Thread 48- Covid GCSE Cohort - Summer before Year 2 Uni

[Oblomov23]

Summer ending. Year 2 for many at Uni about to start.

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.
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Your poor ds @285NeuerNamen 😢

Mummy and 285, tough times currently for your DS’, I hope things improve very soon.

Having to stop a sport has such a wider impact on their wellbeing aside from injury recovery; lack of connectivity with this peers is a horrible side effect.

Having to stop a sport is so difficult for them. I hope your DS can stay connected socially and by going along to matches etc to be with the others. DS had to do that last Easter when he did his ankle and couldn't swim or basketball and keeping the connection was so important

DD is back home for hospital/driving test week. Took nearly as long to get from Victoria to home as the coach from Norwich due to no trains. She seems to be enjoying life. She's happy in her flat, has met new people, joined new societies and been out with them and joined a group from outside uni but linked to the Sainsbury Centre on campus. She's enjoying her course, is managing cooking and eating better this time and even done some laundry. Just hoping she can get back to it after a week at home. I can't believe the difference between this year and last. Still rather holding my breath ...

That’s a great start Seeline, hope the medical stuff and test go well 🤞

Great to hear that @Seeline.

Thanks all for the sympathy for DS. I have a pre-planned visit to him at the weekend, so will see him then. Just wish he was still a huggy person, sadly he most definitely isn’t despite being super cuddly when he was younger.

Sorry to hear about the injury @285NeuerNamen , that is a blow but hopefully he can still socialise with them. Mine isn’t cuddly either, although he did suddenly hug me the other week but he had been drinking with his friends all day and his football team had had a great win 🙄.

Glad to hear things are going well for DD @Seeline what a relief.

@285NeuerNamen Hope is able to watch his team this weekend and then go for the socialising.

@mummyinbeds Has your DS got a complete timetable now? Sounds like very poor communication.

@Seeline What a lovely update!

@EwwSprouts he has no timetable at all. For law lectures he can follow the master timetable but he's missed all French this week as he doesn't know what workshop group he is in, and nor do the French department. He hasn't had his student loan either. If I could get him to go to student services in person I'm sure it could be sorted but that's one of his struggles. We know what the issue is (but not why) and have submitted an online form to resolve it but trying to get him to follow it up is proving impossible.
He really is a rollercoaster ride at times.

@mummyinbeds How very frustrating!!

DD's swordfighting friend turns out to live locally and commutes to the art school, so DD got a home-cooked meal and a lift home thanks to friend's parents! She is also planning on trying out a niche society that is technically run by Cambridge Uni, but which says on the website it's open to all students in the city.

Plus she has signed up to use the Letterpress Room and the Ceramics Studios (which both require induction courses). And she's applied to help with sessions at an art club for local schoolkids. Really hitting the ground running this term.

@285NeuerNamen My older Ds has no interest in playing sports himself but his housemate plays for their departmental team so he goes to all of he matches etc & ended up being in charge of their social media. Perhaps your Ds could do something like that to keep up his relationship with his team?

Good idea @Decorhate. He won’t do social media but I’m thinking he may help manage. I will talk to him over the weekend.

@mummyinbeds that sound like it's a really tricky situation. Especially when you know how to sort it but you're utterly powerless.
Sorry about the sporting injuries. It's so difficult when your social life is built up around the sport.
@Seeline I'm glad things are working out.
@Photodad your DD is full of get up & go.
How have the first couple of weeks gone for the Uni Newbies?
DD has had a bit of a rough intro. really.
Not because of the course which she's enjoying but she's had long nose bleeds every day. This culminated in a visit to A&E as the bleed yesterday lasted over an hour & her boyfriend panicked when he saw blood coming out of her eyes. She was there for several hours while they packed her nose to stop the bleeding. Apparently there's no underlying cause in the blood tests which is good. So they sent her home with dissolvable packing & antibiotics last night. She's got a full day of lectures today so I'm wondering if she's made it in.

Gosh @Cantonet that sounds awful for her (and the boyfriend). I hope it settles down for her.

