To think that for any parents who use this site and have DCs who will only achieve C and D grades it must be soul destroying.

[smokepole]

Fortunately my three DC will ( probably all go to university with good GCSE and A level results) . However, the vast majority of kids and surely many parents on here have children , who will not achieve 'great results'. The parents must feel that they as well as their children have failed. The 'constant' discussions on Oxbridge/ RG universities must make these parents feel like they are living in a parallel universe. The vast majority of kids will not go to either of these institutions , 'modest' or normal universities are continually disregarded on Mumsnet ,( though for many kids, even these universities are unattainable).

I just want to send some support out to those parents and their DC. I want to let them know that despite 'average' results , they can still achieve great things , with or without great exam results.

'Average children' are more rounded than those that gave been hot housed.
So anyone going via the Oxbridge route is hothoused? Bunkum!

I have only mentioned my kids because someone will probably bring up my other posts and state It does not affect my DC.
DD1 hopefully ( despite going to a secondary modern will prove you can still get to university despite obvious difficulties ). Free Spirit I feel the same as you, DD2 has worked so hard since YR7 ( bottom of her grammar it was strongly recommended that she would be better at another school yet now she is near the top of year 10. I am just so proud of both my DDs who are/were average kids achieve relatively well.

The post is not a stealth boast about me or my children. The post is about saying that what is said on here does not represent real life or how people think or live. The other thing, despite what is written here a C or even a D is not a 'fail'.

All I asked of mine was that they tried their best, whatever the result.

Owl - do you know how hard it is to get a trade apprenticeship these days? And believe me, there is so much competition for them that "non academic" young people can't just walk into a job when they leave school.
I was a high achiever at school, RG university, have a fairly mundane public sector job.
DS1 has dyspraxia, related to a diagnosis of NF1, but has had a great P2, despite the fact that he's had to deal with a new baby sister and 9 months of cancer treatment for mummy.

Ah, the all important "results".

Being an a student didn't stop me getting impreganted at 18 and spending the next few years in a minimum wage job trying to feed and clothe my child. I was "G+T" too. I have only recently returned to education as a mature student. Sometimes life gets in the way of those shiny a grades.

DH OTOH (with his 5 GCSES including a D in maths and an E in English) was an engineer on 35k plus by his mid-twenties.

Disclaimer: no stealth boasting, I'm so immensely proud of my DH and i am not afraid to say it. He has worked his arse off to get where he is.

Some of the biggest wastes of space in university and say business (finance) were those kids off "naice " families.

Be careful op. Be very careful. Grades mean fuck all in life. It has no merit as to how work will sort them out.

Dunno where the extra say came in. Very weird...

Ha ha ha oh did I tell you my dcs are so intelligent they are expected to find the cure for the common cold. My Dd is expected to gain ten million A stars in her GCSE's whilst Ds is likely to get 2 masters degrees as only one masters is so well, average. Oh and they are both entering the x factor where they are expected to go platinum by Christmas. Or maybe not..... Hangs head in shame at dcs failings....

I've never understood that argument - that what is said on here does not represent real life, isn't how people think, isn't how people live.

because who are we all if not people? so does it mean that people on here lie and do not have the lives they claim or the opinions they state?

If it is not being said that everyone on here lies about everything all the time, then that must surely mean that there IS real life here, and people who think and live as described.

So then isn't it just a method of dismissing people's views and contributions? well, pah, back in the REAL WORLD...

I'm really proud of DS1 because despite his distinct academic averageness he is definitely better looking and more charming than any other mumsnetter's child. True fact.

It's exactly like mine.

some arseholes, some pretentious plonkers, a few boasty berties, the odd drama llama but mostly really decent people just plodding on with their lives.

Newt nothing wrong with working in a supermarket but the pay us low and if you go to Oxbridge you expect more salary.

"MN is nothing like my real world"

I hear you!

I'm just waiting for the DM of my new assistant to pop up on here " AIBU in that my dd has a degree from a RG uni and a masters in Fine Art but is working for some uneducated beast of a woman who has her doing filing and raising purchase orders."

Personally I think careers and nurses etc should earn more than footballers and bankers....

I have been on MN for a long time and never ever seen any problems with the majority of MN boasting about their oxbridge children, in fact quite the contrary I see mostly helpful posts about various issues children have, until the bitter teachers get stuck in that is

Carers....don't you hate autocorrect

Hello pot meet kettle

Sorry Caff2 but my DS is the fairest of them all . He looks like a young Ryan Gosling.

Bloody hell. I'd much rather my DS got crap results and didn't get in to university but avoided becoming condescending and smug towards people deemed "less privelaged" or "average".