Thread 27 Covid Cohort Snow or Like Spring? Let's Do This Thing!

[OrangeCinnamonCocktail]

This is a thread for supporting all young people post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting. It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, please don't within this thread. Please also be sensitive when responding to threads about grades.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue.

Our DS/DD may go down various paths (such as employment, apprenticeships, higher ed) We have decided for anyone interested they will most likely find us within the Further Ed board.

previous thread found here

That's lovely Heifer. DS hasn't really grown away from me which is nice but brings its own worries. DD is definitely doing so but is such a homebird that we still see a lot of her. I am trying to sustain some common ground by watching TV that she likes and reading the Harry Potter books at her behest and neither are really my cup of tea. But we don't row.

That is lovely @Heifer. Usually I skip past passages like that but that one is spot on. I have been creating a photo album of DS’s first 18 years and looking back at how chirpy and happy he was and how much he adored me and mourning it a bit to be honest. That passage is perfect timing for me, thanks.

I like that Heifer.
18 today. It's all a bit subdued. No photo album, no presents, all unwanted, just the transfer of his savings account. Lots of cards, cheques and money. I made him 2 lasagnes. That's what he said he wanted.

18 has been and gone quietly here now too. I also had a lot of pangs making the photobook.

Happy birthday @Oblomov22’s DS!

Chuckling at two lasagnes, think that might be on my next birthday wish list. Happy birthday and cheers to your DS Oblomov

Happy birthday to your ds @Oblomov22! What's the plan for the lasagnes?!

1 tonight crazy, with 2 garlic breads. 1 to go into the freezer so he can eat it whenever he wants. Strange boy! Saying that, I do make a mean lasagne!

Happy birthday to your DS @Oblomov22

Happy 18th to your DS Oblomov, and belated wishes to your DS ED. Love the lasagnes request!

Thank you all for the well wishes.

Happy 18th @Oblomov22 DS. I love the lasagne request. Fancy some now in fact, I think I may have to cook one later for dinner...

Glad you liked the poem, DD is very grumpy this week and it's not fun. I can't do or say anything right.

Re sibling rivalry, DD is an only child but would have loved a sister or brother to fight with. After 7 years of waiting for DD we were just grateful for her and assumed another would follow but didn't. She has never been happy being an only. We have had rabbits and dogs to try to help...

Luckily she has a great friendship group of 11 so someone is available when she wants to socialise or go to the gym etc, especially now 3 of them can drive and the rest will follow soon I'm sure.

Love the lasagne idea too! DS has a half day at school so is going out with us for lunch (just to the village pub as that is that he has requested) then is off to Wetherspoons with his one friend who is also 18!

Any ideas of nice things for them to 'open', not wildly expensive but nice? I am not sure what DS is expecting but he made some reference to my cupboard being locked (where I often store presents) and wondering what was in there as it is nearly his birthday. Eek, it wasn't actually locked and "nothing" is the answer...(he is getting money for his present and a weekend away)

Thanks Ealing. I hope he has a nice day Oblomov, I fancy lasagne now, haven't made one for ages.

22newnames - we did the photobook, a football (his old one was punctured), some snacks and drinks, with an IOU for driving lessons being the main thing in the end.

Dd managed to get a ticket to see Harry Styles so that's her 18th present! She's not 18 till June though and I'm sure we'll end up buying her lots of bits and bobs.

Dd and ds have always got on pretty well, apart from a short phase when dd went to secondary and was far too grown up to tolerate her younger brother! I wonder if they're more likely to get on if they're boy/girl? Dd's best friend has three sisters and a brother; she always hated her older sister with a vengeance, never spoke to her if she could help it and was glad when she went to uni. I took the two of them (dd and friend) on a uni visit fairly recently and was astonished to hear the friend on her phone to her older sister, sharing all the recent gossip. Apparently they now get on really well! The second sister is now the enemy though, despite her starting uni last Sept, so maybe it doesn't always work...

Happy 18th to @Oblomov22 DS & belatedly @ExtremelyDelighted's.

The two fairly recent history graduates I know are a committee manager in a local authority and a project manager for the Highways Agency.

@Heifer That is a very touching piece of writing.

Happy birthday @Oblomov22 DS. Great present request! Reminds me of when DS was about 5 and his Christmas list was a packet of paper clips, some quavers and some pink air freshener (he loved the stuff in the ladies toilets in our office!)

@22Newnames as your DS is an engineer I assume he grew up on Lego. There are lovely little nanoblock kits for more advanced Lego users www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N2XMNZJ/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_0FA948WHD3XH8EFW76BZ!?tag=mumsnetforu03-21 I sent some to DS1 for his 21st birthday when he was having a lonely time in university lock-down (pint of beer, pokemon...). There are also various tech gadgets available and Physics toys which are fun such as radiometer.

Thanks for the ideas extremely and @Monkey2001. Nano lego is a fantastic idea! I never knew it existed, but it’s a great ‘opener’.

@Heifer I enjoyed reading the poem. I feel I don't know ds1 anymore, he was such a clingy child, but now I find we don't even have that much to talk about when we are together. I don't know if we will ever be close again. Ds2 is much easing to get on with, even though he likes to wind me up. Ds3 is super clingy, he follows me everywhere, but i guess I should make the most of it knowing he's almost a teenager, he's bound to not want me soon.

Thanks for the info on jobs after studying history @crazycrofter

@22Newnames the other thing I really like doing is personalised mugs. They are very cheap on Amazon, I got one made for DS for each medicine offer he got - university crest on one side and medicine symbol on other. I don't really like putting photos of people on mugs, but simple images and personal jokes work well. Did one for niece saying "Truss me, I'm nearly an architect" with a picture of a structural truss. Did one for godson with all his favourite trains.

@Monkey2001 I LOVE the uni offer mug idea - I think I will do that for DD. who do you use on amazon?

Happy Birthday @Oblomov22 DS.

After two years of no Birthday party DD is planning a joint party with a friend. Should be...ahem...interesting to see what they come up with!

Hmm. I like the mug idea too.
Laughing at monkeys quavers, paper clips and pink air freshener.

Last time I got a mug I used this one - currently £6.48 with free delivery. They have been great, fine in dishwasher etc. He took his St Andrews one with him but left Sheffield and Leicester at home. www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01J1YWG3Y?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title&tag=mumsnetforu03-21