Thread 44 GCSE Covid Cohort - Countdown to Christmas & New Year

[OrangeCinnamonLatte]

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 advice to be had

DSs sixth firm started the long lessons with Covid. They kept it. Popular with teachers and many students. DS really liked them.

I do wonder with all of this changing stuff for teen body clocks ( which I'm not sure us completely proven) what happens to the ones who are perfectly OK with getting up early! I guess they just adjust.

I'm always astonished when I get emails from kids sent after midnight. I tell them off( this dies include year 9s)! But when I get one at 7am, I'm even more surprised. And they are definitely different types of student.

I’m still in bed and so is DD so that’ll give you some idea about us! DH has been up a while, he doesn’t sleep well plus the cat will have yelled at him before 8.

I’d like to be a lark, I think I’d get more done, but I always feel terrible first thing. DD has just had to ask her uni could they put her back in her original Korean class as a reorg had meant she had all her contact hours stuffed into two days. Intentionally done so she and her friend didn’t have to be in Monday to Friday! I can’t believe that was even a consideration. It wouldn’t have been good for her and she knows it, she’d have struggled to do anything on her days ‘off’.

We’ve got another fun one to try to sort out. She had withdrawal for exams at A level and just before, and hasn’t yet got the same sorted for uni. She knows she’s left it too late for January exams. She’s been sent round in circles with various forms about disability, and now has to do an assessment online - but it’s for dyslexia, no one thinks she’s dyslexic. We have the letter from school re the adjustments (she had rest breaks and a prompter too but didn’t really use either) but she doesn’t have a diagnosis of anything. I’m hoping she can actually speak to someone when she’s back as all this form filling isn’t giving me a warm fuzzy feeling at all.

Definitely night owls here. DD is still in bed. I got up early but only because MIL is on her way and the house is a tip. DS managed to get up at 9.05 for me to take him to work at 9.15. He was grumbling about it being against his human rights to have to work outside in the rain 😂 DH got up for a zoom call at about 10. He's wearing a shirt and boxers 🤦 Even as babies I had to wake both of mine up for feeds/nursery/to go anywhere. Neither of them can wake up with an alarm clock.

@DontCallMeBaby we're having similar issues with uni student support forms. We seem to be going round in circles and the doctor sent a flipping text message to add to the applications rather than completing and signing the form uni provided. The reason DS needs support is because he can't handle stuff like this!

Amazingly ds has got up at 6.30 every day for work this week (even the day he had a migraine - to ring in sick). He has to clock in before 8 and it’s the first time he’s ever taken time keeping seriously! Knowing that the ‘high ups’ check is an amazing motivator when it involves money! He’s always been adamant that he’ll be different at work when it ‘matters’, whenever I’ve lectured him about all his late marks at school…

Dd still in bed, its the food situ I worry about. I suspect she is awake and just scrolling on her phone.

Ds1 is being most unpleasant. Staying up to 3am. Then asking for shower boost on hive late afternoon. Not wanting to eat our food. Not putting anything on shopping list for what he does want to eat. Unpleasant to ds2. Dh persuaded them to go to lunch, walked into town, restaurant closed, so he left ds2 there to buy me a bunch of flowers, and walked home on his own.
We were supposed to go to Elvis at the Indian, Dh ill, both boys didn't want to go. I told him today he could go back to Notts if he preferred, which he said he couldn't.

I knew some students have trouble adjusting to coming home, but I didn't think he'd be one of them. I'm actually quite sad.

@Oblomov22 I feel for you. DD has been lovely for the first few days, but I think the novelty of being home has worn off after a week and she's now bored. She sticks to our rules though.

That does sound hard @Oblomov22 . I've heard people say that the first holiday from uni is the worst for changed behaviour and difficulty adjusting to home, hope things improve.

@mummyinbeds ugh how frustrating … on DD’s side is that for once I think she won’t just let things slide as she KNOWS she does better in a separate room, so this is important. Against her - everything feels very geared towards students with a diagnosis. I get that you can’t give students extra time just cos they ask, it would be an unfair advantage to someone who didn’t actually need it. But a smaller room doesn’t feel like an unfair advantage. I guess she just has to keep pushing at it and see what happens.

@Monkey2001 all mine will come on a dog walk as long as their siblings aren't walking too. Ds3 won't walk if dh is walking either. Silly lot! Ds2 is the only one who would walk them on his own. Ds1 wouldn't incase he had to pick up a 💩

@crazycrofter if it's genetic I'm not sure where the dc's got their genes. I was at the stables as soon as it was light from age 14 onwards (paper round first) dh worked on farms from 13 so we've both had to get up early most our lives. I can't think that I've ever had a lie in beyond 9am. With the exception of being shut in my room when I had covid. All 3 of my dc's will sleep until at least lunchtime now if they don't need to get up. As toddlers they were all up at 6am. all were such bad sleepers as babies. It seems funny now that I used to be so tired as they didn't sleep.

