The CDE of University Life (2019/20 cohort) - assignments, flat-hunting, Halloween and the end of their first term fast approaching

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Previous thread - Obvs the end of term is looming sooner for some than for others? I guess the Oxbridge posse will finish by the end of November or just into December?

In London so no need for mine to drive . That said I did buy her some theory books in fhe summer and offered her a sit the theory and a fast track learn to drive week residential but she decided as she doesn’t need a car at home or uni she would wait until she’s left uni and can actually afford to buy a car . She took the view that there’s probably little to gain from passing her test without being able or needing to continue to drive as she’d lose skills .
I didn’t learn to drive until I’d left uni and was working either .
Am wondering how the Chem Soc pub crawl in labcoats went yesterday . She seems to be enjoying her course and her social life !

Both my DC had driving lessons, funded by us, and both dropped out citing too much school work to want to continue. DS preferred my taxi service or his bike. I know that many of DD's friends have professed the intention not to learn to drive at all but hadn't realised that it might be a generational thing. DD now abroad and couldn't really use a car in her UK uni city, nor could DS in his. I would prefer that they learn to drive in a more motivated way once they have a greater need for independence. This is what I did. The worst drivers I have known tend to be those who learned to drive at 17 or 18 but then didn't use the skill.

My DS has no interest in learning to drive. He has his provisional which is handy for ID .. but no interest in lessons . He's at Nottingham so uses tram or walks. We have pretty good rail service where we are now .. shortly on the move to Harborne so nearer Brum with rubbish parking !!! DP and DD love cars and driving but I'm getting rid of mine !! I will use my car money for Ubers when I need to.. or drive theirs !!!

simbobs that is DD's reasoning for not learning

I never learned until a job that required it.

It’s just stupid that you need proof of ID to get into pubs, but the only options appear to be a passport (which you won’t have unless you travel abroad and it’s fairly expensive to get one), or a driving license which is also optional

You’d think student unions/universities would make their IDs suitable to use as proof of age?

I'm adamant that mine learn to drive pre uni. We are rural, they need to learn and drive themselves about. I lived in London and Cambridge and put off learning because I didn't need a car. Finally had to learn at 30 after miserable years without a car.

I think not driving will become more and more the thing for our DC generation then that condemns them to a life in a city!

I don't think DS will learn (if indeed he does) until he can fund a car for himself.

I agree @MrKlaw. Given that it's probably only a very small % of Scottish students who would still only be 17 when going to university in England (and then presumably only for their first year), it's not very likely is it that a student will be under-age? Perhaps the university photo ID should have some type of universal 'code' with shows if someone is under 18 at the time of entry.

I recall showing my student railcard in my youth, as I still looked very young even when old enough to drink by a matter of years. Doesn't that give date-of-birth details?

You really don't want DC to be walking around with either passport or driving licence when they're out 'on the lash' (and could quite easily lose it).

There will still be a fair amount of Scottish students under 18 as even if they stayed until 6th year, our age cut off means the age spread could be up until end February. A fair few of DS2s friends are still 17. I think they could put date of birth on the ID though. DC here can use their young Scot cards.

I remember my SIL telling me that when my nephew went to uni in York 20 odd years ago, the student union had a board behind the bar with photos of all the under 18 year olds and their birthdays . Poor nephew was only 16 and a half so had to make friends very quickly with people willing to get him a pint from the bar.

I agree re the driving only being of use if they use it quickly after passing. DS2 doesn't have the car away but since he passed so young, he got a lot of miles under his belt before he went away and drove when he was home for the weekend. Ds1 mostly just pootles about to the train station and back and despite being the older one and been driving longer, I think he's not done as many miles as DS2 who is a bit more adventurous. DH sometimes makes DS1 drive him up and down motorway and out into the countryside just to keep up his skills.

Not driving regularly after passing was my own downfall.

I wonder how long the theory test is valid for. Just checked two years, so it will not get him through uni. He had to take it three times, so I hope he does get his practical out of the way, the work will be so full on in his third year there will be no chance of doing it again.

Both our DS learned at 17, then drove to school every day in Y13, taking their younger siblings too.
During uni they kept up their skills, and at various times, both had the car at uni.
When they graduated they went straight into high quality graduate jobs, but needed to drive to get to their workplace.
The single car that saw them both through all of that, and is now being used by DD up until her test, is still going strong, if a little worn in places!
Frankly their opportunities would be much fewer if they couldn’t drive.

The problem with waiting to take a driving test is lack of time to devote to the lessons when they are working. Far better in my view to use the relatively long periods of down time as a student to get it done even if no immediate use for it- easier to do a few top up lessons later in possession of a full licence than try to start from scratch

I’m one that learnt at 19 but didn’t drive until 21 when I bought a car. I didn’t forget, it’s like riding a bike in my opinion.

