Thread 47- Covid GCSE Cohort - Summer's running away from us!

[OrangeCinnamonLatte]

...it will be Christmas before we know it.

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). 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.
Previous thread https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/parents_of_adult_children/4792342-thread-46-gcse-covid-cohort-searching-for-summer-solstice

@Piggywaspushed OK, I stand corrected, and I am a relative newbie!

One of her DDs started out in design, and she's been helpful on those threads (mainly about expectation management). We've even explicitly "agreed to disagree" on a couple of occasions, which I haven't seen on bigger threads. Maybe because the art/design threads are almost as lovely as this one!

@ealingwestmum Lord, how scary for you all! 💐

Keeping everything that can be crossed, firmly crossed that all will be well moving forward for your truly exceptional DD.

Caveat: I’m not good at ‘putting into words’ what I wish to express in situations like like this but hopefully you will ‘catch my drift’.

I’ve read the whole WIWIKAU thread now and have resolved to be less judgemental about it as I’d rather be on that side than the OP’s or several others’ 😂

I still maintains though that these are unacceptable:

• ‘We are applying for …’ no, your adult or near adult child is doing that, not you
• ’Can anyone pls let me know December winter break dates pls’ did you mistake this for class WhatsApp?
• ’She’s only gone and got herself …’ it’s not the place for this but meh, whatever … it’s just that form of words that gets to me

I may even stop rolling my eyes at ‘Have a look on Tiktok it’ll show u the good and bad’ but I can’t promise.

I had no idea catered halls were sneered at. When I went to uni (RG before RG was even a thing darlings) it was all catered. Self-catered was a very newfangled thing introduced as I was leaving, for postgrads only.

On the issue of the HE board…
I read a lot of them but only comment occasionally - mainly because I can’t ‘sit on my hands’ any longer! 🤣
The MFL one was definitely one of those moments, particularly when a poster raised the notion of classical languages…
Thankfully, I do manage to keep said hands under my arse when I see the ‘stats’ bandied about how -piss- easy it is to get into Oxbridge to do MFL and Classics.
Mind you, the posts on one of the HE threads about ‘the insanity’ of the amount of Classics places at Oxford in comparison to Computer Science has me rolling on the floor laughing - hence no need to contain said hands.
Anecdotally, I know mea culpa, but DD has college friends reading across a lot of subjects - the notion of which ones are deemed to be ‘hard core’, ‘nerdy’ and ‘-piss- easy’ are entirely different once actually in the ‘reality’ of studying at the said institution
Reality in scare quotes for those that ‘catch my drift’.

I've had some run-ins there too, on the basis of her DH being an engineer so she obviously knows the planning system too 🙄. With over 30 years as a qualified planner, I think I know a fair bit! I had a break-through a while back when she @me as an expert on a thread 😆😆

Haha now you know you've really made it @Seeline

Agree the HE threads are a bit boring with the MFL barrister DD, the engineer DH and the very rich lawyer. MN is so weird about post-18 options. And snobby about WIWIKAU. I'm glad it exists as it seems useful for a lot of people (including me, I love a WIWIKAU thread browse).

Sorry to hear about your DD ealing, that must be very worrying. I hope she gets her referral quickly and if treatment is required that it goes smoothly.

Oh blimey, I know who you mean with the DH who is an engineer. I have had a run in with her once, that was enough. Some of what she says is valid but she has very strong views which are not always accurate (I also have a DH as an engineer but don’t sell myself as an expert). Some of what she says is plainly wrong but I don’t have the energy to bother arguing with her.

@ealingwestmum what a shock, hope she is ok.

Ooh, I know exactly who you mean on the HE threads. In fact there's a couple who annoy me regularly. For the record, I studied law at a lesser university (not a poly though, heavens forbid), got a 2.2 because I drank too much, and didn't become a highly paid lawyer. DH is an engineer with a 1st from same lesser university. I have DS studying law and a MFL at a RG uni, in catered halls and he can't cook. He's also recently got DSA. DD is waiting for A level results with no A star predictions and has turned down two RG offers (how on earth did she get those offers with only one 9 at GCSE and two 5's). And she's not doing a STEM subject, or law or economics. Oh, and I track DS via snap chat to make sure he's still alive. I have his consent and he sometimes turns it off.
Is that all the bases covered?

😂😂 @mummyinbeds

@mummyinbeds BINGO! What do I win?

@PhotoDad you win a door stop and a mattress topper 🤣

🤣😂

Love this thread!

There have been many name changes Photodad, but all paths lead to the same road. I agree that at times there are posts of sense, but delivery leaves me cold. And how an informative thread can descend to chaos so quickly!

You are all so lovely; thank you. I completely got you Proggy, so no worries ;) Information is king, I deal better with facts vs feelings, but my daughter is SO not like me, and yet the enhanced emotional tipping over was a subtle but key indicator for me to persuade her to get her bloods checked. An fyi for our swimmers and sports people on here…it can alter their hormonal metrics drastically.

Mummyinbeds 😂 😂

Craggy, loving the garden drama 😂

You disgust me frankly, mummy.

I brought said poster to our thread once. And oh my goodness, it was such a mistake.

Had to beetle juice them away 😱

@Piggywaspushed one of DD's 5's was in English - I blame you on behalf of all English teachers 😁

You can have the vital door stop that I bought that's never been used!

I am to blame for everything. I don't even teach English any more but I accept all responsibility.

I was asked last week 'what is this blue thing?'. It was DS1's free Nationwide doorstop. Been everywhere with him and never been used.

🤣🤣 @mummyinbeds
my husband when at one big investment bank had a stand up row with the head of hr as he insisted on automatically interviewing anyone who applied to his team with a 2.2. Everyone else got sifted. He says it is a sign of a person with their priorities straight who partied a lot at uni but still has the balls to apply for banking- just what he is looking for!! No prizes for guessing what he got.

I can’t comment on WIWkiwau as I don’t and have never had Facebook, so I’m clearly a freak.

on another HE thread I was accused of being a troll because I gently ribbed Xenia for making 139 applications for a training contract in 1982. Said she must have been rubbish at filling in forms to only get 28 interviews. Of course Xenia didn’t care, having the thickest skin in England (also I know her and have even negotiated with her in real life!) but it was quite funny how this poster rode to her defence and told me I should be ashamed of myself or something.

She reminds me of my SIL who knows nothing about anything except horses and has never held down a job in 65 years, but still argues like she is a world expert in everything and everyone else is a moron. She tries to argue with me about MY OWN CASES that she has read about in the daily mail, totally insistent that her misinterpretation of what the daily mail has misreported is right and I’m just too thick to appreciate the nuances. Baffling.

Hey no dissing the doorstop - no idea if DD used it but I appreciated not having her sodding door close on me after hauling stuff up four flights of stairs 😂

The mattress toppers make me laugh though. Sure it might be a good idea for some particularly crappy mattresses but an essential? DD reckoned her hall mattress was comfier than home, and has been sleeping in a tent for 5.5 weeks now, so mattress toppers … pfft.

@Delphigirl I was watching your recent applications spat 🤣
DH had an interview straight out of uni with a pretentious idiot who told him his 1st was worthless as it wasn't from Oxbridge. He then offered him the job which DH turned down, despite the fantastic pay and wonderful career prospects. He's come across this guy several times over the years and had no regrets.