To be worrying now about our holiday

[sillymillie]

More of a WWYD. Have booked a family holiday end of August, paid a deposit and a lot of money to reserve exit seats on the plane which DH likes. Package so far includes flights and one hotel but need to book another separately for second week.

DS is in first year at university. I checked with him ages ago that he would be free in August and he said yes. Now he tells me that if he fails any of his exams in May the retakes will be exactly when our holiday is. This seems very unlikely as he's doing well and he passed first set of exams easily. The next exams are more of the same modules he's just taken.

He's not at all worried but I am!

I don't have to pay the balance of the holiday until after his results. So worst case scenario is that he has to resit, we don't go and we lose deposit and seat reservation costs. Have checked insurance and it covered for reasons like this. Not that I thought it would!

I think I should wait until after his results to book second hotel.

WWYD?

You can book a hotel that can be cancelled without extra charges. This means more choice of hotel and options to change if exams go pear shaped for ds.

My dc are younger but I went on my last family holiday aged 16. There’s no way I’d have any sort of angst about an adult child not joining us on a holiday.

He may say he wants to go but if he’s anything like I was at 18/19 he’s probably lying to spare your feelings.

EVERYONE passes their 1st year you really have to be slacking to fail

Not true at all.

the family could have some valuable time together

So if he fails the rest of the family (seems like the OP has other children) don't get a holiday or spend time together either.

I really can't understand why people are saying go with out him- she's already said she doesn't want to! I'm sure her and DH can holiday together but this is her family holiday! Just because he's 18 it doesn't make her want his company less!
OP you literally have to be a total slacker not to pass, on my course you needed 40% which is basically writing your name, proper structure and at least having some concept of what you're talking about. There is literally no way he'd fail if he did well in previous exams.
Book your second hotel, and don't pay the balance until he gets his results if it will make you feel better.
An alternative option would be to change the dates if you think you will worry about it less.
There's a lot of time between now and then, so tell him to study hard!

all the people saying first years all pass their exams iv'e just asked Oh who's a lecturer and he said more 1st years fail the may exams than pass this is engineering so may be skewed

isseywithcats I think that may be because of the maths, I do know a friend whose son in engineering failed some modules in the first year but then went on to do pretty well, including a Masters, so perhaps this isn't uncommon. In social sciences it's unusual by comparison.