Another path ....... and it goes on

[chopc]

New thread

Hi all - just checking in. DS home and working away on his dissertation seems to be the thing for this Christmas holidays with exams to come in January too. He is even turning down paid work but off the back off quite a nice premium bond win which means he can afford to do so!

How are everyone and their students and other kids whatever their age and stage?

@Xenia your boxing day sounds lovely. Ds1 is my eldest at 20 so I am hoping it will be a while before grandchildren although my nephew is 6 so that reminds me how it used to be with little ones.

@SeasonFinale well done on his Premium Bond win. I am still waiting for the million. Ds is also working but no dissertation for him just work to submit in January. I don't understand any of it but he seems very happy which is all I care about really.

Cant believe most of "Another path" DC's will be graduating in a few months.

I am taking two weeks off and I didn't realise how stressed i must have been at work to feel so happy and relaxed when not working

We are trying to keep the holidays quiet as DD3 has her GCSE mocks as soon as they go back in Jan, yet the holidays are somehow full of plans eg trips to Christmas markets (are London ones just rubbish or is it the same all over?), theater, light shows and a couple of parties.

DS1 working on his dissertation and goes on about how much work he has. However, he is also not good at saying no to any social invitations 🙈

We are around 25 for Christmas lunch this year as well. We had such a magical day last year that i hope this year is not a let down

DH and DS2 will go away for a couple of nights after Christmas as he really needs a change of scenery as the IB is so tough! I am staying back to keep encouraging DD3 with her revision 😬

@Xenia what are your twins plans once they become Solicitors? Your boxing day sounds lovely!

@BenchOfCompany I am intrigued to know what your DH does to move around so much

@SeasonFinale congrats to your DS on the premium bonds.

It's not that big a win before anyone thinks he has hit the big time but definitely more than if he had done his liefguarding over the holidays and I am pleased to see he has he head down for the dissertation rather than just lazing. He says being home is like detox! Plenty of sleep in a warm house and being fed rather than having to feed himself.

@SeasonFinale any win feels good though doesn't it? Ds feels like home provides a mental break from meal planning and food shopping plus I do his laundry as it just goes in with all of ours. He still helps to make dinners and still sings in the kitchen with us which is lovely. He and Ds2 mainly decorated the tree, they love the house feeling festive.

@chopc Dh is in IT, his graduate job saw us 200 miles from our home town, I went with him. The company he worked for provided staff to fill roles in other companies so he has worked for a fair few big named companies and gov departments. When Ds1 was a toddler we chose to relocate so Dh changed jobs and location before Ds started school so we are now back up North and settled here. So again I left a job I loved and some friends but it was a joint decision and better for the future for Dh and our children. I became a sahm when we relocated here due to health reasons. It is hard to retain friends from a hundred miles away although I do still have some in different places and being a sahm makes it very harder to make friends as usually you make friends through work.

I cannot believe that for some of us they are graduating next year. I'll have one home as the other one leaves for uni. Very strange to consider that but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it so I don't cry.

Happy New Year everyone. Hope you all had a lovely Christmas. Ours was quiet, just the four of us, but lovely all the same. Very chill. DH retired, eeekkk, so this year will be very different in so many ways. Hopefully he will do some non-exec and ad hoc consultancy to keep him occupied, he is already getting restless. He is still relatively young, but his company had gone through a lot of changes, and he was very stressed and unhappy, so much better to just call quits for the sake of his health.

DD's masters applications in, and hoping for early offers so we can plan a holiday in between, or maybe before, graduation and a new term in a new place.

DD also suddenly big into weightlifting, and doing qualifiers for BUCS. Really enjoying the discipline of regular training, and joining the uni gym and lifting club has opened up a new social life, new friends, and giving her renewed confidence. All in her final year, just goes to show, never too late to take up new pursuits and make new friends.

Lovely to hear your update @KnittedCardi . We had a similar quiet Xmas and new year although 3/4 of us had blasted Covid ( again!) so not so quiet with all the coughing going on 🙄

Love that your dd has found a new pastime! How fantastic. A few friends have children who have done similar this academic year ( taken on new hobby). it’s a good antidote to dissertations I imagine. Never too late is it.. and I could do with carving out time for a hobby too.

dd is in year 3 out of 4 and is enjoying her subject . It’s taken quite some time for me to say that with confidence . It’s really only since year 3 started that I’ve seen her to be properly excited and animated about her subject. Lovely to see and just in time really !

Half of DD’s housemates are doing a masters elsewhere and the others have grad jobs lined up (or are hammering the applications) . Dd has her integrated masters year abroad next year so she also leaves the city at the end of this year as the rest graduate. They are a lovely bunch - really supportive of each other -so I hope they keep in touch

likewise .. I’m hoping to still carry on hearing from this lovely bunch too! Feel like we’ve linked arms so long now that it would be a shame to stop just because courses are ending. I’d love to carry on hearing about you all ( and your wonderful dc!)

Happy new year everyone! I agree @Longtimenewsee , i hope this thread keeps going and I would love to know where our DC ends up over time and most of all and if they have inner peace and contentment.

I may have mentioned before that this is a huge year for us as DS1 has finals, DS2 has IB and DD3 has GCSE's. DD3 was also busy auditioning for performing arts schools for sixth form and is busy rehearsing for a local pantomime as well as being in the middle of her mocks. She is not the most studious, so it has been a challenge for me to get her to focus on her academic study.

