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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

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Original poster

Backpack for University

266 replies

Shimy · 09/09/2019 12:27

Just occurred to me that DS will need one for uni. What’s everyone else’s child using or what would you recommend? Im particularly interested in:

Ability to store laptop of about 17inch plus folder
Very good back support! So good shoulder straps and padding.

I’ve looked on amazon and there’s a myriad of back packs it’s difficult to know what to choose from.

OP posts:
Piggywaspushed · 12/09/2019 20:02

If PP insists on being pedantic about myriad, I suggest you read this

www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/myriad

which also rather suggests you are also wrong and should have said there is myriad backpacks. Which sounds , frankly, absurd.

misses point of thread again

BettyBizzghetti · 12/09/2019 20:34

O God, Piggy, you are completely right. Gin was involved in PP. Apologies to all pedants. Grin

WaxOnFeckOff · 12/09/2019 22:35

Oh, and I take it that when our DC are adults, we are no longer allowed to research and choose a gift for them?

Clearly when they are 16 they should be out earning their own money and buying their own gifts otherwise how will they ever be able to cross the road without holding mummy's hand... Hmm

This place does my head in. I bet most of these posters have primary school DC and have no concept of having teenagers or adult DC.

Now that I've done the hard work of raising DC to know right from wrong, taught them how to swim, cycle, drive a car, cook, take care of themselves, know basic first aid etc. I quite enjoy treating them as I would a friend, i.e. doing them favours from time to time, being kind and considerate (and expecting the same in return), and buying them gifts from time to time. I like them, I enjoy spending time with them and they seem to be okay with popping to the pub or away for a weekend with us so I'm guessing they don't mind us either.

I'm sure if a uni bound DC doesn't like the bag purchased, they'll either be polite and say thank you and use something else, or say that it's not their cup of tea and ask if they can exchange it. It's not like OP or anyone else is insisting they go with a Thomas the tank engine back pack is it? And at the end of the day, I hope I've raised my DC to not really care what everyone else is using and to be happy with something that suits them and they like.

PickAChew · 12/09/2019 22:42

Um, there are myriad backpacks.

I have this one, though. www.millets.co.uk/equipment/183772-berghaus-trailbyte-30l-rucksack.html

Hopefully, OP will give her DS some suggestions and at lest allow him to choose. If he chooses some flimsy kanken jobby with inch thick straps, instead, so be it.

ErrolTheDragon · 13/09/2019 01:07

DDs is a karrimor urban 30 ... same as mine except hers is grey and red. Her choice though.

Piggywaspushed · 13/09/2019 06:57

Great post wax !

mine can't even do half those things

Isadora2007 · 13/09/2019 07:02

Oh there are a million kanken backpacks at my uni. It’s obviously very trendy but have you seen the prices?!?! Poor students!?! I think not.
Thanks for all the links and to the OP for helping by asking the question!!

xyzandabc · 13/09/2019 07:09

I honestly think your DC should be choosing a backpack, or whatever type of bag he would like himself.

However, if you are insistent on choosing it for him, the least you could do is ask him what he'd like. He's far better placed to know what type of thing he would actually use than a bunch of strangers in your computer.

xyzandabc · 13/09/2019 07:11

I just know if my mum, or any of her friends, had chosen a bag for me at that age, it would have been hideous, ugly but practical and I would never have left my room with it. She did have form for this though, trying to persuade me to have a briefcase for secondary school at the age of 12!

AuntieStella · 13/09/2019 07:20

Either have him continue with bag he used in the Sixth Form, or tell him it's one of the things he needs to buy when he gets there.

Because either he doesn't care about how it looks/which tribe he wishes to ally with (in which case you buy the cheapest that looks sturdy enough, so you don't really need recommendations), or he does care (in which he needs to choose for himself)

WaxOnFeckOff · 13/09/2019 08:04

It's not necessarily an either/or situation though is it? Neither of my DSs carried a laptop about at school so their current bags wouldn't have offered enough protection.

I also think that there is a big difference here between male and female. Honestly, most of the male students tend to give less of a fuck than most of the female students. I'm sure OP knows her son well enough to choose an appropriate gift and if he doesn't like it or use it, that's up to him.

Personally I'd probably just say I was going to treat them to a new backpack and did they have any thoughts. If not, I'd share my research and give a couple of options.

