2017 seems so long ago, now .....

[Xenia]

Continuation of our previous thread.

stop, that's good to have the offer after the programme is over. He is obviously doing well.
One of mine starts a 6 month secondment on Monday but as with his twin who is also on one at present, he can work 2 days a week from home so it looks like there will be 3 days a week with both of them out although the other one finishes his current 6 month stint soon so will be back working for me unless we find another.

However it is all going well and they qualify as solicitors in 2024 - the external secondments are just icing on the cake hopefully to improve their CV over having just trained with theirm other's firm (which is never a good look - not that the training is bad as I am very incentivised to do well by them given they are flseh and blood). One is out this morning buying work clothes - much more complicated now suits and ties are just for meetings. Also until you have your first few days it can be hard to know what other lawyers wear at a new place.

@Stopyourhavering64 that's good to have an offer in the bag so to speak .
DS2 comes to the end If his grad scheme in August and is already interviewing for other posts . He likes his prenatal company but the salary is relatively low and he wantsto move on

Carriemac, moving on is often a good way to obtain higher pay in lots of jobs so I agree with your son on this.

Good luck to all those with offers and interviews etc. One of my twins starting his secondment tomorrow has bought suitable work clothes (we hope) and goes in tomorrow. I am sure the first day is always the worst, or the thought of the first day, and it will be fine.

I am just making sure we do not lose our 2017 threads..... One twin (trainee secondment - the buying clothes one...) seems to have started fine and is now in week 3. He is very much helped by having a lovely lady who is his boss.

Both twins need to be in the office 3 days a week which seems be fairly typical for a lot of lawyers since covid. I would have loved that back in my day (and have worked full time from home for myself since 1994). I was reading my 1986 diary yesterday from the time of working at the second law firm I was at which really took me back a long way to the old days - the age of my twins now (24) and I was married with a baby too.

I'm taking DD shopping this week for office clothes - she's starting a month long Vac scheme with a firm she really wants a training contract with so wants to make a good impression

Good luck to your DD @Carriemac - I know just how competitive it is. Hopefully the outfits will be worn there long term!
My DS has landed two Summer Vacation schemes (2 weeks each) and is desperate to get a Training Contract out of them!

Good that your twins have managed to get secondments @Xenia

@bigTillyMint it would be funny if they end up working for same firm, many of the London firms have offices in Ireland now due to Brexit.

Nice to hear how they're doing, moving on with their next stages. Good luck with those training contracts all!

My last attempt at trying to help DD find some office clothes was for engineer hot weather gear, which turns out to be walking shorts.

I am not paying for anything, even their food, next year so I think my son had that in mind with his clothes requirements for this secondment. (Smart casual is much harder than the old days when men wore their suit every day).

Well done to the son who has won the 2 vacation schemes in the summer. He should have a good chance at a training contract out of that.

We have kept this thread going since our children went to university in 2017 but I am not letting it die a death, at least until my twins qualify as solicitors next year......
All well here. Bother are currently seconded but 2 days a week do that from home.

One was up at 5.40am today for work (he is involved in a trial or hearing this week) so plenty of hard work going on. The other was using the new ironing board/iron before work at 8.15am and complaining the back of the ironed shirt was a bit too wet. He knows I never iron so it is the blind leading the blind on that one. Hopefully it dried before he got into London.

I am trying to find a second secondment for one whose first one ends next month but not had much time due to work to get on with that and we have had loads of rejections or actually loads of people just don't reply more often than not. I will get back to it tomorrow. I have been dealing with the twins' car's MOT today and work so secondments will have to wait.

I do feel the end is in sight, certainly in terms of supporting them (next year) if not housing them and it is lovely to see so many young people including their friends in the working world in London. They have various cousins interested in law too so it looks like there may be quite a few lawyers in this generation. Meanwhile latest grandchild remains the cutest toddler (yes it is on its feet now so not a baby ....) on the planet and it was lovely to see all 3 grandchildren together at Easter.

Some of us have probably 'known' each other since a levels or GCSEs! I do like hearing news of these youngsters.
DD is experiencing the joys of car breakdown and slow repairs ... she suspects she's being messed around a bit because she's a young woman, hope that's not the case. Public transport is train into town, bus out which is a pain, I think they'll look for somewhere in town near the station again when their current rental reaches a year.

Hello everyone, lovely to hear that everyone is doing well along with all the joys of adult life, car breakdowns, pay rises, work wardrobes and all!
Ds can finally join the grown ups as today he's heard he's passed all his med exams and (barring a final shadowing placement) he's now a doctor. We had no reason to worry but it's still a massive relief. He's very happy with his F1 rotations for next year too but is now shocking himself by comparing the cost of a train season ticket vs car parking. (I'm just quietly hoping the doctor strikes are all resolved with a nice generous pay deal before he starts work).

Indeed it is lovely to hear of the young people making their way into adult life. Dd is enjoying her first year as a trainee solicitor and seems to have done some interesting and varied bits of work.

She is also beginning to experiment with DIY - aided by her dad and is planning some short holidays this year.

Thanks to @Xenia for keeping the thread going.

Lots of trainee solicitors....
Congratulations to the doctor however. My father was one (and one of my siblings is)., My father did a 2 year BSc first and then 5 years of medicine. Then his registrar stuff and DPM (psychiatrist) and our mother said he was doing exams until he was 30. They married after his BSc and she says she was the first woman in Newcastle (probably not true) to claim the married "man's" tax allowance when she kept him out of her teaching wages and they put off children for nearly 9 years in order for him to qualify, get a consultant post and buy their home.

