can be.

Also breakfast she was having sugary granola with yoghurt and fruit bars. I have encouraged her to switch back to what she hd at hmoe which was either egg on toast or porridge with real fruit.

I had bene encouraging dd to save money as when we went on the parents tour a soup and sandwich deal was someting like £2.80 and I thought she could make her own sandwich and take in a cup a soup much cheaper.

But it turns out the've had a re-design of the menu and given the students a discount so now they can get a wrap or meat/fish salad for £1.70.

The supernoodles were over 500 calories of fat and simple carbs (have you ever seen the grease floating in the water when you heat them?) We do have them at home but half a packet each mixed with fresh chicken and peas/sweetcorn not just a whole pack on their own!

DS is going the opposite way with three cooked meals on tap including his favourite cooked breakfast !! Hoping being busy and forced to do some exercise three times a week will counter any impact :)

Alexander at least you have a diagnosis to work from, that must be some kind of relief.
DD seems to be having very small lunches at Sixth Form - not so small I worry but definitely smaller than in Year 11. And healthy - for instance today's was a chopped apple, some green salad leaves, celery and red peppers with grilled chicken (no dressing), and a box of raisins. I wish I had her resilience.

AH I'm sorry about your DH's diagnosis. Sending you my best wishes that it can be controlled and that the impact on your lives is not as great as you fear.

Went to see dd at the weekend. She seemed fairly upbeat although school are a bit worried she's lost some confidence. She had been eating badly at lunch (think a while packet of supernoodles and lots of supposedly healthy fruit bars instead of more filling chicken salads, wraps and proper fruit) but we've had a chat.

And the latest hot off the press news from dh who went to see a private consultant this morning is that he has Menieres Disease. Not a brilliant diagnoses for someone in his proffesion but he has now been given medication to hopefully try and get it under control.

eaglefly I had the same problem with DS1 (long legs, small waist). I had to learn to sew so i could put in elastic into waist bands etc.

I was a young professional woman once. I thought it was my grandmother's generation who cooked, sewed and cleaned and my life would be about "important" things, but here I am replicating my granny! Now, I have opinions on everything from the best fabric conditioner, to how to season food properly and how Hobbycraft is way overpriced for haberdashery!

Thanks whistl, oratory, Ellen yes it's true this phase won't last long. DS has very long legs but is skinny so things are constantly getting shorter but the longer stuff doesn't fit the the waists. DD no such problem and has stayed the same size for a couple of years now.

I think one of the stumbling blocks from that phase is getting used to paying for adult clothes (with VAT) and the grown-upness of the styles. DS2 was only 11. He's 14 now and it seems like a lifetime ago. But there definitely was a period when it was difficult to find clothes that fitted him.

BHS were brilliant that year the boys went through that stage. It is a shame BHS is gone. DS2 only reluctantly gave up the last pair of (far too small) shorts from there this summer when he realised he just couldn't wear them again!

I think they grow so quickly at that age that the market is so small the shops don't bother catering for it. You can get Next stuff online for teenagers but they don't have any of it in the shops. My DSs are all in adult clothes now. It was everything being too long that was a pain for a while, even the teenager stuff. My boys are fairly short with long bodies and short legs, poor buggers!

That time before they get big enough for men/woman's clothes is tricky as the kids clothes don't suit or fit them any more but adult sizes are too big. I'm sure there's a gap in the market there for someone to fill.