If Cambridge (according to DS1) is now allowing students back en masse, just via filling out a brief questionnaire, then why won't Oxford follow suit? Of course it might just be some Cambridge colleges interpreting the VC's email in a particular way.
DS2 is still convinced he'll be allowed back to his Oxford college and that it's only a matter of time before he hears. Do I prepare him for the worst case scenario or let him continue to believe in and trust the powers that be at his college? He doesn't want me to voice the pessimistic view and won't countenance it as it's just too awful to contemplate.
It's incredibly difficult as a parent. After all the efforts our DCs put in to gaining places at O and C, it's as if the 'prize' has been withdrawn from them and there's no certainty about when it might be returned and in what form.
Meanwhile - and this may sound very selfish - am I the only one not looking forward to yet another 6 months with DC at home? Of course I love having them close by and we get on very well but I imagined I'd be able to begin rediscovering some of my old life and creating a new one, once they'd left school and instead, it's now been almost 2 years of still having them both here - what with the gap years ruined and so far, only a very brief 8 weeks first term of them away.
Can I put in a personal request to the colleges that mum needs to stop sharing the one functioning yet slightly faulty shower, enduring the incredibly late get up time of DS1 - halfway through my entire working day - and still largely making all meals and doing all laundry as well as being the only one earning any money! I'm joking really and trying to find some humour in a rather dire situation. Off to sign the petition....