(Light hearted) When you go to uni open days with your DC ...

[duvetoclock]

... do all the other parents look older than you feel? 🙃 I do wonder if they're thinking the same.

Agree v odd! It’s not a day out for everyone!

i think it does impact on the would be student‘s experience.

That’s one of the things I find fascinating when meeting parents.

I think I was one of the older ones!
DDs best friend at uni has grandparents the same age as my DH (60)!

Walking round Manchester last year with DS1. A couple of girls looked at him as we walked past and said 'smash'. I had to ask him what it meant and then wished I hadn't.🙈🙈🙈.

I never went to open days with mine!
It never occurred to me. They wanted to go on their own. Anyway I'm a teacher so there's no way I could get time off.

All the other parents looked about 10 years older than me!

They didn't, you just think you look younger
🙂

I never went to open days with mine!
It never occurred to me. They wanted to go on their own. Anyway I'm a teacher so there's no way I could get time off.

It's the norm now for parents to accompany their kids to Open Days though I'm not sure how useful the events actually are. And they're at weekends so you could've gone if you/they wanted.

Right. It was a few years ago now. Anyway, I'm sure they wouldn't have wanted it, they're very independent.
I've just asked my son and he said "why?"!.

Oh God, I was almost guilty of this (and DH certainly was). We really enjoyed chatting to the Profs in the Labs at DDs open Days and I had to kick DH to shut him up a few times.
I am really excited for DD's her course is going to be awesome

I went to Open Days on my own back in the day but that certainly doesn't seem to be the norm now. Everyone has at least 1 parent in tow and, as you say, some have two plus younger sibs and the family pet! I have tried in vain to ask if DD wants to go with a mate instead but none of them want to go to the same uni so I am just embracing it as a bit of 1:1 time.

I am amusing myself by rating the quality of the obligatory Gaza protest. Exeter was pretty in your face with a lot of tents, flags, a huge encampment, shouting with megaphones and leaflet dropping. Warwick had some tents and one or two flags but it was easily ignored. I wait to see what Sheffield, Loughborough and Nottingham can rustle up.

I would never have dreamt of asking my parents to attend an Open Day with me.

I worked at a University and some colleagues organised an event at an Open Day for "Student Parents", offering a creche. It was intended for students who are parents to meet others in their situation, there were talks from existing students who are parents, details of the University nursery etc. 90% of those who turned up were the 50 year old parents to prospective 18 year old students. That was when we realised things had changed and we needed to make the comms much clearer...

I think the parent crèche is actually a great idea!
Somewhere that the prospective students can leave their mum and dad to be looked after whilst they do something else
They can have talks about the laundry and saucepans

To be fair, laundry was the prompt for many texts from DD when she started uni and had to deal with the dreaded circuit laundry in her halls.

As a piece of advice, if your dc is anything like mine, do not teach them too many life skills as texts asking questions about laundry, cooking etc were pretty much her only form of communication in her first few weeks.

I went to a few with DS1 a decade ago, a couple of his own with DS2 (he was a 2021 starter, so didn't get the opportunity for many, although he had been dragged along to a couple when DD was looking), but a whole load in between with DD. My strategy was to let them get on with the taster lectures etc on there own, while I had a general mooch around and a cup of coffee, but I did look at the accommodation with them, mainly because I'm nosy. I would also encourage them to investigate the wider area, so we generally booked relatively late trains home to allow for this.

Having had our DC at 37, 40-very-nearly-41, and 43, I would have been one of those parents many thought looked older than they were (and they would have been right).

At the Offer Holder Days we went to this did happen, they took the DC off for talks/Labs and we got a seperate talk and an opportunity to ask questions, which was mostly dominated by 1 Mum who needed us all to know how special her Ds was and how he needed special treatment (no SN, just PFB)

I'm always one of the oldest - 63 and DD has just had her 18th birthday. Poor girl has always had friends with grandparents who are younger than us. My role at open days was to make the other parents feel young😆

It wasn't a course involving MFL, was it? At one talk to which I did accompany DD at a Leeds open day (a bit niche and the room was nothing like full, so I stayed), one parent was not at all impressed that Japanese was only available as part of the particular offer as ab initio.
(Just looked again and saw 'labs', so probably not).

When I went I was closer in age to the DCs than some of the parents.

Most looked like grandparents!

@PumpkinKnitter me too! I am an old parent and look old. Hope I run into you at an open day. In my day I had interviews at every uni I applied too and travelled to attend these without parents, who I doubt were even aware where I’d applied to. Some involved overnight stays organised by the colleges. My children attended some open days alone/with friends, others with me in tow. Seems some people think it’s a badge of honour that some students wouldn’t dream of attending with parents as they are so independent and cool. I just think people should do whatever suits them. IMO Fine for parents to ask questions as long as they don’t monopolise staff asking irrelevant questions.

Same here - interviews everywhere and not a parent in sight. I have a vague memory of sleeping on the floor in someone's flat at Newcastle University. It came as a surprise when one of my older daughters did open days and (a) she wanted me to go with her, and (b) most kids seemed to have parents in tow. Youngest DD also wanted me to go to all the open days and offer holder days with her. We are done now though - A levels almost finished and all being well off to uni in September. Enjoy your remaining open days!

@ThePure Re Gaza protests. Bristol had tents etc and protesters who (very politely) interrupted the talks to give a little speech about how Bristol sold weapons etc. I was impressed by their organisation and bravery.

I had the opposite, I’m 40 but still think I’m in my twenties and the realisation that GPs and police officers and pop singers are somewhat younger than me these days always seems to catch me by surprise!

DS will (hopefully!) be attending my old alpha mater and the supervisor who oversaw my MA is still there and will meet my son which is really lovely as we are still vaguely in touch through work.

Seems some people think it’s a badge of honour that some students wouldn’t dream of attending with parents as they are so independent and cool

I know! My DD is cool and independent but she wanted us to drive accompany her to open days. And then ignored our opinion on everything from the courses to accommodation.

Mine is not particularly good socially so I went with him. I hated the Uni and absolutely thought it the wrong choice. It was very hard to be positive.
He's there atm as it was the highest ranked of his choices ( he had some very random choices).
I still think it's a ghastly dump and I wish I hadn't taken him as it makes me a bit sad to think of him there.

As a lecturer, it was a real moment when I realised I was older than many of the parents and I'm not fifty yet.

But it's also quite nice as they like it if I click with them from same generation.

We do the parent crèche for offer holder days if possible. I always try and address the applicant and then parents answer for them 🙈😊