Thread 41 Corona Cohort - Autumn Adventures of our Adult Children

[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 !

previous thread

I’ve been ok so far, but missing birthdays will be a bit weird won’t they? DD’s is tomorrow. She does love a good meal out with her folks, but she’ll have to make do with pizza and Prosecco money with whoever is prepared to join her.

is it just me, or WHAT is wrong with predictive text these days!

@crazycrofter I hope she does meet them all soon. DS is the same block but second floor. His corridor seem to be fairly sociable so far if she's brave enough to visit

So far today I have been sent the latest recording of his new band song and am currently giving washing instructions via whatsapp.

DD has phoned saying she's poorly. I pushed her towards the substantial first aid kit I sent with her! First lectures today, so she really should try and get there. She says everyone has colds, tonsillitis, chest infections or covid. She hasn't really been out clubbing or anything so seems a bit unfair to have fresher's flu!

Sympathy re PIP forms @ZittiEBuoni and @PaddingtonPaddington . I did DS's just as we were going into the first lockdown as it things weren't stressful enough with GCSEs cancelled, work going into a tailspin and everything else that happened. I used a website called Benefits and Work to help me. His assessment wasn't for another 9 months because of covid and was by phone, luckily he got a decent assessor who did a fair report and he was granted it but it was a pretty horrendous process.

PaddingtonPaddington, EspeciallyDivided, the CAB woman told us that many, many claims are rejected first time, fewer for the mandatory reassessments and then nearly all that are still rejected get through on appeal. So I'm not expecting a walk in the park...

Thanks @mummyinbeds . She said she heard them/some of them come back last night so they're obviously sociable, but it just so happens that she's been socialising with various other people met through different avenues over the last two days so hasn't met them. Which is fine... she just wants to at least have spoken to them and be able to have polite chit chat!

Ha ha. Loving the Popcorn ds 'funny' induction and agree with Monkey that him and icanbe ds banter would be highly amusing.

Christ Newnames those curtains are gonna give me nightmares too.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn There should be a pantry with Microwave, toaster etc. DD found one (she is in H block).

DD felt a cold coming on yesterday so had a chill day, actually got around to looking at the IT! Stayed in her room most of the day I think apart from meals. Decided not to go out last night but is planning to go out tonight, although she has a pretty full on day today (made it to breakfast at 9.00am, Head of school welcome at 10.30am, then Biology Group course 1.30-4.00 followed by 1-2-1 online meeting as part of her dyslexia help at 5.00-6.00 (forgot dinner time when agreeing to the time) she is hoping there is something left at 6.00 (dinner in halls until 6.30)..

Loving the curtain chatter - those flowery ones are definitely the worse so far :-)

Good luck to all those who started proper lectures today - have fun to those like DD who now have a welcome week to enjoy (although also lots of places she has to be do during the day). Hoping they keep making friends and settling in.

@EspeciallyDivided I used the exact same website and found it really useful as it had lots of examples. I also joined a couple of good Facebook groups which were helpful. Glad it was awarded to your DS without having to take it further.
@ZittiEBuoni apologies if I came across quite negatively. I’ve found the whole process frustrating. I hope it works out for your DD and thanks for the info on successes it gives me more perspective.

Not negative at all PaddingtonPaddington, I just found it crazy that so many applications are rejected once then twice and are finally accepted on appeal. It made me wonder if this was a deliberate strategy to put people off claiming.

Exactly that I think @ZittiEBuoni and its the same with EHCPs (I can't remember who else on here's DC had one). DS's EHCP is in theory still active, they haven't written to me to give notice of ceasing it, I'd like to keep it ticking over a bit longer just in case uni doesn't work out for some reason.

Any Notts lot actually phoned or emailed or planning to, or heard back, re complaining of the meal change. You can't charge for 19 meals and then suddenly announce its now 17.

DD has brought back a cough which was nice of her. We are now attempting to turn back the admin juggernaut. Should be straightforward once SFE receive confirmation from NTU that she has withdrawn, then they will reclaim her first maintenance payment that ironically arrived in her account today. Waiting to hear how much Student Roost will charge, though we have had two verbal confirmations that it’s just the week she was there. Fingers crossed.

Dd just has a (wonky) grey blind...we do have teal curtains in the main bedroom at home though! The flowery digital photograph windows dressing is bizarre !

Got a WhatsApp message from Dd today 'I love it here' hopefully the boyfriend thing was a blip and now she can start being busy.

Part of my 1st Oct reset is to stop worrying about her so much and take a step back. Also drink more water, socialise, lose weight, look after skin, develop my career etc etc etc

I'm starting back with The Organised Mum Method ...currently at decluttering stage.

Glad to have amused so many of you with the beautiful flower picture curtains
DS almost seems attached to them😄

He seems to be happy so far. He has met lots of people and been socialising. His communication is almost monosyllabic unless he wants something but says he’s happy so that makes me happy.

@Oblomov22 I haven't yet - was trying to work out what to say, as re my earlier post, when we actually received the contract (in April) it does mention what's on offer now - but it just doesn't highlight the fact that it's a change from when we first looked at the website in 2021 (my earlier post at 9.02 today says more).

Have you heard back?

Just reading a post on WIWIKAU where loads of parents seem to think a student should put up with a completely collapsed mattress:

'It's not the Hilton'

'It's all part of being a student'

And the MN fave 'Buy a mattress protector'!

So...teach your kids to out up with high rents for substandard accommodation.

This is a bit off brief for WIWIKAU!

DS has finally scored himself some free stuff so thats made me strangely happy.

DS seems to have had a good day of induction stuff apart from missing the introduction to languages. I'm not surprised as he's trying to juggle two clashing timetables which include some irrelevant stuff. He bumped into an old school friend who moved for sixth form and is going clubbing with him and some other law students tonight. He's also shown interest in far too many societies including Canoe Polo 🤷 I bet he ends up just playing football. And his highlight of the day was free pizza 🍕

And my highlight of the day was DS actually calling me and chatting 😊

No @Heifer I haven't heard back. But that enquiry form response time is 5 days I think.

I too don't know what's to say to them. But I'm properly narked, really pissed off by it. Feel I've been tricked, feels so sly, sneaky and underhand. We now have photos thanks to mummy and popcorn to prove it did say 19, but now 17. But is that enough? Should be, shouldn't it?

I somehow missed that they had photos! Can you repost it or tell me where please. I will think what to say tomorrow and write a complaint. It's basically an additional £310 that wasn't budgeted for.
Would be interested to know what you did say to them to get me started though ;-)

@mummyinbeds & @omnishambles sounds like a good day (love that you got to chat to your DS). I'm still waiting to hear from DD. She was fully booked up all day with her course stuff so is doing the Fair stuff tomorrow. She said she would call me after dinner but heard nothing yet and I'm guessing she will be going out clubbing tonight...

Nottingham - did anyone DD/DS get their student loan today? I haven't had the chance to ask DD yet but it's due today I believe.

19 v 17.