Thread 35 - Covid Cohort from GCSE 2020 'What They Did on Their Summer Holidays'

[OrangeCinnamonCroissant]

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. It's all relative!
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 continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed) We have decided for anyone interested they will find a thread within the Further Ed board.
Possibly a move to Parent of Adult Children Board in future? Post Results?

Previous Thread

Happy birthday to your DD @Seeline

@icanbewhatiwant - he has always loved anything vaguely historical although I genuinely think the accompanying cafe and gift shop play a large part. He really likes middle eastern history at the moment as the holiday book was about an archaeological dig in Israel so he's hoping that might be a course option at wherever he ends up. Also likes the political side of history. His tastes have changed over the years. Horrible Histories has a lot to answer for!

Happy birthday to mini @Seeline

DD has been working at Goodwood Racing Festival this week and has been staying in student accommodation in Portsmouth along with loads of others working for the same agency. It's been a bit like Freshers week as they've had a great time socialising in the evening. But she somehow managed to chip a front tooth in a night club last night - it's so annoying as the chip is noticeable but too small for an easy fix. I expect it'll cost us more than she's earned in wages all week to get it sorted. GRRRRR!

@Alsoplayspiccolo i would ask where and when she is meeting him and if it’s not somewhere public I would be wanting to meet him.
Sorry to hear about uni insurance choice @Seeline but hope your Dd has a good birthday.
I watched Neighbours late last night and was a bit disappointed at how crap it was! It was nostalgic though of my teen years. Had forgotten about Clive! Susan hadn’t changed a bit.
DD’s trial shift went well and waiting to hear if she’s got any shifts. Meanwhile she’s just gone off to do her shift at her other sporadic job.

Aww Happy Birthday to her @Seeline 🎂

Dd has always loved museums, in fact she's got more patience than me for wandering round slowly looking at things! We have a local museum about a 5 minute walk from our house and when she was younger if I asked her what she wanted to do the answer was nearly always museum and park (which is attached to it). I haven't been inside the museum in years but she still visits every now and then. She loves museums on holiday as well.

National Trust as well, we used to get a membership for Christmas and then could have lots of days out over the year, we'd take a picnic, dd would do all of the activities and we'd be out all day for the cost of the petrol and an ice-cream. We're planning a nostalgic visit to our favourite this summer.

@Alsoplayspiccolo Its tricky isn't it! I quiz dd about her friend/people she's spending time with, and still get very little info (because dd seems to never ask people anything about themselves, at least not the stuff I want to know). She just thinks I'm really nosey (I am) but is always happy to share, so I'd be feeling really wary if she wanted to keep something to herself. But then I consider myself when I was in my teens and I told my mam very little about where I was going and who with, I was very private and still am to extent! I think it's worth having the conversation about safety though, if it's someone new especially. And if she doesn't want to tell you encourage her to at least be telling a friend where she's going, who with and what time she's expecting to be home.

Happy 18th to your dd @Seeline!

I agree @Alsoplayspiccolo safety is paramount. If she won't tell you who /where impress on her that she must have a friend she keeps in touch with, and that meetings should be in a well populated place. You can never be too careful these days. I keep saying to Dd it doesn't matter how late it is / how drunk friends are they all must stick together and make sure they get home OK. I still do it with my female friends when we are walking to and from each others houses late at night.

It’s so reassuring to hear that I’m not being overly fussy or alarmist, re DD and safety ( she thinks we’re being ridiculous to want to know where she’s going…)
Yesterday’s date was “a picnic in a field”, which of course could be anywhere and mean anything. She was picked up by the boy in question but dropped home by a friend of the boy, as the boy and DD had been drinking…which makes me think it wasn’t what us oldies would think of as a picnic, particularly as she went straight to McD’s with friends when she got back. 🙄

It is tricky isn't it, my parents didn't know where I was at that age and there were no mobile phones, but I didn't do lots of dating, met my first boyfriend at college where he was part of the same friendship group and we had all been out in the group plenty of times before some of us paired up.

I could not drag my two into a museum for love nor money as kids, we have never even tried the Natural History and Science museums after so many failures elsewhere. Ironic that they have both gone on to love history and DS works in one. They've always liked castles though, preferably the smaller tumbledown types like Corfe Castle rather than the big museum-like ones such as Stirling.

But yes to having some idea where DCs are now for safety, also a friend suggested they have a safety word that they can phone or text you if they need an urgent intervention and the whatthreewords app.

I think if they are under your roof they need to let you know where they are and who with!

