Leaving home and moving to uni countdown

[Claymoreiron]

Is there a thread for this? In a matter of weeks many of us will be packing our DCs off to university. I am thrilled for my DS who has worked so hard and is so excited to start university life. However, I am also dreading it in equal measure and know that emotionally this transition will be tough for me.

How is everyone?

We’re paying DS’s rent (quite lucky, his uni is quite a lot cheaper than some at just under 6k for 40 weeks) and he’s got £4900 loan plus his PIP, which will make a big difference. It works out about £180 a week for him to live off which should be plenty. I think he will struggle to work as well as study due to his disabilities so it’ll be all he has but as long as he doesn’t blow the loan as soon as it comes in, he should be fine. 3 days to go 😩😩

Absolutely the same. It’s been a very tough weekend.

Just back to the empty nest. Thank goodness for the dogs who are delighted to see us! A very happy day all round though.

My son has been away for over a week now, it's so quiet at home. He has ASD so was always following me round and showing me pics of guitars or gig announcements. His dad said last night that he was missing him.

We took 2 cars of stuff over and I've taken more stuff over this week as he has his disabled student assessment and wanted my support.

His clothes are still in boxes as he's decided to use part of the wardrobe for his collection 😂

Dropped Ds1 off to his flat on Saturday. Settled him in, all good despite tears.

Several mice spotted in kitchen since Sunday, and the (private) halls contract doesn't include cleaning for the arm and a leg they're charging, which we missed in our hurry to get him somewhere to live.

Bugger.

And me. Happy she is having a great time. Miss her immensely and feel so anxious. I’ve never been able to sleep until she comes in from her nights out here. Finding it very anxiety inducing knowing she is out and about and not knowing if she is home safely. I know I have to let go of this but not sure how!

My DD shares her location, in fact we both do. I can see she’s safely in Uni, or back home. I think she also likes to see we’re at home and things are normal here.

However, last night she was still showing in a pub as part of freshers at 1am, but that was reassuring too, she’s not sitting on her own.

Some young people may find it intrusive, but it certainly makes me feel happier and she’s cool with it. As she said, if she wanted to do something without me knowing, she’d turn her location off!

It may help you feel less anxious.

we have life 360. But I don’t know if that’s as bad as I’m having to stop myself checking it every 45 minutes and that way madness lies I’m sure

I’ve absolutely been tracking where DD is. It helps me to feel connected to her a little bit. We haven’t really mentioned it, we’ve always had ‘find my’ activated so it’s not a strange thing to do in the family. She’s been tracking me back to see if I’m in work/can’t answer the phone.

I’ve never tracked my kids which I’m pleased about as I don’t need that distraction!

Am I the only one panicking whether DC has made it in for orientation? I know DD was out last night, and no activity on snapchat this morning or afternoon 😬

Yes I don’t track mine it wouldn’t do me good.

If they haven’t it’s probably online or repeated. I wouldn’t stress. Off out and making friends is main point of freshers.

That’s good to know, especially as she did oversleep and missed it!

That is why it is better not to track them all the time; you can only worry about them in a more general sense and not get concerned about day to day things.

I wasn’t tracking! I’d sent a good luck message that went unseen

I don’t track. She wouldn’t let me! Plus it would make me more stressed. When I went to uni (a long time ago!) my parents didn’t see me for a whole term. I called once a week from the red phone box on the corner and sent the odd letter! Imagine!

Today’s Amazon delivery went AWOL after being dumped on the pavement on a busy Manchester City centre street. Her building has a 24 hr manned reception about 6 meters away from where the parcel was left.

That’s terrible! DD was warned to not get anything sent direct to her. They dump the boxes in an unmanned reception, with no CCTV, and people just help themselves. So far we’ve used Amazon locker, which is within the halls. There’s also a post office around the corner that you can mail things to. Plus there seems to be a generic version of Amazon locker that you can have any company send to. Only limitation seems to be size. Still working it out at the moment—but it has to be a safer option than it getting dumped in a corner.

There are normally pickup points you can get stuff, including Amazon orders, delivered too. Often corner shops. There are a lot of them so should be one within ten minutes walk in a city. They take larger stuff that doesn’t fit in a Amazon locker.

Yes lesson learnt for sure and I’ll send stuff via a locker in future

That’s crazy! At least DDs uni has a large delivery office on campus and everything seems to get sent there.

Maybe it’s worth putting on delivery instructions a clear description of where to go. Although it’s more likely they saw yellow lines and left it.

How is everyone doing? DD seems to have hit the ground running, I’m just not motivated at all!

A week on from the move. I still feel a bit sad but we’ve had a few face time calls. I need to go and gut his bedroom but can’t bring myself to.

i know it sounds dramatic. It’s a huge life change for them but I underestimated how much of a one for us. It’s such a shift in role. I feel very nostalgic for when my kids were little. I miss family days out and even the chaos of life with kids. House too quiet now.

Move in day and I've just seen a young man carrying a quite big tv. Goodness knows why or where it will fit, plus who are these people who buy a tv licence with so many other more necessary expenses in the frame

Don’t think you need a tv licence in halls.