Ds2 wants to go back to Sussex soon. He says he wants to use the library. But his flatmates aren't going back until 22nd as lectures start 23rd. I said surely you don't want to be all on your own. He thinks he's more likely to work down there, but nothing is stopping him working here, he's asleep. He did manage to stay awake until lunchtime today. I know he was asleep when I called him for dinner at 6pm. he said he wasn't, but I could tell as he was grumpy. He went back up after eating, I'm fairly sure he went back to bed. Then he will get up at 2am again.

When DD1 used to come home from uni she used to reset over a few days to a more normal body clock. Then she’d go back again and ruin it! 😆

DD sticks to "normal" hours even at uni; bedtime around 10-11 pm, gets up around 7-8 am. DS (Y11) does go a little nocturnal in the holidays but only by a couple of hours. (I've always been an early riser...)

@Oblomov22 that sounds tough. It's not fair of them to be unpleasant at this time of year really.

Ds has made the decision to travel back to Sussex with dh's dd on 28th. I know he spends a lot of time asleep, but he's so nice to have around (when he's around) compared to ds1 and ds3. So I don't really want him to go back. He always messages me from Sussex to tell me he is on his own and bored when his housemates go home for the weekend. So I'm not sure why he's so desperate to get back when there's no one in his flat. None of his mates round here are doing anything over new year either, so he's not seeing any of them.

Is there a love interest? Possibly an International Student he hasn't told you about?
Does seem a bit early. Will the libraries even be open? A lot close estates between Xmas and New Year.

@OrangeCinnamonLatte he says no one he knows will be there. His books are in his room there, the library is only shut 31st and 1st (plus over Christmas when he's home) so he wants to get back. He also has dh's dd nearby if he wants some company. Dh was going to take him back after New Year's Eve and stay with his dd and family a few nights. But Ds won't wait that long.

Ds has also taken up running again, he told me he will die by the time he's 40 if he doesn't start exercising, I told him getting out of bed might help, so he's been on 2 runs one yesterday and one today, he's going to continue that when he gets to Sussex. He suffers with knee and hip pain when running, so prefers cross country running, not sure there's much of that on campus. I'm trying to persuade him to stay longer but it's not working.

DS's friend is going back to Warwick on the 28th.

Just been out for our normal christingle, Christmas Eve meal. Italian. Both ds's were perfectly pleasant. Dh warned them beforehand that he wouldn't tolerate anything less. I am now in bed. Starter, main, 2 glasses of wine and a pornstar Martini and I am done.

@Oblomov22 Glad you had a lovely evening.

Right I am ready. Except my parents have cancelled plans to visit relatives down south after boxing day so I am left with a huge bunch of presents here that will be very late and I don't want to post them as I bought bulky and bottles etc. We were supposed to be out as a family at friends last night but that got cancelled due to covid, as has the meal at different friends on Tuesday.

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas!

Covid still ruining plans

Oblomov, I have drunk the same amount of the same drinks as you! At SIL's house though, no fancy restaurants.

Having a final glass of the chardonnay dd2's new bf very sweetly bought us before bed.

Dd1 (Covid cohort child) is working up to finishing her wrapping and I want her to go to bed before I hang her stocking on the mantelpiece because OBVIOUSLY she doesn't know at the age of 19 that it's me that fills it and not FC .

Merry Christmas to all of you and I hope you have lovely days with your dc.

Ds1's Christmas present to me. Hr says he thought I'd enjoy it and it's very good!

Merry Xmas everyone

Hope you're all having a jolly time? I got a lovely handbag from DS2, and a neck massage thingy from DS1 . @Oblomov22 I'm sure that'll be an ever so interesting read!

Gardening shoes and a beautiful scarf from DH, ski socks from DS and tickets for My Neighbour Totoro from DD!

DD got a stethoscope from her Granny - who got top grades in her science A level equivalents back in 1947, but whose dad refused to let her go to Medical School - no nice girl would become a doctor…

It's been a mixed day today. Ds3 was mega grumpy most of the day, didn't want to open presents, he also left the dinner table mid meal and refuse to come back. So that spoilt things a bit. Ds2 managed to stay awake until about 3pm. So he spent a lot of day with us, so that was great. Not long after ds2 had gone to bed I found a life size cardboard cutout of Danny Devito in the airing cupboard. No idea what ds2 was thinking buying it. It was meant to scare me, but apparently it had been in there 3 days and I hadn't been in the cupboard. So DH decided to open the door a crack and put the light on...so I could see a hand, so knew something was in there. So it didn't scare me. Ds3 told me all about it being in there for 3 days. I asked if ds1 knew about it. He said no. So I put it just inside ds1's bedroom. It was a good 3 hours later until ds1 went up to his room. The scream was hilarious. Of course ds2 missed it all. The scream woke him up though and he told us to be quiet. So for the next few days Danny will be hidden in various places. I'd better leave that to ds2 though.