Early days at uni 2017

[HSMMaCM]

How is everyone settling in?

DD starts on Wednesday.

One twin gone and one going on the second October, I know oldie and Carl are also twin mums, how nice that oldies are in the same city.
I'm really surprised how much my DD misses her brother who went to Leeds last week.
Dreading my completely empty nest, although DS is loving Leeds nad seems really happy.

That's good about your Ds. Hopefully when your Dd goes and settles in she will find it easier, it must be hard to be the one still at home.

Good luck to everyone going this weekend. I keep reminding dd to take her vitamins to try avoid freshers flu.

Bet I'm being ignored

We dropped ds off a few days ago. He seemed really happy but I think he is struggling with the amount of alcohol consumption. He doesn't drink and is finding it challenging to be around people who only want to drink and then spend the night throwing up (everywhere including corridors and kitchen sinks!). He said a few in his flat get very aggressive when drunk which he finds hard.

He's a medic and really enjoying spending time with other medics who don't seem to be as dependent on drink but none of them live in his halls. He seems to be coping ok for now but I do worry about him.

We leave in an hour! The living room is full of bags, we've checked everything is there, I'm stressing, ds seems very chilled. His sister is still in bed.
Half of me wants to get on with it, the other half wishes I could turn the clock back, but the whole point of raising him for the last 18 years was to be able to let him fly free...

Good luck Blossom.

Baking, that's hard for your son. I've heard similar reports of that kind of thing going on in other flats, thankfully the flat that mine is in is OK. They went to a pub together the other night to a reggae evening and all they could smell was weed so they left and went back to the flat for a cup of tea and some board games. They haven't been to any of the nightclubs and tend to get together for games evenings or sport.

I resisted the temptation to ask what they expected at a reggae evening.....streetwise they are not!

Over the last two weekends I've dropped both of mine back for their second and third (well, 4th, but year out in industry) years. Both in houses now, so it's a whole new load of shopping required, as both have double beds now and also additional furniture is required for their bedrooms. So we've done Dunelm/Ikea runs yet again this year. Feeling financially delicate.

When they went for the first time, I didn't feel nearly as desolate as people warned, as they were WhatsApping and testing quite a lot. Also, each is only an hour or so away, so have popped back for weekends quite often. Also, dd finished in mid-May, with 5 weeks at Christmas, so sometimes it hardly feels like they've left at all.

But if I thought Hall fees were expensive, it's nothing to the 12 month contracts for rental houses!!!!! Which will hurt all the more when they turn up at home for the summer in May.

baking

Sorry about your son, it should hopefully calm down soon

Although there will always be at least one (horrible feeling my son with be THAT one)

Good luck blossom

that

I miss the boy but yes im not desolate

But he is only half an hour away so im hoping when he is settled we can visit and he can come home every few weeks

Although he was desperate for his independence so maybe not

I felt a bit cheated that after dropping the boy off last Saturday to start his new life, he has come home for the weekend already?!

Dd came home the first weekend (last year) as we had a major family celebration and then a long-planned theatre trip to see Harry Potter. They both like family do's so were very happy to come. Also, it was the last time we all got together as an extended family before their grandmother subsequently died, so we were glad we had that event.

that

We are seeing him today for lunch and he is home for at least this Friday week for a funeral

I just need to get a copy of his timetable

Same in my day. I was teetotal at university and graduated a virgin still too. Mind you I won law prizes and was jsut about top of the year and found hobbies I adored - singing in the chamber choir in teh UK and abroad, It was wonderful but quite hard to find that niche of people who don't drink. Hikes in the hills with Catholic society (they tended obviously not to go in for casual sex either).

Ds goes on Weds and after much nagging has started to pack - if packing involves moving most of the contents of his wardrobe to the utility room as it all needs washed apparently!

There's a funeral here shortly for a local school-mate who sadly died. I suspect some of them just won't be able to make it back though, if they're a long way away.

We're having to go over to ds's next weekend, to take some stuff (like his bike) that we couldn't fit in the car yesterday. Aching after helping to build all that flat-pack stuff!

Rufus and everyone else thank you for the kind messages.

Ds is really excited about his course so I'm happy for him. He's in a flat with mostly girls so I'm not sure how he will get on a he's very much a boys boy. He does lose absolutely everything and I really hope he doesn't lose his keys. Freshers week starts tomorrow for him but I think he's keen to get the course started.

Good luck to everyone travelling today. And good luck getting all the stuff in the car!!

It takes some more time than others to settle baking. I have one of those - it's hard

Baking that sounds really tough not to mention unpleasant. As a bit of an emetophobe people throwing up everywhere would have sent me running for the hills! I do hope things calm down a bit for him.

Lots of students and parents in the hotel this morning. One party gave their student a goody bag of stuff and I got choked up watching them!! Soppy mare I am!

Last night at dinner the family adjacent to our table had come from Hong Kong - son starting at uni and mum & dad came to see him move in.

Sorry for all those DC who are not into drinking/clubbing/partying - it must be hard when so many are. In my DD's flat there are a couple who are not into it, but they seem to be finding other things to do and I think DD would be considerate. I'm sure the partying will lessen as the courses start!

Horse how were the cats?

The partying definitely calms down once Freshers finishes.

That said, many young people continue to enjoy drinking and clubbing ( I certainly did at 18). Just not every night.

Sorry for all those DC who are not into drinking/clubbing/partying

As the owner of one such, don't be! They'll be the ones being offensively cheerful in the morning.

Doing yet more last minute shopping with DD this morning (a couple of naice teatowels, a bottle stopper and a very small robust houseplant) I asked her if she wanted to take any alcohol, she said no - she intends to drink wine at the matriculation dinner but not much more than that. She'd originally thought she'd do one of the clubbing events but there seems to be too much other stuff going on in the daytime during freshers.

One of mine didn't drink until about 1- 2 months ago when he came off his acne medicine but since then he has been making up for lost time I think..... anyway his twin is looking after him and I am always amazed how kind teenage boys (and girls) are to each other. They get such a bad press but lots of them are lovely.
Next week mine will be at lectures (if they have many) and freshers' week is over so there should be less drinking. I hope they can find their way to their halls' washing facilities for their laundry - up to them now; thank goodness.