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

Huge apologies, my last post was addressed to @DontCallMeBaby 😱!

Ouch Fiddlersgreen, that’s rubbish timing to have done that to him.

Fiddlers what a horrible thing for her to do. She could have at least done it a few days before he went to uni. Your poor boy.

@Oblomov22 Brunch is much later at the weekend, and does seem to cost £5.00 which we weren't expecting.

Re lunches and lack of Student ID cards, there was an email apologising for cards being late (problem with the printers) and they have put things in place in the mean time. For lunch it mentions to use their allowance through the "meal card" tile on the MyNottingham App. Simply scan your QR code at the checkout.

@crazycrofter glad your DD had a good time out with mine. I don't expect to hear back from her until much later but she knows I would check find my iphone when I woke up this morning.

Will be back later to catch up on all the posts.

Welcome to @Fifipop185! It's great to hear about DC following their own very different paths.

@Fiddlersgreen, ouch. Your poor DS! I know you can't say this to him yet, but if it was going to happen, then now is probably better than later? Oof.

More communication from my DD. She spent last night baking without kitchen scales (!!) with predictably mixed results, but knows that she needs another Wilko trip soon. Today she and another illustrator are going to spend the afternoon drawing animal skeletons at the Museum of Zoology (as you do). Apparently it has a very nice café. Rather different from my own uni weekends.

I've found you all.
I was wondering why there were no posts on the old thread!
@EalingGreen that timing sucks.
I hope everyone has moved in safely & happily this weekend. No updates here, as ds's communication is woeful but I know he's alive, as I check his Whats App.

Welcome, Fifipop185, fascinating to hear about your daughter's career path.

We are off to Bristol for a family event today, just found out that most of the roads we would normally use are closed for a half-marathon, so won't be able to do the whistle-stop city tour we would have done for dd2, who has Bristol at the top of her UCAS list so far.

@ealingwestmum @NCTDN @PhotoDad thanks, yes rubbish timing. I think a few days ago or even a few days from now would have been better than the day after he arrived.
I can’t stand the thought of him crying all alone in his room. I’ve offered to go there but he said no. I was holding it together pretty well until now!

@Fifipop185 such an important job your DD is doing, I have a friend in the industry, it’s a real calling.

@Oblomov22 DS also ring me yesterday about it and then forwarded me the email, they have to download the app and use a tile on there to scan a QR code until the cards are sorted. DS went into town for a subway because he couldn’t get anything to eat yesterday morning. I swear that I read that they get 19 meals a week included, I know I read that because I was checking it specifically. When did that change? That extra charge has annoyed me if true.

Welcome @Fifipop185 what an interesting route your DD has taken, clearly she has a good role model in her dad. I hope she hasn’t been too affected by her first call out.

@Fruitygal thanks. I'm sure M&S would be a good choice. But our nearest one would take an hour to get there, park etc. that would be ok for a full day. But most supermarkets seem to have small shifts. I'm contracted for a min. of 3 shifts a week of 4 hours each. Then schools hols my hours double to cover staff holidays. My previous jobs I wasn't needed school hols. So this is very different. The national trust job sounds great. I used to drive horse drawn carriages at weddings too, a long time ago now.

@ealingwestmum I'm glad it isn't just me who didn't go to university. Stupidly from year 9 or 3rd year as it was then, I didn't bother with school. I dropped down 3 sets. I wanted to work with horses and as far as I was concerned I didn't need GCSEs. I took GCSEs the first year they came out, 50% coursework back then, but I didn't do any, I did a few pieces for art, then my RS teacher suggested I stayed in lunchtimes to catch up on RS coursework, which I did. No other teachers were encouraging like her. I think these days it would be different, teachers are a lot more encouraging. We didn't have a 6th form at school and people seemed to be going to work from school. Ds1 was thinking of doing his biology degree at Harper adams. When I saw all the animal based courses in his prospectus, I wished I'd known about that kind of thing in my day. Hindsight and all that.