@Cantonet gosh that sounds scary. Hope antibiotics sort things out quickly for her

@Cantonet both mine have had nosebleeds over the years but I would've panicked too if they'd been bleeding from their eyes! Hope she's on the mend soon.

I hope your DD is okay @Cantonet DS had a spell of nosebleeds and was a bit of a panicker.

Fresher DD is loving Aber. No Freshers flu (yet). Her housemates aren't the most social - she hasn't even seen the guy in the next room - but she's found friends on her course and has been adopted by second and third years at Beer Pong Society. Apparently she can down a pint of cocktail far quicker than anyone else during the weekly 'chugging' contest 🤦 She's turned her kitchen into a bit of a party kitchen so I'm looking out for posts on Wiwikau about selfish, noisy, inconsiderate, drunken housemates. DD and one of the boys have tried really hard to include the other four but they're not interested. The residential team organise a compulsory flat/house meeting so that might be interesting. As for her course, it's male dominated and they don't let her speak or have an opinion. I think she's enjoying it but it is only week one of lectures. She only has half the hours DS has so isn't very busy yet.

@Cantonet I have a nose bleeder here too (DS2) but an hour is a long time! Is the heating on permanently in her accommodation? Dry air sometimes triggers my DS nosebleeds.

@mummyinbeds your DD and DS are having very different uni experiences!! Glad that she's settling in despite the less sociable house mates and the audacity filled men on her course.

That sounds positive overall @mummyinbeds . Hope she manages to make her presence felt on the course! And I hope ds can sort out the timetable issues.

@Cantonet that's very alarming! I used to think nose bleeds were just a bit of a nuisance, but when ds was on roaccutance for his acne, he had them every day and night and they really messed him around. The night time ones woke him up and disturbed his sleep and the daytime ones meant he missed bits of lessons. They've stopped now thankfully except for one very dramatic one he had in the car a few months back where it was literally pouring out of his nose! Hope your dd's get sorted. What uni is she at?

Dd seems to have (not freshers) flu, despite not really partying very much this time round. Thankfully her housemate has found some lemsip as I completely forgot to stock her up before she went.

@crazycrofter she's at UCL. Conveniently her accommodation is 2 mins from a hospital. I think it may be her ADHD pills that are causing these bleeds, as Elvanse can have this effect. She's just increased the dosage this week after being on a lower dose over the holidays where she had no nose bleeds. Also she's had Covid over the last week & has been very snuffly.
My dad panicked me by saying it might be due to Cocaine use. But she's either been in boarding school or home with very little opportunity to take drugs 😳
I don't know. How do we know whether any of our kids are taking drugs 🤷

@mummyinbeds that sounds like quite an achievement for your DD 😁

Gosh, loss of blood from anywhere is hard work, frequent nosebleeds must be really challenging to deal with.

We don’t know is the stock answer Cantonet. I personally am very wary of being that parent that thinks hers won’t, doesn’t etc as I have been on the other end where acquaintances are just totally oblivious to their DC’s activities. But I hope mine has not succumbed, sticking to the more controllable vices of young people. 🤞

Hopefully it's not that @Cantonet but if it is, maybe the nosebleeds will put her off!

I feel like I know what my dc are up to, but really, you only know as much as they (or their sibling) will tell you and/or you overhear (I find the xbox chats ds has with his mates are very useful in this regard, as he talks so loudly!) Ds wouldn't take drugs because he doesn't follow the crowd and instinctively wants to do the opposite of what others are doing - this has both good and bad implications!

Mine can't afford cocaine, what with DS's alcohol consumption and DD's vinted habit. I'd be surprised if they hadn't tried weed but I reckon that's probably it. DS is a bit of a clubber but very risk averse so I don't think he would do ecstasy or whatever else is around nowadays 👵🏻
(Plus the club nights he likes are retro 80s and 90s, he's not a raver.)

But as you say, you never know. My parents certainly had no idea what any of us were up to. In fact my brother had them looking after his cannabis plants in their greenhouse and they didn't know. All fine until he was arrested and had to phone and tell them to bury all the evidence 🤦‍♀️