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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Exploding ovens, wow! And I do hope that the hormone treatment isn't too awful to live with.

All well here, DD has taken to calling for a chat while walking home from the studios (which takes about 15 minutes) so we're more in contact than ever. Nice that she wants to do that!

Sorry there are so many with loved ones with health issues. I agree as women (perhaps of a certain age) we do seem to worry more.

Yikes to the exploding oven! As two of you in our little group here have experience of that I'm now pondering should we update our cooker? It's 20 years old and only two rings and the oven work but I've been hanging on for a new kitchen.

Eww ours was brand new! Tbf, Siemens replaced the door immediately.

Apparently, the engineer said any slight bit of food left on the door before hitting the auto clean function could have been the cause, I think it was more a major technical flaw of the oven!

They are now 12 years old and see nothing but old fashioned cleaning product that makes you cough when you spray :)

@ealingwestmum That must have been even more annoying. At least you got good customer service.

The exploding oven door must have been scary for anyone in the room at the time!

I imagine so. It seems to be the inside glass but it must have made quite a bang.

I've never been brave enough to use the self cleaning function that our oven apparent has. I think I'll carry on being "unbrave" 😆 Yikes @Piggywaspushed that must have been a heart stopping moment for anyone close by.

Oven sounds scary! I've never used self clean function - doubt I will now!

Facetime with DS today for first time since he went back. Full of germs so have sent a cheer up Marks and Spencer letterbox afternoon tea. He seems happy. Started rowing along with other sports and has a summer intern interview tomorrow online. Has applied for loads but not sure he will get anything and even if he did not sure he could afford to stay in London to do one!

Got my radiotherapy starting week Wednesday so will be happy even that's done.

All the best @craggyrat , hope it doesn’t affect you too badly.

Thanks @crazycrofter - it's only for 5 days so hoping not too bad

@craggyrat yes, best wishes for the treatment. Re summer accom in London, do the universities let student rooms? Won't be as cheap as Cambridge, but might be a good starting point.

Imperial let out student accommodation in the summer, I've stayed there before when working nearby.

Dd has just had a weekend in London, visiting loads of her school friends and she was quite taken with it and how much there is to do. She got the flixbus from Nottingham for £12 return so she says she’s going to be going regularly (she’s also just started going out with a lad at one of the London unis so there’s that attraction too!). She’s gone from saying in August that she’d never be able to survive on £60 a week, to now saying she’ll probably be able to manage flixbus tickets in her weekly budget! I think more socialising at home is making this year much cheaper than last.

Was sorry to see reference to Imperial re singing.

I considered not telling you all of this . because it is personal, and it's not I am, it's not my place to tell you all of this, but we have previously discussed other dc's - boyfriends and their inappropriateness etc.

Ds1,'girlfriend' re camp America, started at imperial doing mechanics engineering. She was lovely. She was a year younger than him. But this week he finished with her, despite him being very keen,
Despite me begging him to cut her some slack, she just couldn't fit him in. Made me so very sad because he hadn't actually met anyone he was attracted to since A-levels.he's hurting, as am I.

Thanks for that - never thought of university rooms. He will be lucky if he gets anything but here's hoping.

Sorry to hear about the girlfriend situation @Oblomov23

Best of luck with the treatment craggy.
re summer internship - I was in this position withDS this summer who had 12 weeks from early June - Sept. The issue with summer letting of rooms in halls by the provider is that they don’t open until early - mid July. That left 6 weeks unaccounted for. BUT lots of the private students halls rent on 50 week contracts Sept-Sept which most students don’t need, as they finish May-June. So there are quite a few advertising tenancy takeovers on student spare room or the accommodation forum on Student Room. I took over the tenancy of a room in swish private halls literally beside DS’s job. I negotiated the cost a little bit and it ended up costing less than any other option including summer halls. It was still £215 per week but much that came out at least 200pm less than any other decent option.

@oblomov sorry to hear about ds1 ‘s breakup….

Good luck this week @craggyrat

I have also never use the self cleaning function on the oven, I don't know what it does so best not to risk it. 😁

Went up to see DS1 this weekend, he has also just split with his gf but not through his choice, he is very upset. Still hasn't got a proper timetable either.

Thanks @Delphigirl that's good to know

I remember many years ago staying in a student room in Oxford (DH alumni there) as they have shorter terms and so I guess it's a way for the college to make money out of term time.

Good luck for Wednesday @craggyrat 🙂

@Oblomov23 it's natural to get attached to our YP's partners however brief. DD broke up with her lovely boy'f in August before she went off to Uni - it was amicable but he was heartbroken. As they've kinda stayed friends it's got a bit awkward as he's still insisting on keeping their "streak" on Snapchat so she's thinking it may be better to rip the bandaid off completely as it's clear he's not moving on.
I remember having a big cry (privately) when DD broke up with her first love as he'd become part of the family so I get why you're upset. In that case my tears soon dried when it was revealed how manipulative and emotionally abusive he'd been and she'd not said anything but it took her nearly a year to trust another relationship. She didn't want to go to Uni worried about socialising and checking in with the boy'f to check he was okay with it all. Maybe that's what your DS has done as it may be better for his MH not worrying what's she doing.

It must be that time of year! DS was home for the weekend, which is very unlike him. He revealed he has split with his GF of 2.5 years and he is heartbroken 😢. It's so hard to help isn't it? He has just started his final year and is overloaded with work and having to start his dissertation and he just isn't into it. Honestly, you just get one DC sorted and the next steps into their shoes. Parenting is tough even when they're adults 🙁

Aw, sorry to hear about the upset lads and/or upset mums 😥 I'm not looking forward to that situation if it happens. I realised when visiting my sister the other day that we both married the boys we got together with at 19. We also had our two children at exactly the same age, give or take a month, which is weird. I'm not assuming dd is going to do the same on either count though!

I'm sorry to hear about them too, neither of mine have ventured into relationships yet so we haven't been in this situation but I had several year-or-so relationships in my late teens / early to mid 20s, my parents used to worry about me. I had absolutely no intention of settling down at that age though (met DH at 30).

Sorry to hear about the break ups, it's very hard on them at that age. I remember being devasted when my first 'proper' boyfriend dumped me. Whilst I was sobbing away, my mum very helpfully told me there were plenty more fish in the sea, I did not take that well at the time.

DS conveniently has his gf at uni with him, they got together at sixth form and had both picked the same uni post getting together. I do wonder what it will be like next year as she will be on placement and he will be in the second year but that is a long time away.

@285NeuerNamen I think it is a similar situation that has led to DS break up - GF graduated in the summer and DS still has a year to go. Have put him back on the coach, but he is really down 🙁