Are we looking forward to them coming back from uni for xmas ?

[homeaway]

Just that really, cant believe how the time has flown by!

amerryscot - don't worry. I rarely hear from DS 2 now at Uni. Make sure your 2nd year isn't taking you for granted - make it clear that it's only reasonable to expect communication through the term, occasionally, and that 'instructions' would do.

I hope we all enjoy our holiday with our student DCs, no matter how little we see of them!

Mine home tomorrow, perhaps, an armful of debts he's acquired but that won't stop me hugging and crying after a long 3 months! Then I'll deal with it.
Lovely thread - thanks to OP who started it.

Collected mine last Friday! Three loads of washing later ...

He's already back at work, and has managed to get a minimum of 20 hours a week, which is great.

But no sooner than he was back, then I went away - I've been working in Manchester since Monday, so I've not really seen that much of him.

Plus ca change, really!

I am currently feeling virtuous with neat very high piles of ironed t shirts, shirts, jeans and boxer shorts. The pile of t shirts and shirts has to be seen to be believed. They far outnumber the boxer shorts!!!!!!!
So some nice boxer shorts are going in the stocking- am thinking woven Calvin Klein ones as the jersey ones are a pain to iron and have shrunk and Jack Wills is banned in our house on principle. (Having said which, the best ones for not shrinking, washing and ironing have been Tesco extra but I can't really put those in a stocking). Anyone else clued up on underwear for the young male?

Ironed?

Ironed?
DC ironing only performed where DC has a job interview and has persistently refused/not got round to ironing the interview shirt.

I don't wash or iron for DD2. She is coming home by coach next Tuesday and won't be bringing any washing home. She's in the 3rd year now but has never brought washing home. DD1 sometimes bought washing home when she was at Uni but she washed it herself. Neither of them would expect me to do it.

I am collect DD from Keele tomorrow (16th) so I am hoping that the snow being forecast in the west of England is only wet stuff that doesn't settle. I don't really like driving in snow but I know that she really wants to get home - to see us but she particularly wants to see her boy friend.

Collections? She must be at Oxford. They are a set of exams to test what the students have taken in so far.

Off to Leeds then Sheffield to pick up DS2 & DS3 tomorrow - can't wait :)

DS2 was going to come home on the train, but DH had to go up north on business today and picked him up from Nottm on his way home
He has got 2 boxes of books and files,a massive black bag full of I don't know what, a laundry bag which weighed a ton full of dirty washing and a zip up bear suit with a tail (bizarre, used for a charity raid apparently) in the dirty wash bag!
Haven't seen much of him as he went to bed shortly after he got home (after getting in at 7 am this morning after a final night out) and then I went out for my works christmas meal!
Catch up with the ironing him tomorrow.

In response to OP Q, yes...sort of...though the house will become terribly crowded & untidy...

DS2 will be back on the train, tomorrow, with a suitcase full of laundry

DS1 ditto, prob on Sunday, haven't been definitely informed yet

(& like BIWI & Lilymaid I am stunned at the very idea of ironing boxers )

The laundry arrives here on Saturday. This year she's transporting it herself. Last Christmas we got stuck in a snowstorm whilst heading to London so arrived to pick her up 2 hours late and she still wasn't ready!

Longing to see her though.

first load in

first arrival already out to meet friends

I know my place

This is going to sound very bah humbug ,but mainly I'm posting in case there are others who read these posts and .....feel sad that they can't join in .
DS is not a high achiever ( I think he's lazy ,and I think that's a lot to do with my parenting ) he goes to a humble FE college ,is doing a Foundation Degree .
Comes home at weekends - I don't really feel lucky ( what everyone says to me ) because I would have liked him to have suceeded in his A levels ,gone off to Uni and grown up ,expanded his minute social circle .
I would be so happy if I could post like Ponders .
Mainly it's the lack of friends that makes me sad .
Dreading Christmas really ,DS at home and what does he have to fill his time ?
Screens .
Chicken and egg .
Seems I'm in a minority and suppose my DS's lack of academic and social success is down to poor parenting .

oh, gingeroots - I'm sorry if I made you feel bad

fwiw DS2 has not had a wildly successful first term socially & is hoping to change his accommodation in January to get away from his current flatmates (\link{http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/further_education/1345118-Parents-university-staff-what-happens-when-a-student-finds-their-hall-flatmates-so-intolerable-they-need-to-move\thread here}...) I know most of his contemporaries have had a much more lively time than him so far, but luckily he has a small circle of home friends who have all just come back at the end of term.