Did passed her test at the beginning of the summer. I was going to insure her on my car, but apparently she needs to have been driving for 2 years to drive that model. Couldn't really afford to buy her a car an insure it for a few months, when she's now living in the centre of Bristol and will be there for 5 years or so. This does mean that she'll need some lessons again by the time she can get behind the wheel, so not sure it was worth it. She paid herself though, and was adamant it had be done before uni.

I learned at 17 as did DH.
We currently have a big diesel automatic which isn't going to be any good for DD to practise in, as I have pointed out to DH. Bets on whether he will get it sold (was already planning to sell) before she comes back at Xmas, never mind replace with a smaller petrol manual (though we were thinking about not having a car at all)

DH has a bigger family car (estate but 8 and a half years old) which he loves but isn't suitable. I had a smallish car that I wasn't really wedded to but needed for giant sized DSs for school run. As I wouldn't really need that if they could drive, we swapped that for two little run arounds, one for me and one for DSs to share. That's worked well. It would be good to do with less vehicles but unfortunately we all need to be in different places at the same time and can't get there by public transport, too far to walk/cycle mostly, plus we are in Scotland so it's not always the weather...

Colleague and his wife have just changed both their cars and neither thought to consider that they have a son who is about to turn 17 and they want him to drive. Obviously not everyone is able to accommodate a car for their DC to use, but it was the fact that they both changed cars and didn't consider it at all.

I should add that of course it's none of my business what they do or buy, it was colleague moaning about how his wife should have thought of that when I asked what new cars they'd bought and mentioned that it might have been a good idea to get something not so highly powered.

So different here - US.

I paid $450 for each child, flat rate, to learn to drive. That was a 35 hour course in the classroom, theory exam, and 10 hours of lessons.

After that the expectation is that parents will supervise the next 60+ hours of driving, including freeway.

I then paid something like $35 for each child to have one pre-test lesson where they drive around the most likely test routes and the instructor goes through all the things they should/shouldn't do to pass.

My two oldest then passed their test, and were driving all our cars straight away.

Car insurance covers all cars and all drivers in the house. It went up $200 in total for the year when DD1 passed (got a discount because she was at boarding school), and $400 total for the year when DD2 passed (got a discount because has good high school grades).

We have 3 cars all less than 3 years old, and DD age 16 can drive any of them, and can also drive any of her friends' cars. The only thing she can't do is rent a car till she's 21. One of ours is a huge pick-up truck - she has driven it but she prefers the others, as do I.

DS turns 15 early next year and will start driving lessons straight away. It would be funny if he didn't pass first time after both of the girls did...

Yes, different ball game in the states. Is there any facility for older DC to learn to drive if their parents couldn't afford it when they were in school? Presume you still have instructors independent of schools?

Also I suppose it's all automatics too which probably helps a bit.

DH spent most of the time that he took DSs out jot teaching them to drive as such, just teaching them how to drive really smoothly. He reckoned that the examiner would be so impressed with their smooth clutch control etc that they might get forgiven a few minor things...

Re age verification in pubs etc, the document must have
...their photograph, date of birth, and a holographic mark. Examples of acceptable ID include photo card driving licences, passports or proof of age cards bearing the PASS hologram, although other forms of ID which meet the criteria laid out above are also acceptable.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-conditions-for-licensed-premises-in-england-and-wales-age-verification-and-smaller-measures

So unless the student ID card has all of the above (I'm not at all sure that the University of Birmingham ID cards do, haven't seen cards from any other university) , the bar staff must not accept it for proof of age purposes. DS1 and DD both invested in provisional driving licences for ID in pubs and clubs and DS2 will probably do the same, eventually.

Yes, different ball game in the states. Is there any facility for older DC to learn to drive if their parents couldn't afford it when they were in school? Presume you still have instructors independent of schools?

It's a bit of an odd system. If you're over 18 you don't have to do the 35 hours of theory classes but you do have to pass the theory test and you still have to do the 70 hours of supervised driving - I think that's the bit that would be challenging. And yes it's all in automatics. I am planning to teach mine to drive with a clutch at some point, but we only have automatic cars now so I'll have to track one down somewhere. I learnt to drive with a clutch in hilly Bath so I definitely had to get the hand of it :-)

Thanks for explaining :), I'm not too sure that it would be worth learning the gears now to be honest as if we all have to move to electric then there will be no gears.

Eldest has had loads of lessons but not in a sustained way. Passed her theory test first time & has booked her actual test at last. She hasn’t really needed a car yet. We live in the centre of town & at uni she lives close to the campus. However she has a summer work experience sorted for next year where it would be much easier to get to by car. Middle child has shown no interest so far but again, it may be necessary in the near future to get to summer jobs. Both got their provisional licences at 18 to use as ID for pubs/clubs.

DD's ex BF passed his test at 17. He is nearly 20 and has driven in a car just once in the last two years. It was a waste of time learning as his parents are too tight to insure him on either of their cars.