To add to this we have had some family ill health and also some work stress.

So if I post infrequently, it is because there are other things going on in life

Happy New Year to everyone. So many of our YP seem to be embracing year 3 and lots of exciting things on the horizon. Lovely to hear that @KnittedCardi DD has found a new hobby at uni, definitely still time to embrace new things.

For us we had a lovely Christmas, relatives stayed through to the New Year so I was happy to get back to work!

DD has been working over Christmas and this particular module has caused a whole heap of stress. So much so that she jumped on a train back to Exeter so that she could work in the labs. Thankfully it was submitted yesterday so we can all breathe again. I think I might end up with a few more grey hairs this term as her dissertation is due in mid-March as she has a field trip to Iceland.

On the upside DD loves her housemates, will miss them so much when they finish uni, and her boyfriend has been so understanding and supportive over her deadlines. They are at different unis so he has done a fair bit of travelling last term.

Both DD and DH have milestone birthdays this year and they are taking a trip together to South America later this year to celebrate.

Gosh, yes, how can they possibly only have a few months until they’re finished?!
DS happy to have just submitted two essays which were causing him headaches over Christmas. Now he just has the long haul to his final dissertation for May and a practical module to complete.
Lots of plans for summer - he’s in a play at the Edinburgh Festival in August - and he’s currently applying for MAs, so we’re still not sure where he’ll be in September!

@Jng1 Crazy isn't it that dissertations have to be submitted in a few months time then once exams are over time to party before they leave Exeter. Is your DS hoping to stay in Exeter? I hope to see your DS's name on stage in the next chapter of his career, DD said he's a superb actor.

Aww thanks (and your DD)!
Yes, I think they’re done just after Easter break then the drama crowd at least only have T3 which is their chance to do (non-assessed, voluntary) theatre and other creative work.
DS is looking at drama school MAs in performance, so probably not staying at Exeter.

DS friend who read English Lit at Durham graduated last summer is currently doing her Masters at Bristol Old Vic in acting. Is that somewhere he may be considering.

She has already performed at the National and also on TV in one of the soaps!

Yes! That’s definitely one of his options!

Hello everyone. Coming up.to the end of year 3 already, dissertations and exams due. Can't believe we're the time has gone.....

So, an update. You know good things can come to those who wait?? Well..... DD has received an offer for a Masters at Oxford. Her in/off boyfriend/flat mate has also received one from Cambridge having not previously applied. Can't quite believe it tbh. DD is thrilled.

@KnittedCardi So many congrats to her. If I spot your name change theme, My DS1 and your DD were Oxbridge history applicants in the same batch. So exciting for her

DS1 is also heading to a masters but not in history / he is hanging up his history boots for a business sort of thing instead

Congratulations to your DD @KnittedCardi she must be very excited heading to Oxford. Also to your DS @Revengeofthepangolins

Dissertation is a taboo subject in our house, it's getting there but I might have a few more grey hairs in the next fortnight! On the upside DD has a field trip to Iceland straight after her dissertation is due in and the itinerary sounds fantastic.

Then home for a month to hang out with the BF and study for final exams. Lots of plans for fun things this summer and at some point getting her head around the idea of work!

I can't believe our YP are graduating this summer, the three years have flown by.

Congratulations @Revengeofthepangolins & @KnittedCardi dc at their masters places.
dd is on integrated masters so has another year yet before graduation - I’m hoping you’ll all stick around to carry on the chat - it would be lovely to hear about the next steps

DS in on his year abroad and working for an intellectual property law firm in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It's been quite a week for him as they had a big earthquake on Monday, the second in a fortnight. (Depending on which source you read it was between 5.3 and 6.1 on the Richter scale). It rather unnerved his as his office is on the 9th floor so it took a while for them all to escape the shaking building. And now he's on tenterhooks waiting for the next one.

In other news he's secured a London based audit internship with one of the major accounting firms this Summer.

@MidLifeCrisis007 What a year your DS is having and he is obviously very focused on building his CV, very impressive. I remember the photo of you all horse riding which looked fantastic, not sure I would be comfortable with the earthquakes though.

Everyone seems to be doing well. My twins ( a few years ahead as left school in 2017) qualified as solicitors earlier this year and next week one starts his new job (after 4 interviews and a very long technical exercise) - in house solicitor. His twin has stayed on (after his trainee secondment at a media company's legal department) for a maternity cover until November. So as of Monday they will both be in newly qualified solicitor jobs (in in house legal departments) in London... but job hunting continues as their older brother who does not live at home unlike the twins is taking a short break before deciding his next career move. It does feel like the end of an era for me now all 5 children are independent of me financially (other than the twins live at home but buy their own food)

That’s lovely news. Delighted for her.
Lovely to hear of all the other plans and adventures.

DD1’s degree is 4 years so she is doing another Investment Banking internship in New York this summer before her final year at Brown.

One twin is finishing her freshman year in Barnard@Columbia and thinking of majoring in Physics.
The other twin is finishing her MT foundation course in Mountview in London and auditioning for BAs. I did ask if she would come back and take up her deferred place in engineering in Trinity if she didn’t get a BA place but no she wants to get a job and then audition again next year.
DS is 1st year in secondary school and a long way from such choices.

Aren't our kids all amazing. So many different paths, but all so interesting and varied. The general narrative for that generation is always so down, so negative, and although we know they had challenges, COVID and COL, and perhaps our DC's are luckier than most, it does give one hope for the future.