I don't believe for a minute that "poor parenting" has anything to do with where your DS is at the moment - please don't think that! Is the foundation course what he really wants to be doing or does he still not know? Do you think he is enjoying it?

Of course it's disappointing for you that he hasn't so far done what you would have liked him to do, but he is still very young really - there is loads of time for him to find his feet.

I hope you will both enjoy the Christmas holiday

Hugs gingeroots if its any consolation not all students socialise wildly at university.
My DS has had a quiet term, so he tells me, due to
a) being too embarrassed to let the current first years know he is retaking the year,
and b) me not giving him much money this year.
He doesn't want to see his old school friends for similar reasons.
Its one reason I was doing his ironing- to try and help him feel loved etc.
I am so glad to have them home though. I'm hoping there will be time to talk through what they want for their future with each of them.
Your son is still young. He has time to decide where he wants to be and to get there.

Oh Ponders ,no need for apologies .
I'm afraid I'm a bit of a misery ,can feel bad without help !
Thanks funnyperson - hats off to your DS ( and you for supporting him ,even when he's not very communicative ) ,he's in a difficult position .
Sorry ,I'm being silly - this is meant to be a cheery thread .
DS and me not quite in the club ,but there are others with much worse situations I know .

gingeroots there are many, many students at the most glittering of universities with very dark stories to tell and going through very bad times. You sound a very loving parent indeed, not one who's wanting.

I understand about the ironing funny, that's what my mother used to do. She ironed every sock and pant in sight, especially in crisis: an outward demonstration of solidity and love .

Here is a very silly Bob Dylan link I was sent

There will be recorder, tabla, oboe, trombone, saxophone and piano music in the house on Christmas eve, and poetry from those who can't play, but no charades this year and a much reduced number of courses at lunch as the oldies ie my parents generation) are getting frail and can't cope so have requested a shorter day. 11 round the table! Still doing a pinata though. www.channel4.com/4homes/how-to/crafts/how-to-make-a-snowman-pinata Suits me- I am hoping for a game of Scrabble at some point and DD has requested Monopoly when the oldies have left. Chocolate and tangerines in the stockings but no expensive presents because i spent all the money on them already!

My DM would iron anything, bras as well as pants! Although I have a student DC in need of a lot of tlc at the moment, he'd probably look askance if I started ironing his Calvin Kleins (Funnyperson, these still seem to be the underpants de mode chez famille Lil!)

I am collecting dd1 tomorrow from uni, she finished today but had a catwalk rehearsal or something like that to do, so tomorrow it is. I am informed she is to be taken back on the 14th so she can appear in whatever modelling thing she is doing then.

I know for sure she is bringing back a whole mass of laundry to wash, accompanied by an appetite that will strip my cupboards bare like a plague of locusts.

She will be working for some of the holidays though as her job is transferable between here and where she lives for uni.

I doubt i will see her much in between sleeping in until the afternoon and going out with her friends in the evenings though

DSS back with his Mum yesterday but visiting us tomorrow.

Where did the time go? We (this could just be me and DH but his Mum feels the same) sent off a child 2 years ago and got back if not a man, then almost an adult a few months later. Does any one else double-take at the fact that their DCs or DSCs can DRIVE A CAR? They can't possibly be old enough ...

No ironing here either.

I've just read the other thread, Ponders, I won't post the details but my Darling Niece's first year at Uni was nearly ruined by an idiot who latched on to her on the first day. This older girl spun such a web of lies, emotionally manipulating DN and isolating her from her friends, it really was like a drama or a psychological thriller.

Luckily she told her parents and it was sorted, she lives in a shared house now with a great group of young people and has really blossomed into a confident and assertive young woman.

I hope you all enjoy your time with your returning Dss and DDs, we can't wait to see our chick, she rang today to say she is homesick now and can't wait to be back in the Green, Green Grass of Home

DS1 decided to come home for a week, last week. To collect his presents.He's now gone back.
He works and has uni. stuff to do.

Real reason is so he doesn't have to spend 3 weeks with his DB & Dsis