Travel is certainly expensive. My twins are still living at home and 2 days a week can work from home so just have tube fares 3 days a week (and currently no rent to pay) so are very lucky.

Hello all, and thank you for keeping me company since 2017.

DD finishes this year and has chosen a largely rural deanery, and is very excited. She has also got one of her very top choices of rotations. Her older brother has a year and a bit left of his PhD. The hard work is now and next year is mainly job search. He also has a four week internship with his ideal employer this summer.

Both are really happy, highlighting how difficult previous years were. DD had a really difficult first year, including being physically attacked in her hall by a fellow student and needing surgery. She met her people at the start of her second year but lockdown started in her third and she did not see them for 18 months. In the meantime they had been sharing houses, and then they were all on different placements, so it took a while for her to get back into the swing. This year has been perfect, with a good group of friends, exams over, and a lovely house share. I suspect that this is why she has opted to spend the next two years away from the stress of London or other major urban centres. Medicine is a long haul, and if anything it gets harder after F1/F2 as you need to combine work with training/exams in your speciality.

Lockdown was also difficult for DS. In his part of the US they took lockdown seriously and he essentially did not go out for a year, and was unable to come hoe for two. Lockdown coincided with the start of his research and the doubt about his choice of subject, whether the data was available and so on. Now he is seeing his peers he realises that this is natural and that they were all going through the same. Indeed that he is doing just fine.

So like Xenia, not quite at the end yet.

We too are enjoying the fact that DC are now about to be financial self-sufficient and able to make their own, sensible, decisions. I have a few friends whose DC have "failed to fledge". I am pleased mine are flying away, though hopefully they will eventually return close to the nest. I have a few projects and DH has about 5 years till retirement, but we are enjoying the opportunity to have the time to revisit pre-children interests and discover new ones. So hotel booked for the Edinburgh festival, and a slightly mad scheme to join an Asian friend to visit her very long term domestic servant/more like family in rural Java where the servant has retired. (Really sad. She worked overseas for all her adult life to fund a better life for her daughter. However the daughter's husband has kicked her out of the house she essentially paid for, leaving her destitute. My friend's family, who I lived with for a while as part of my language training, are paying for someone else in the village to look after her. So partly a welfare visit, but also an excuse to return to Asia, a chance to see my widowed friend, and an adventure. This being a new world, I am already getting excited video calls from Indonesia. )

It's good to see the familiar names.
We are not at the end yet either as DD has two years to go on her MA and then will be working towards private practice. We start it all over again this year with her younger sibling.

Thanks for the update from everyone including *needmoresleep" with children doing so well and the end in sight. I was talking to the local garage man yesterday after I walked down to collect the twins' car after its MOT and repair that this was the last time I would be paying and he said an old man who still works in his 70s came in last week paying for his daughter's car and that daughter is 54 years old and still living at home. I am pretty certain of my agreement with the twins that I pay until next year and then other than living at home for a few years if they want, they pay for food and anything else.

I think because 4 of the children came back home for 2 years + after university specifically to do law in London (one twin stayed in Bristol for the law conversion bit) - commuting from home, that felt fine to me because it was a coherent plan with an end in sight - qualifying as solicitors rather than stuck in a bed room playing computer games all day without getting a job kind of home for life situation quite a few people (probably more men than women - sorry to be sexist) do - there is even some litigation in Italy of parents trying to force 30 something children out of the house.

@Needmoresleepand @Haffdonga, glad to hear your DC are happy with their next steps - my DDs friend (on same course as NMS DD) is happily off to a Northern city for hers. So sorry to hear that your DD was physically attacked in her first year halls though.

My DD is finishing her 3rd placement today, and moving onto the 4th on her grad training scheme. She’s also looking at applying for post-training jobs. Both she and DS came back to live at home after uni (as we live in London) and we have settled back into living together for the time being - not quite over for us either!

My DD never had her graduation. She went to live in London for a year with some uni friends and had a trip to Australia which was a great opportunity. She has now moved to the next town from us and it’s lovely to have her close, but she’s made it clear she’s not planning to stay long term in the area. We’re hoping she won’t be too far away after that. In other news I’m just writing my dissertation for my masters and should be finished by September. I was only inspired to start it when DD started hers, so I’m amazed I’ve got through it. Lovely to see how everyone is getting on.

SMaCM, well done on almost completing the masters and thanks for the updates.
20s can be a bit unsettling for people as having to find careers, get some stability, decide what to do, but exciting as well. Good luck to them all.

DS2 has just got a new job, so he'll be moving on from his grad scheme when it ends in 3 months . DS 1 is moving home to live with us and locum for a while at the hospital we both work in while he decides his next move - will be interesting 😁

@Carriemac Our Dd is also possibly moving back in the summer & commuting from here. She’s just been offered an F3 clinical fellowship post for a year. Her current flatmate has decided to go to Australia- as have most of her friends just finishing their F2s.

In spite of the shortage of doctors there seems to be a shortage of training places for the next stage. It’s probably no worse than most years but it’s not helping with retention.

Well done on the new jobs etc. One of my twins had an interview today for a possible secondment (he would still live at home). Thought it went well but waiting to hear.......

Their working from home days vary so some days one is at home and not the other, sometimes both are out or both here, but it's all fine. It is certainly easier than the continuous period since just before Easter 2020 when they were sent home from university due to lockdowns and have been home one or the other continuously since. Tomorrow one is out at work and the other here and having an on line law course for half the day.

Looks like the interview was successful starting week after next but still awaiting signed contract so not 100% sure. If so then both are set for the next 6 months more or less (and qualify as solicitors in 2024 which, although in a sense it is just the start, it is the end of the very long training road).

That's great @Xenia