Thread 39 - Covid Cohort - Our Adult Children Now Post 18

[CinnamonOrangeCremeBrulee]

This is a support thread for our young adults post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting, and their results ( or life updates for those who went into work or have had results earlier). It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, uni vs employment please don't within this thread.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue. We were previously on the secondary board and then further education, now we shall be here in 'Parents of Adult Children' gulp

Our DS/DD may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed). Be warned there might be lots of 'Uni Freshers' chat this time of year. My experience is that everyone is welcomed wherever, whatever their child is doing we have some in work, gap years , apprenticeships etc too. Lots of contributors with different experiences and always sympathy and support to be had !

I won't notice ds2 isn't eating here. He doesn't eat much. Ds3 is very fussy. It would be very different if he were going. Ds1 always has very high expectations for what is for dinner, he eats almost anything though, so I was glad when he moved away for university.

I was pleased Ds received all his hsbc stuff in the post. There's a letter saying set it all up online. But when Ds tried it asks fir telephone banking password. We don't have one. Why do they make things awkward? He needs to phone but is working all week.

Oh I hadn’t thought of the World Cup 😢
DS2 will have to step up. Won’t be the same watching football without DS1 though

DS and I are both more into club football than the international teams but I will miss our football chats, we talk about football a lot. We are in a Fantasy League together though. Might try and get tickets for a game in the holidays.

Ooh @Takeittotheboss tell me more about DS's African adventure. DD has fallen in love with Africa (well, a very tiny part of Africa) and I can see her with some kind of future career taking her there.
I'm glad you've had communication to settle the jitters

Just thinking about watching Strictly (I know she's not going to spend Saturday nights watching it!) but I'm still confused about tv licences. If they watch bbc on iplayer but without the laptop plugged in, if that ok? There's so many conflicting answers. What are you all doing?

We have watched so many things together since first lockdown. We always tv together every night. Currently late to the party with Better Call Saul on Netflix. But GBBO and I’m a celebrity both coming up…. Will really miss watching those with DS. And we watch Frasier and Office USA on permanent loop - gulp!

I'm getting used to DD not being around as it's been a gradual process. She has been away and going out a lot this summer so it won't be such a shock as it would have been last year. I've got used to not watching her play hockey every week as let that go last season in preparation (just watched occasionally to video for A level PE). I find it hard not going to watch her play as love it but she has benefited from us not being around all the time (hockey players and DH coach so must be hard for her).

I am looking forward to eating more fish and red meat, having a normal size water bill and going to bed and not being asked to come back downstairs to watch television with her at 12.30am. However I will really miss this too. Love watching Googlebox with her, along with some other series I can't actually remember right now :-)
I will also really miss her telling me about her day (usually 1 or 2 days later though). She is our only child so it will be
very odd with just me, DH and 2 dogs in the house.

The computer equipment arrived yesterday so will look at that later, DD still needs to sort out student bank acc, and downloading photo for id card.

@crazycrofter how has the move gone? Has your DD had the email to download a photo for ID card yet?

@Piggywaspushed I remember the backpack thread - is there a thread this year that has kicked off?

@Piggywaspushed what’s this back pack thread?

My DS2 is coming over to see us today - super exciting as I see him every 3-4 weeks - he lives away and even though he’s 22 I still miss him.

I hope Shimy doesn't mind but this is the aforementioned backpack thread, it was an absolute corker

Backpack for University www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3687574-Backpack-for-University

About 3 years ago, Shimy innocently asked MN what bag to buy as a parting gift for her DD. Oh my good Lord, the comments from MNers with toddlers. I'm sure you can imagine.

Everyone has a MN thread they vividly recall as batshit. That's mine!

The current thread is in AIBU. Plenty of sensible comments bit also lots of sneering and competitive (benign) neglect. Again, not convinced those people have 18 year olds. I find this as a teacher. Teachers with young children really have very little understanding of teenage emotional development or what it is like parenting teens. For whatever reason, child free teachers are less judgy.

Yes, you can watch iPlayer if laptop unplugged. Bizarre isn't it?

Sorry, juts said Shimy's DD. Meant DS. Doh.

Oh, there are some posters I really miss on the backpack thread and wonder where they've gone.

There are also some I do not miss one bit.

The above is me parodying myself on that thread. Think I had just learnt how to cross out.

My batshit one (which I have mentioned before) was when I wanted to buy DS, then about 14 an advent calendar as I had bought one for DD and wanted suggestions. Well I got my arse handed to me by people who had been re-using a paper once since 1952 about how entitled and grabby DS was expecting extravagant advent calendars.

Re TV, DS doesn't watch much, he tends to just have Sky Sports rolling in the background. He has Sky Go on his Ipad so I've told him he can use that so long as it's not plugged in. But they show all the big football matches in a common room / bar at the uni apparently.

I will miss taking him to hockey matches and football at the weekends. We got used to him being away on weeknights last year when he boarded but he and I usually spend a lot of the weekend together (DS and DH spend a lot of time at the archery club together, although that gets less going into winter).

Ha, I’d forgotten that backpack thread! It’s a great MN batshittery one!

i am definitely doing more for Ds in terms of researching and shopping than my parents did for me as a student. But then I’d spent a year overseas pre uni - where of course in the pre mobile and Internet days I’d had to cope with everything without their support. Our pandemic kids haven’t had the same opportunities to spread their wings and feel confident imho.

Ds has been researching uni societies. He likes the sound of volunteering with the hedgehog group, and the Douglas Adams soc!

I did see this on Wiwikau recently but I want to say that I bought mine a couple of weeks back.

Tesco and a couple of other stores have their Christmas chocs in 2 for £7 so I bought one for Dd to take for her kitchen.

That thread was just ridiculous. I do tend to stay away from Higher Education there are some posters that seem to wait for threads so that they can barge in with their own opinions that must not be challenged.

Just a couple of little bits left to buy. Debating the TV licence thing as Dd is a big Eastenders fan. Moving in day is 21st for us at 2pm, should be around a three hour journey. Will do there and back in one day as have doggo to worry about and plans have been made in the flat for that evening.

TV Licence is £6ish per week so DD is happy to pay that for Strictly alone!

THis really made me laugh @EspeciallyDivided . Any sort of fun ever is just RIGHT OUT. I had a thread like that back in the day about theme park outings during holidays for my then young teens and it was all 'why dont you go into the forest with them to play with sticks'.

Talking of FUN. Today we are going into battle with the UoNottingham to upload a photo, send an email re what sort of laptop is actually needed and have a third attempt at a student bank account. Oh and I bought a cheese grater.

Living on the edge.

The backpack thread is quite something :S

I’m currently not mentioning backpacks as I’ve realised DD should take one for any travels she does, plus shopping (I suspect she intends on using school tote type bag for lectures, though that won’t work if she needs to take her laptop). But if I mention a backpack she’ll be bound to want a new one, so I’m leaving it to the last minute and chucking one of her near-mint condition school ones in.

This holiday of hers is proving quite good practice for her being away. I miss her but at least get her back soon for a few days. I’m doing quite well, yesterday was the only day I initiated a WhatsApp chat - Thursday she asked me to keep an eye out for her railcard, Friday I told her it had arrived. No contact today.

Is anyones DC taking a games console?
DS wants to take his Xbox and of course that means TV too so I’m guessing he will need a TV license? Just for having the TV there?

DS is taking his Switch, but mainly plays that handheld, you can bluetooth with others to play together.

New laptop here. Set up apart from Outlook and the Office thing which scares me!

I think DS is taking his actual gaming pc. Not a great idea imo.