Ds2 messaged last night. Home alone again. He says he's reading his book or watching stuff on his laptop. Doesn't want to go clubbing. I asked if there were other events apart from clubbing. His reply was I'm fine mum, don't worry. I've met lots of friends I just don't want to go out at night. So hopefully he's ok. He has always had a large group of friends and gets on well with anyone, so I'm surprised he's staying home. Unlike ds1 and ds3 who only have a small group of good friends.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn thanks for the info re the Nottingham app and lunch payments. DS won't have read his emails. I did know that it was only 17 meals this year even though some bits of the website still say 19. DS will probably never make it to breakfast. He has a supply of cereal in his room as he tends to snack during the night - to make up for missing breakfast 🙃

Does your DS know there's a Subway in the Portland Building?

@PhotoDad that "fiscal event" was quite a political moment, which has made a lot of people uncomfortable, so it is not surprising that people are having political discussions. And as touched on in this thread before, at the beginning of the year friendships are all over the place before they settle down. I hope she knows that she has probably met a few friends for life and lots of aquaintances.

@icanbewhatiwant lots of people enjoy at least parts of their jobs, but more probably "work to live". There are definitely jobs you can get without any particular skills such as my DS getting his Assistant Paediatric Respiratory Physiologist job before he even had A level results, and he loves it. The reason he was successful was probably because it was a 7 month contract, so competition was not too bad. It is obviously harder if you live in a rural community, but if you are willing look at temporary contracts, age is less relevant and competition lower. I know that jobs working with horses are often super competitive and poorly paid.

@HarrietDVane I've been looking for posters with dc at Warwick on this thread, so hello! Glad to hear DD's room was very nice and the drop went smoothly. DS was also dropped off yesterday and like you, the room was far far better than we imagined he would get. So far we have the following updates:

Lost room keys - but given new ones
A washing cycle costs - £3.60!
A reply to my text at bedtime to say, 'goodnight, hope you're having a nice evening?' to which he replied at 2am this morning, 'Good night'.

@Fiddlersgreen oof that is so harsh.

@Monkey2001 Yes, and I gather that the conversation sprawled into religious/social views where it was clear that most of the group were very liberal and one or two were extremely traditional/conservative. I'm sure that they will negotiate some way of getting along, or drift away into slightly different groups!

Laundry! DD has a washer in her house kitchen -- which is free! But no dryer. She is leaving things to air but might fork out for the dryers in the uni laundrette in due course. I think that they also have a washing line in their little back garden.

Who is still left to move in? Just Oxbridge folk?

@icanbewhatiwant do you like any elements of retail? I'm wondering if a change if environment might help, moving into clothing retail may give opportunities for development in other areas. Are there any rural type countrywide shops around, or horsey shops ! ?

@Fifipop185 there are so many jobs we don't think about until we need them! Anyone else remembering William and Mary - lovely series with Martin Clunes about a midwife and undertaker? Good on her!

@Fiddlersgreen what a cow to do that to him over the phone at such a time! Sounds like he is well rid of her, just hope his sadness does not make it harder to make new friends.

@icanbewhatiwant if you don't have GCSEs, would you consider doing an OU Foundation course? I think you get it free if you don't have a degree and having an academic qualification would help you get jobs and you might enjoy it.

Lancaster are still to move @photodad. Our ds goes next week..I've just been reading up on everyone's posts and the things to come,.good and bad...sorry to hear that some are having a rough ride,.it really does seem to be luck of the draw with flatmates.
I have a question for parents of boys if anyone is reading this. What are they wearing on their feet???? Honestly my DS does not care one bit but I've started to think he might need more than his sliders and his one pair of trainers!!!

er sliders, one pair of going out trainers, one pair of exercise trainers and a pair of smart brown shoes in case of interviews etc.

Just to clarify, OU degree not exactly free - you get student loan, but obviously will bit end up paying it back. You might even be entitled to some maintenance loan.

Grrr, that posted too early. No maintenance loan for OU unless remote due to poor health. And should say will not end up paying

@Monkey2001 (and @icanbewhatiwant) The OU also offers "access" courses which are free if income is under £25k.

@Sallyingon DS has sliders, two pairs of trainers and a pair of smart shoes (only because we have a family christening near uni in a month or so and we're picking him up on the way).

Uncanny!😂