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

Good luck @craggyrat junior and the other Oxbridgers!

Thanks - good luck to everyone for the weekend. Lancaster too I think are tomorrow.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn DS has the same 9am lecture on Monday. And a French lecture at exactly the same time. I'm not sure how that's supposed to work 🤷 He doesn't have anything on Fridays for the first few weeks though. He does have a 15 minute walk between back to back lectures which will be interesting. I'm sure timetabling is a nightmare task but some of his seems bonkers.

DD is working on her personal statement. It doesn't seem like a whole year since our Corona cohort were doing this. I'm quite impressed by what's she's done so far, with no nagging or tantrums (I'm sure that will come when she tries to fit it on the UCAS application)

Good luck @craggyrat

Good luck to the movers this weekend. Hope the rain stops for you. I'm half way between Oxford and Cambridge and it's horrible today. Maybe Lancaster is drier 🤔

Thankyou @EspeciallyDivided. Waiting on a response from CAMHS before deciding what to do next!
On the better side, DD1 has settled well and seems to be coping with everything. York have been great at providing support in different forms - both departmental and uni support services. Although adjusting to life with random strangers is taking a bit more time!

Good luck to those moving in this weekend! Hope the weather clears up for you!

Good luck to the next (last?) wave of movers!

@mummyinbeds thats going to be fun to manage! 😂. DSs Friday afternoon ones are in completely different buildings so not sure how they are meant to teleport between the two. Looks like everyone is going to be late for the 5pm one…

Good luck to this weekend’s wave of movers, hope all goes smoothly and the weather cheers up! It’s flippin freezing here and raining heavily but I’m still holding out on the heating. I will not be defeated before mid Oct at the earliest (unless it snows!).

It’s absolutely foul here in South Wales - cold, windy and pouring with rain. I’ve lit the log burner and spent a couple of hours making jam with our homegrown raspberries.

Sorry to hear about poorly DCs. It’s really tough to be ill for the first time away from home; I hope flatmates can rally around to make sure everyone’s fed and comfortable.

DD has been messaging over the last couple of days, as she needed help with laundry and food shopping. She’s much less confrontational on WhatsApp, and has at least engaged with us, so I’m feeling a bit better about the situation.
She seems to be enjoying her course and is excited because they’ve been asked to get into groups and write a screenplay.

boxcar, do you think all the English students have lectures together, including those doing joint subjects?
If so, I’m guessing our DDs might have come across each other. She’s studying Robinson Crusoe and Pride and Prejudice.

Good luck to all this weekend’s movers. Are you the last?
DD is settling in nicely and has thrown herself into a few societies, pushing herself outside her comfort zone. That being said, she had a great night last night wearing a bed sheet as a toga on a pub crawl with the history society.I’ve recommended a quieter weekend as I think it’s when she’s tired she more prone to a little wobble. She agreed and said she’ll try! I really do think they’re all doing so well and have overcome so much. Well done to them, and us.

@mummyinbeds a Covid silver lining is that I think lots of lectures are now routinely available on line, so much easier to catch up on than pre-Covid.

@Monkey2001 I hope he can find whichever he misses online. It's annoying that it's his very first lecture for each subject. It's not even a joint honours course, it's a specific degree programme with no optional modules, so I don't know why they've scheduled it like this. He hasn't met anyone doing Law/French Law yet but I'm pretty sure there must be a fair few of them 🤷

Good luck to all those moving in over the weekend!

I had a lovely surprise this afternoon - both my DCs video called me at the same time! They'd been chatting to each other and then called me to join too. So lovely to see them like that.

Good luck to our last lot of movers.

DD's assignment this weekend is to draw street scenes of Cambridge life. So some new Cambridge Uni freshers might be immortalised by her...

ALSO she actually collected her repeat-prescription meds from Boots today! I am so used to the NHS going wrong that this has left me speechless.

Timetabling: @mummyinbeds, @JustHereWithMyPopcorn, and others... that sounds rubbish. I used to do the timetable for a large school, and it was a nightmare. I get the impression that uni departments don't speak to each other enough to co-ordinate things properly, and that's a real pain for join honours courses. Bah.

Just catching up as I've been away with work this week. DS hasn't had his loan yet - the silver lining is that he's had to get in touch to ask for money
He then seems to want to show me where my money is going so I received texts / videos in the early hours from an Abba night. Hoping for a FaceTime tomorrow.
Glad to hear most DC are ok and beginning to settle. Proper work starts for DS on Monday.

Good luck to all the Oxbridge and Lancaster movers.

DS has received his grant.

He texted tonight and we ended up talking for the first time since we dropped him off. He's doing ok. Says his face aches from so much smiling to engage with people. Getting on well though with a couple of his flat mates and the flat below. Main grump the fixed shower head is at the level of his shoulders.

Evening all, foul here too, the heating came on (it’s on on a thermostat all year round) and we have lit the woodburner too. Just about to set up the heated airer in DS’s room as no chance of line drying this weekend. Reboot-wise I have significantly upped my fruit and veg intake and found myself a gym buddy for motivation.

@crazycrofter thank you for your thoughts re history, it’s helpful to hear from someone who has done it (DH and I did science which is a totally different ball game).

@icanbewhatiwant the full title of DS’s course is Wildlife Conservation and Countryside Management (what a mouthful). He did a BTEC in countryside management in 6th form and has enjoyed all the practical work and outdoor nature of it.

@PhotoDad great drawing and good news re prescription.

Timetabling - DS’s is good with all day free Friday and Monday morning free but he has slotted in his DSA mentoring on both those mornings. DD’s 6th form one is a shocker though, a day with just one class in the middle which is a drag as her journey is fairly long, another couple of days with huge gaps in the middle

Because of you lot I text ds and asked him to send me his timetable. He has 13+ hours of lectures. 2 days that end at 6pm. That was unheard of in my day.

I can't remember how many hours I did. But I was in most days, all day, with language 4 times at least, plus listening and study time in labs for language, and 6 subjects such as Russian economics, philosophy, literature, etc. But I was always finished by say 4pm.

DS has lectures from 5 til 7 several times! Crazy hours for lecturers to be working.

Ds’s is very spread out. He is in every single day but has big gaps in between morning and evening. Friday he has nothing until 2.30pm. Thursday he has 9.30-10.30 then 4.45pm - 5.45pm piano lesson.

DS1 is very happy to have no 9:00s this year!

DS2's GF (Nottingham Maths and Physics) has over 20 hours/week contact time, that is more than twice what I had as a student and more than she had in sixth form.