Yes, we wandered about everywhere at that age but I am sure my mum did ultimately know who was giving em lifts/lifts home etc. Anyway, tbh, my parents aren't the best role models....

Wise ones of MN:

DS1 has one of these Monzo cards.
Obviously, this got lost along with his phone.
There is £200 in this account (he says)
He seems to think he can't access that money without a phone??
He needs the money quite badly...

As the daughter and wife of police officers I take paranoid to the nth degree when it comes to safety. My dad would pick me up from anywhere at any time in any weather when I was young - am 55 this week. One of my finest memories is my dad picking me and two friends up at 2am in a foot of unexpected snow when there were no taxis and driving my friends home one at a time.. Have always said to DS ring us at any point and never take chances. Obviously first he would have to have a social life or a girlfriend and so far he has had neither...!

Piggy, he should have been issued a plastic card at the time of opening?

if he can find this, he’s still good to use, unless he cancels the card as lost or stolen. His apply pay Monzo will need to be cancelled and reissued if he hasn’t got the plastic, or he thinks his account is at risk until phone/sim is replaced.

The card got lost along with the phone....because he's a pillock.

Ah. Then cancel if he hasn’t already. He’ll get a reissue and can set up the virtual card as soon as he can access the app on a phone. As soon as he reports the ‘card’ lost, any funds on account will be protected, but he needs to make that call to stop transactions being made on the account.

Bank cards usually come pretty quickly once you report one missing. Has he ordered a new sim to put in one of your phones to access anything he needs to?

Difficult re the date @Alsoplayspiccolo . Dd tells me absolutely everything whereas ds likes to tell me as little as possible… Safety is the key thing though. Do you know where/how she met him?

There is a new SIM rn route but anew phone might get here Monday and hopefully we can port his number. I say that like I know what it means!

You only need to port a number if you’re getting a new phone contract. Otherwise you just stick the new sim into a phone (but not one that is locked to another network) and away you go.. It’s happened a few times here!

On the subject of your ds1 @piggywaspushed, does he display any other signs of ADD/ADHD? Since ds was diagnosed, I’ve realised he gets it from me and we both struggle with keeping track of things/losing things. Holidays are particularly difficult as you’re out of routine and you can’t leave things in their ‘usual’ place!

We are getting a new phone contract. Don't have an old phone to put a SIM in, annoyingly. New contract is going back in my name.

Pretty sure he has some form of ADD , yes. He definitely has some social anxiety and had an eating disorder when he was about 12. Which is why I am now so soft.

It’s good you’re not too hard on him; it’s frustrating enough when you can’t keep track of things and it never particularly helps me when dh gets all annoyed with me and calls me scatty! I think he’s realised now though that I have an actual problem and I’m not just doing it to annoy him..

It was a nightmare in the early years of my career though so I’m working really hard on helping ds to get some strategies in place so he’s not as bad as me!

Sorry to hear about the social anxiety and eating disorder too 😢 Life can be really complex…

Happy 18th to mini @Seeline !

I did take DS to lots of museum when he was younger but now he wouldn't thank me or even get out of bed! I've had him on hard labour in the garden today and remuneration is apparently a new pair of (cheap) trainers.

Happy 18th Seeline.

Happy Birthday Seeline Junior!!

Oh yes, forgot to say Happy Birthday!

Sympathies with your Ds & you @piggy.
Inattentive ADHD is tricky to handle & very frustrating. Plus it makes it difficult to organise yourself sufficiently to pass modules/ revise for exams.
DS 2 was 5 mins for his job today as he was up gaming until the early hours. My 2 DS's with ADHD can't moderate themselves, whereas dd2 has enough insight now to do just that.
Happy Birthday Seelines Ds!

I hope you are well on the way to helping your ds sort his phone/ lost card issues now Piggy. What a nightmare all round.

Happy 18th to Seeline's DD - is she our last one to turn 18 on this thread? Glad you got around the train strike issue.

@EspeciallyDeIighted we have that whatthreewords app too but never needed it so far. We all have life360 too but DD often turns her location off - she says she doesn't know how she does so wonder if it's because she turns off her 4G to save battery. I find it so useful and I can see how far along the motorway DH is and when to start dinner etc and this saves him pulling into the services to say when he's likely to be home. DD is pretty good letting us know where she is and when she's likely to be back but it's great to have backups like that app.

@MidLifeCrisis007 that sounds like a fun time for your DD minus the chipped tooth of course. DD was offered something similar for a well known festival but they only gave a day's notice and she's not a last minute kinda gal for that kind of thing.

Can't believe it's August tomorrow and the countdown to the 18th begins...