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 !

DD has her driving license on her phone case and it drives me mad! Apparently they all do it as needed for ID everywhere. DD1’s got left in a club in Brighton but thankfully was handed in by a kind soul.

*in her phone case

Mine does that too Benji. What’s a handbag generation.

I think most places only accept the actual passport/driving license and not a photo.
I will be encouraging DS to only take the driving license out with him as easier and cheaper (and probably quicker!) to replace if it does get lost.
Both DS’s keep their debit cards in their phone cases, that drives me mad

@Oblomov22 my first two DSs took passport and drivers license. Passport stays in room just for ID for serious stuff - uni, checks before securing second year rental, quick Ryan air trips and field trips. Drivers license needed on every night out.
Kept in phone with debit card or just in trousers.

Driver’s Licence in phone case here too. And no bank card with her - she just blips her phone.

@KingscoteStaff agree DD does £10 plus drivers license in phone - money in case phone runs out of battery. Please note time of my earlier post … that was DD arriving me home at 4.20 and waking me up

If they are carrying bank cards in their phones, make sure they have the phone set so you can't see text messages on the lock screen

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-62809151

DS has a silicone phone cover and keeps his card, cash and driving licence in a wallet but leaves the wallet at home and just puts the cards in his pockets or bag, I am worries he'll lose them. Trying to get him to remember to use apple pay and leave the bank cards behind.

It's the big pack-up today, he goes tomorrow. We have both found the royal events to be a welcome distraction, although sad. He's got a hockey match this afternoon too so that's good.

Cautionary tale - this is how DS1 also keeps his phone, cards and so on.

When he lost his phone , he lost everything . Couldn't get into his Monzo card account or easily freeze his bank card. I really do not like this trend of keeping everything in the same place.

He also lost his bag in his first week at uni - left it in a barber and someone pinched it. He'd left his passport in it!!

ds does this too, he’s gone away for the weekend and his bank card and wallet are in his bedroom. I was reading a Twitter thread recently about a woman in a gym whose locker was broken in to and they stole her phone (not sure about her wallet) but they hacked her phone and she had a complete nightmare as they access to everything. The bank kept sending codes to the phone to change stuff but the thieves had the phone, they spent everything and the bank won’t refund her. 😱

Yes, that's the story I linked above @JustHereWithMyPopcorn

There was a thread a while ago saying that only middle aged people use the phones with card holders and that young people all use silicone type skins. IME young people are just as likely to use the card holder type.

Drivers licence in phone case here too - and she’s another one who doesn’t carry her bank card around.

I rarely carry my bank cards around now either, I have a big bag for work and the rest of the time I either just take keys and phone or a tiny bag which I put things out of the big bag into eg airpods, cardholder. I have more than one card on Apple pay just in case.

Just read the story above- so it’s definitely a good idea to do what dd does and leave her bank card at home. I’ll get her to change notifications settings too.

DD’s are silicone but they put the license and/or card behind the phone. They wouldn’t use the book/wallet type.

My kids set up Apple Pay for me and put on my loyalty cards and the bank cards on it - so helpful - I love it and super helpful when on the tube 🚇

DS just has £10 and androidpay, takes driving licence if he needs it. I was thinking it would be worth getting a spare driving licence "just in case".

@Fiddlersgreen it is an order of magnitude easier to get a new driving licence, takes 10 minutes costs £20 and arrives within a week. Passport more expensive, takes longer to apply and longer to arrive.

DS has just changed my phone so notifications don't show as I have credit cards in my phone case, so thanks for that tip @EspeciallyDivided

I don't carry bank cards now. Was great when I was in the m6 till to find its cashless but didn't do Apple Pay! Luckily someone else in the car had a card...

I'm just glad that some items are still in physical form - I dread the day absolutely everything has to be an app. Lost my phone for 10 minutes on holiday in Spain last month and that was definitely the sweatiest 10 mins of the week...

This weekend we have all the fun of the very long ADHD questionnaire. Taking bets on how long dd1 will manage to put it off for.

I've lost track of the thread a bit, but good luck to everyone wrestling with IT or moving in over the weekend.

DD has spent first couple of evenings watching films with housemates while bingeing popcorn, I'm a bit relieved they're not an "always at the pub/club" bunch at least so far. She's also been shopping to get storage items for her room now that she knows the layout. Student loan arrived in her bank account exactly on time, which is another relief.

Welcome Events start this afternoon with an open-air picnic and film on campus, weather permitting. DD is glad that there are lots of "mellow" events as well as the clubbing (not her style at all).

That gym locker story … techies I know reckon it was more likely the thief just took the SIM out of the stolen phone and put it in their own. All the codes sent by banks etc then just go to the thief’s phone. Easy. The ‘fix’ for that is to set a SIM pin, but it’s a bit easy to lock yourself out of your own phone doing that if you’re not paying attention 😬

I've heard the text thing said before with reference to people leaving their phones unattended on their desks at work and using weak passwords that a colleague has guessed or seen by looking over their shoulder. Practically the only thing I use texts for is these 2FAs so I don't mind having the messages hidden.

I actually have 2 phones, with the banking app on one, and the notifications sent to the other.

My notification phone is an old brick, and does require a PIN to unlock the SIM card.