MarchingFrogs · 13/09/2019 08:17

It’s obviously very trendy but have you seen the prices?!?! Poor students!?! I think not.

Or they may have been bought the bag as a present by a relative who took the 'wait and see what's trendy and I'll get you one as a starting uni gift' line?

Personally, Ive never allowed ours to go for the 'what's trendy amongst fellow year 7s' thing, but they have been allowed some element of choice within the range meeting the criteria of waterproof / large enough / least damaging to their backs to carry etc.

DS1 went off to university with a sturdy but rather hideous cast off of DH's, no idea of make. DD will take a Van's backpack given to her by a very generous friend as a 16th birthday present.

AuntieStella · 13/09/2019 08:22

Put the laptop into it's own protective sleeve-type case, do not rely on protection from th backpack or any other bag

(lesson provided so you don't nave to learn it the hard way!)

Rubicon80 · 13/09/2019 09:09

@WaxOnFeckOff

Oh, and I take it that when our DC are adults, we are no longer allowed to research and choose a gift for them?

I quite enjoy treating them as I would a friend
The 'research' that he op is doing here is nothing like the sort of research that you do when you're buying a gift for a friend.

it

it's that thing where parents continue to to micromanage, control and vicariously live their lives through their adult children, thinking that they need to make their decisions for them many many years after they should have have let go.

I have seen this up close and it ain't pretty.

Clearly when they are 16 they should be out earning their own money and buying their own gifts otherwise how will they ever be able to cross the road without holding mummy's hand... hmm

This place does my head in. I bet most of these posters have primary school DC and have no concept of having teenagers or adult DC.

Because there's no other possible way that we might have knowledge and experience of what happens when parents continue to mollycoddle and suffocate their adult children like this, is there?

Rubicon80 · 13/09/2019 09:11

@Trewser given that you have been debating on your own thread whether or not to include condoms in your "child's" packing for university I don't think you are best placed to advise on boundaries here.

WaxOnFeckOff · 13/09/2019 09:32

Rubicon, I think you are projecting muchly.

The 'research' that he op is doing here is nothing like the sort of research that you do when you're buying a gift for a friend.

How is it not? OP has asked for suggestions of what items people have previously used for the purpose intended.

Trewser · 13/09/2019 09:35

"@Trewser given that you have been debating on your own thread whether or not to include condoms in your "child's" packing for university I don't think you are best placed to advise on boundaries here"

Grin brilliant

roisinagusniamh · 13/09/2019 09:44

Geez...I agree with Rubicon. Some parents are way over involved in their childrens' lives.
I only clicked on this thread out of interest because my daughter is off to Uni soon.
She will be choosing her own backpack, btw.
OP; you really need to look at your own life and let your child go and do her own thing without your influence now! Your job is done. Enjoy the next stage .

Trewser · 13/09/2019 10:28

Good for you. Fwiw, my dd has spent a year working and travelling, is more mature and organised than a lot of adults I know. Over the past fortnight it has been an absolute pleasure sitting down with her with a coffee or a glass of wine, looking through her lists of stuff to take and thinking together about coats, sports stuff, bags and yes, condoms!

Poor you if you don't have that kind of relationship, but some of us do.

ErrolTheDragon · 13/09/2019 10:32

Some of parents getting stuff is just down to who has the necessary combination of time, credit card and/or car to get to the shops.

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 13/09/2019 10:37

Good luck OP finding him a fantastic rucksack. Once your ds, always your ds, and it’s nice to buy them things Smile

Hope you’re ignoring the grumpy posters who it really has nothing to do with. They could just fuck off and annoy people on other threads.
. Oh, I’m sure they are probably doing that already

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 13/09/2019 10:48

I’ve just waved off my third year uni son with a hamper of food Shock. And........a new duvet set !! What a terrible parent I am.

Obviously that means I can’t possibly Enjoy the next stage Confused. What a ridiculous comment.

Trewser · 13/09/2019 10:49

Your job is done what a ridiculous comment

Trewser · 13/09/2019 10:50

2 x ridiculous comments Grin

roisinagusniamh · 13/09/2019 10:52

Trewser your job is done meaning you can't control every aspect of your child's life anymore so get on with your own.