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

Dd got very drunk last night and was drunk whatsapping me...it made me wonder where the money spent on singing lessons went.... it was raining so she gave me a few verses of 'it's raining men' naturally 😏

Some really nice news from people, although I've only skimmed the thread to catch up.

DD has taken to sending us a daily update of some of the art she's done. I'll admit this is preferable to being sent worksheets or essays or lab-reports. They are given very short deadlines to sketch out a piece, as prep for the world of freelance design. I won't spam you all too much, but as an example, this one was "complete the scene around the photo of the car" as part of her Digital Art class, using only a mouse rather than a graphics tablet to stop them getting detail-obsessed.

DS turned up to a social policy lecture after having done hours of reading only to told it was cancelled. Apparently, social policy is 'next semester'. He was annoyed.

Seems like the much maligned NSS is fairly reliable . Lots of students criticised the organisation...

@CinnamonOrangeCremeBrulee and @Fiddlersgreen DSs would definitely not want us with them!!! We are more classical, so I think their GFs will go with them. I could only get seated tickets so we will try again tomorrow morning for standing tix.

@PhotoDad . That is wonderful. You must be very proud

Great picture @PhotoDad , fun and quirky as well as being nicely executed. My DS got creative last night and made a lemon drizzle cake to take to work whilst I was on Mother in Law duty. They have a special room for a Cystic Fibrosis clinic which means they all hang out together more on a Thursday, so sometimes people take cake in. He is learning about the importance of cake in team building!

Not hearing much from DS now, compared to the beginning of the week when he was sending pics of all his meals.
He finally got his student loan today which is a relief.
He has been out every night I believe and had not mentioned the ex-girlfriend to us since Sunday. Doesn’t want to talk about any of it.
I don’t think he has attempted any laundry yet!

@PhotoDad great pic!

Ds messaged last night telling me about his electives. He spent all yesterday, last night and today thinking about them, he chose law and justice and truth and morality. So sent choices off at 3pm only to be told that were both full. So he's not happy. They've put him on a psychology elective. He doesn't want to do that. He's not sure what else he has. He will find out tomorrow. All the modules he wanted to do were all full too. So he's not doing very well.

@Fiddlersgreen DD has a washing machine in her house but not a dryer. Currently coping by airing things, but when she needs to do a big wash I think she'll have to investigate an on-campus laundry room. (At least it's not far to carry stuff.)

Rubbish that elective modules are full, @icanbewhatiwant.

Thanks for comments on her picture, we get sent a handful like that every day which is genuinely a real treat and a bonus of having a DC in the visual arts. Left to her own devices, DD draws incredibly detailed scenes, so being told in class to tone it down is exactly what she needs to stretch her range. She would love to break into illustrating childrens' books... I might be biased but I think she has the talent and drive. She's now getting the training (including modules later on about the business side of invoices, taxes, etc). However, it's a highly competitive field. (Aren't they all??)

@Piggywaspushed I'm a fan of the NSS. The info on "discoveruni" is about the only place to get details at the level of individual courses! Especially for small subjects, they otherwise get lumped together in very odd ways for league tables etc. Sorry to hear about that level of disorganisation, though.

Great picture!
What's NSS?

@NCTDN Thanks! It's the National Student Survey. All graduating students are asked to fill in a questionnaire. Of course it might not be completely reliable but it's the only way of seeing feedback about individual courses rather than the whole uni. Data is on discoveruni.gov.uk

@PhotoDad Love it!

Do has been given “the best piano teacher ever”

He booked a grand piano practise room today and video called me from it to show me him playing in it.

DDs WhatsApping seems to be slightly lessening so I'm hoping that she is beginning to feel a bit more settled. She hasn't complained about anything so I'm hoping she will be ok. We've always chatted a lot about her day, so in many ways it seems quite normal.

She's enjoyed her first lectures, seems to be managing cooking (not much experience before), has been to some dance taster sessions and wants to join properly, been shopping, organised a supermarket delivery with some flatmates, coped with being poorly. She has yet to tackle laundry - been there nearly 2 weeks so must be getting more urgent! After the first couple of Freshers events, she doesn't seem to have gone 'out' out, although did go bowling with flatmates one evening. I didn't think clubbing would be her thing, so hopefully she'll find another social outlet soon.

That all sounds positive @Seeline . Because she’s in catered dd forget to take any cutlery. She sent me a pic last night of her eating a late night pot noodle with tweezers 😂

I spent yesterday morning trying to play it cool & not fuss. DD was still feeling really unwell the night before & DS was off line (unheard of). Thankfully her antibiotics kicked have now kicked in & it turned out that his phone broke (he got in touch for money to get it repaired). Feeling relieved, I started my reboot 2 days early & returned to running club for the first time in months. I struggled but felt great afterwards!

@mummyinbeds Sorry to hear DS is ill. IIRC in catered if they are going to miss a meal they can order something to be kept for them, like a baked potato or similar: not the full evening meal or choices, but at least something hot that can be collected. If he's too ill to come out of his room maybe someone could deliver this to him? Sorry a bit vague but I know there is something in place for if people need to miss meals due to societies, sports etc, so I imagine it would apply for illness too. Can he message his residential advisor team?

So lovely to hear all the news : brilliant picture @PhotoDad - very emotionally engaging too! And the grand sounds fab @Comefromaway well done on the run @boxcar - has anyone else managed their first step of the reset yet?!?
Poor old Ds rang yesterday having problems with his phone - looks like there’s an issue with the battery or the charge port. Spent the evening googling and emailing places to fix his phone and digging out his old one to send up - of course all his uni stuff has two factor authentication, and he’s relying on his phone to find his way around so he was wobbly! So typical - he’s never had a single phone issue before!!

Dd's blood test results came back - low Vitamin D (unsurprising for somebody who lurks in her room with the curtains closed most of the time) and we're to go back today for further tests. Hoping this isn't a bad sign.

That's so funny. I've heard several professional singers on drunken nights out over the years. You do wonder!!!!

Sorry to hear of all the illness. It is so hard when they are away from home and ill.

Have all the dc's had their maintenance loans yet? Ds's said 16th sept when I looked on his account before he left. He hasn't received it yet. His first rent payment is set up for direct debit in October. Dh has just taken some money out of his savings account incase we have to pay it. I guess there's a couple of weeks yet for it to come through.

Yes, ds has had his.

DD only had hers on Monday - a week later than her schedule had advised. Although she had an email saying that due to the emergency bank holiday, it would actually be paid the Friday before that. Good job she wasn't totally reliant on receiving it!

To be fair, my DSs has always arrived on the day stated - and his arrived early on the Friday this time.