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 has sent me her timetable:

Mon 3-5
Tue 9-11 6-7
Wed 9-11 11-1
Thu 5-7
Fri 5-6

She’s far from an early bird so the late lectures will suit in some ways. The flip side is that only having an incentive to get out of bed in the morning two days a week might not be helpful.

I don’t know how Wednesday will work! At least they’re core components of her course (the Thursday class is an unrelated elective) so everyone will be in the same boat. Anyway she’s had nearly two weeks of teaching so it’s clearly working somehow.

Where she’s been really lucky is that the society she wants to get really involved with meets Monday and Wednesday evenings, the only ones that would work for her with those late lectures. I think there are no lectures Wednesday afternoons, but Monday is a happy coincidence.

The late on Friday is annoying. The first leg of the journey home on the train is Avanti West Coast, who don’t release weekend tickets until goodness knows when. Without the late class she could set off on Friday.

@ScarlettDarling I honestly couldn’t do it in a day- we’ll done you!
DD has an en-suite room and also has a fridge.There are tea rooms with kettles, toasters microwaves and sinks but I’m hoping she’ll eat in hall too as the cost of food is heavily subsidised
DD wanted to start mingling so I took that as a win although got a bit weepy when nearing home
I got a text at 2.30 this morning to say she was back in her room 😂
Sounds like they’ve both had a good start!

@KingscoteStaff Something to bear in mind when making the decision is that most non-medics will finish in three years so perhaps there is more to gain socially long term from the medic team - especially if she has to dip in and out over the years depending on workload.

Dd did make some good non-medic friends but the last few years she was house-sharing and socialising with medics only. And even then she did not see some of her classmates much if they were in different hospitals for placements.

If your Dd is planning to intercalate, that’s a good opportunity to have more time for hobbies and sports.

Had a long teary zoom call with DS last night. He screen shared so I could show him all the stuff he's unaware of on Moodle, his emails, his timetable etc. He's had his head in the sand and is now totally overwhelmed and still feeling really ill. I've suggested he contacts student support but don't know if he will. I sent him the contact details and got a thank you so you never know. He's sort of agreed to talk the day through with me each night this week to get him into a routine. I can help with the law stuff but I'm totally lost with how the French stuff works - he has workshops and oral classes and clashing lectures.
And to top it off, the fire alarm went off this morning so he couldn't get breakfast and hadn't eaten at all yesterday because his throat hurt too much 😟

Oh mummyinbeds, sounds like a horrible run of being overwhelmed compounded by being poorly. I hope the day gets better today for him.

And to yours too BM, hope feeling better and is able to catch up.

Carcinogenic stir fry anyone? 😱 The challenges of induction jobs…

@ealingwestmum that is why DS is catered 😱

Poor ds @mummyinbeds . Is he in Rutland too? Has he been able to get meals?

There’s such a lot of illness going round. Ds missed 3 days of sixth form the week before last with a covid-type bug (he didn’t want to test), was only really properly better by last Wed and now he’s got a sore throat and achy body again.

Notts people, according to the uni Twitter feed there is a problem with accessing timetables on the app but they can find them here instead timetabling.nottingham.ac.uk

(Although DS says his is working ok)

I found DDs timetable under her Moodle late last night as wasn't working anywhere else.

@crazycrofter yes he's in Rutland. He missed a few meals mid week and again yesterday. And breakfast today. He's made it to his lectures this morning so hopefully will get something to eat when he goes to Boots for some cough mix/throat lozenges. He must be starving judging by how full my cupboards and fridge still are without him here 🤣

@mummyinbeds poor thing. I hope he starts to improve soon. Has he made any friends or has he just been feeling too unwell?

@mummyinbeds it sounds like you've really helped DS, it can be overwhelming to see everything that needs doing but having someone to talk it through with will make it feel more manageable to him. Definitely encourage him to get on a group chat on Snapchat or Whatsapp etc. with people on his course, someone on there will be super organised and it will help. I really hope he starts to feel better soon, glad he got to lectures today.

@ealingwestmum that looks like most of pans at home when DH cooks...

@crazycrofter he's made a few friends on his corridor and bumped into someone who he was at school with from year 9-11. He's yet to find anyone from his course but hopefully that will change this week. He's fairly quiet until he knows people so I am a bit worried for him. He's missing his close knit bunch of friends who are now spread across the UK, US and Italy 😢

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn thank you. I did tell him to look for the most organised looking student he could find and offer to buy them coffee 😁 If your DS tells you a weird student, coughing and croaking, asked him to go for coffee, you know who it is🤣

He's done well to make some contacts already, despite feeling ill. It will get easier and it's natural to miss old friends.

Dd has always had that approach to life - make sure you've got a friend who's organised/in the know and rely on them for information! It seems to have worked for her so far! I remember when she did silver DofE - I hoped it would help her with her sense of direction, but all the route planning was left to the bossy/competent member of the group. I was never quite sure what role dd played, other than being nice to chat to! I think she did some washing up too....

@mummyinbeds there's no way he'd approach my DS if he was looking for someone who looks organised! He looks more like he would be in need of a lawyer than on his way to becoming one! 😂

Has he got his book list sorted (for law at least)? DS tells me the library are selling them and should be in stock today.

Dd has always had that approach to life - make sure you've got a friend who's organised/in the know and rely on them

Mine too - even in reception she used to get a girl with the same name to write it on DD's paintings etc for her. I don't think she bothered to write her own name on her work until Y1 🤦‍♀️

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn I told DS to go to the book shop in the Portland Building. I'll give him a heads-up about the Library. I've told him which law ones he needs. The only French one I know about is the £140 one. That tipped him over the edge. He is of the view that they should all be online (minimal effort required).

When I started uni I got chatting to a girl in the registration queue. She was doing the same joint honours as me and was very clever and organised. She was a great source of academic information in the early weeks and I introduced her to drinking and partying 🤣

DS has a full day today until 5pm, then MMA club from 5-8 😯 I had a text this morning asking if mayo goes in the fridge, then a question on how much mayo to put in his tuna & sweetcorn pasta.... he's making a packed lunch! I honestly can't believe it!

I’d cry if DD had done that to our pans JustHere.

mine is the go to person for organisation, missed lecture notes etc. She’s not called Monica for nothing ;)

She’s not called Monica for nothing ;) 😂😂

😂 @singingstones @ealingwestmum Dd even managed to get hold of someone else’s revision notes for one of her A Levels! Apparently he was charging other people, but because she sat next to him she got them for free!

@heifer dd just told me she’s planning on mainly hand washing her clothes 😂

A careers advisor from the local MH service called dd today to discuss employment options. I was hoping this would provide a few insights but so far very general - 'have you thought of apprenticeships?' - like the standard Careers office assembly in year 10. I'm hoping they will start to offer more useful suggestions once they get to know her better.

I never asked her what her quid pro quo was Crazy, some things you just have to turn a blind eye to!

I completely get the hand washing; it’s bloody expensive to uni wash if you haven’t made full loads with either whites or darks! Never had the guts to use colour catchers; DH is a sensitive skin soul where only non bio is allowed…