Thread 49 - Covid GCSE Cohort - The nights are drawing in...

[OrangeSpicedBun]

Autumn 🍂 well and truly underway, has been chilly this week !

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 :

www.mumsnet.com/talk/parents_of_adult_children/4880640-thread-48-covid-gcse-cohort-summer-before-year-2-uni?latest=1

@Monkey2001 I guess that means once they've passed their test they have to wait a bit? I can't understand why everyone seems to get better deals than us! For me to be insured on her Kia Picanto with her as named driver we paid £1700! I can't seem to get them to quote for me to add ds, even pretending he passed a month ago.

Would Admiral multi car mean I'd have to cancel the insurance on our car and dd's and then insure them both together with Admiral? Which would probably mean I'd pay a penalty with the current insurers? I find it so confusing!

I'm also very worried at the prospect of ds (ADHD, huge risk taker) driving @Cantonet especially after yesterday. Only about a month ago, ds and 3 friends went off to Snowdonia without telling me (and he turned his tracker off when I tried to ascertain where he was heading!). Weather conditions were awful when they got there, which they felt made it more exciting. It's such a worry 😬

Yesterday’s outcome for those boys were truly harrowing. YP learning to drive post passing is so much more challenging now vs our days, I would never share some of the stories from my younger self with DD.

When she first passed, I lied and said that the black box rules didn’t allow passengers in the back. For a whole year. It wasn’t because I didn’t trust her, it’s the distractions that come with passengers, the excitement of driving on adventures new and most of all, I struggled with holding the responsibility for other YP, the trust from parents etc etc. That never goes away I know, you just trust that they get better with the multi tasking as driving becomes more an unconscious skilled thing we do.

She was ok when I owned up to this last year, her friends supporting with their usual ‘fair’ type comment.

Crazy I thought of you yesterday.

Wow, I'm impressed you got away with that @ealingwestmum ! I can understand why you did it, but my two don't take anything I say on authority and they'd immediately google it/check the insurance themselves, or tell me about all their friends with black boxes who let them go in the back!

I'd been half hoping ds doesn't pass in December, but now he's got a new plan to buy a motorbike (and earns enough money to buy it and insure it) which terrifies me even more 😬I think I'm more worried as we now live in a country area with lots of fast dark roads. Somehow driving in Birmingham was more stressful but a really bad crash felt less likely, as you don't go at those sort of speeds.

Ds isn't driving yet but being in a band a big thing for his friends was being able to drive in order to get to and from gigs etc. Ds says that he feels very safe when travelling with his friend and bandmate but sometimes venues can be remote and it can be late at night travelling back.

We did the same thing about saying to DS he wasn't insured to carry friends as passengers at first. He only drives locally when he's home in the holidays but my blood ran cold when I saw about those poor boys yesterday. I'm dreading when he takes off on the motorway or a long drive for the first time without us. I know I'm being ridiculous but I'm such a worrier and I seem to be getting worse not better.

I am surprised too Crazy, I think I got away with a few hard lines because overall she was given a lot of latitude. She was also so grateful to be able to learn and pass during covid times, and there really are still so few of them across her peers even now, mix of don’t need to/want to or challenges of stop/start learning with lack of driving tuition and test availability.

We’re currently in the throes of internship applications, mainly for 3 day taster spring or summer ones available to 2nd years. She’s been applying across all sectors, god the process is long and hoop jumping. But she’s doing it partly to ‘test’ the system/strength of application and to have a Plan B via traditional means if it remains unresolved, it’ll be more tricky doing these from overseas next year is her thinking.

Delphigirl I hope your older boy’s internship successfully resulted in a job offer when he graduates!

@crazycrofter if you are already with Admiral you can have multi-car deal with different start dates.

When you get quotes they usually remain valid for at least a week, so just have them in your confused.com or comparethemarket account and you can press go when (if!) they pass.

DS has just been sacked from his part time job with this attached message.
Doesn't know why. Has asked but no answer. He's been working there since August.

Oh dear @Cantonet , is this the first he’s heard of it? They really should have raised it at the time. Unless they’re mixing him up with someone else?

Yes @Crazycrofter he doesn't know why
No, it's a very small business. They know who he is.
I'm absolutely furious & upset.

What a low blow way of dealing with what ever grievance they have, with zero ability for him to respond Cantonet. I’m not surprised you’re cross.

@Cantonet - I would be furious too. That's a terrible way to behave by the business. 40 plus years ago I was sacked by Woolworths as a Saturday girl as I hadn't operated the old Access card slider things properly. My dad reported the manager to the regional manager as I hadn't been trained on the system and my dad was boiling nad with them. The regional manager came to speak to ne and they ended up disciplining my manager for not following training procedures. These things stay with you. I was 15 at the time and I still think about it as you can tell. I hope your DS gets some answers from them. I didn't go back to the job.

That's awful, @Cantonet!

Sorry to hear that @Cantonet. That seems incredibly harsh and unfair.

@Cantonet Oh dear I would be upset too. Can he go in person to clear his name? Because it looks like someone has pointed a finger.

That's awful @Cantonet
Similar happened to me at that age, working in a pub, they thought someone was stealing from the till so sacked all of the casual staff without any attempt to investigate 😡
I am still annoyed about it now, 30+ years later

Oh, that’s awful @Cantonet. I was let go from my first ever job, in a pub, and still don’t really know why. I was too embarrassed to tell my parents, just told them I had left. It still stings a bit and I worry about it happening to DD (she works in a pub too).

I cried when I heard about those four boys in wales and I don't even know them. I worry about my dc driving anyway.
We're insured DDs car with admiral multi car and mine added seven months later when the existing insurance ran out. It was so much cheaper than anywhere else. Today I'm getting quotes to add ds as a learner

Apparently he was sacked because there was an outstanding bill on the system for £60 on last Thursday morning from Monday. This was his first day working last week. He assumed that whoever was in had just forgotten to press clear, as it was several days later. So he cleared it & was questioned about it on Saturday. He went on to explain it was from Monday & nothing to do with him. So he's obviously being accused of the missing £60. They have a new - we assume an experienced woman ( cos they were advertising for one) who's recently started & he hasn't met.
To be honest if they aren't checking the till every day it's their utter incompetency that is at fault. He had to teach himself how to use the coffee machine from You Tube when he started, as they gave him exactly 2 mins training. He's been the one training the young girls starting.
Anyway he's been awake all night & is angry.

@Cantonet sounds like he is well out of there, he can find a job with an employer who will treat him better.

I had a Saturday job in Budgens when I was 16, they moved me to the deli because my till never balanced, no idea why, I did double maths A levels so was not due to poor numeracy. Deli was much more fun anyway, it was the early days of laser tills and you often needed several goes to get it to read.

@Cantonet - that is just ridiculous the till wasn't checked every day. I'm not surprised he is so angry and upset. It infuriates me when YP are treated so shabbily

One of my first teenage jobs was working the night shifts at a local Mobil fuel forecourt. The owners lived in a big swanky house behind, huge family with spoilt brats as kids. I’d have my wages docked for petrol runners (how were they in my control?) with my having to lock up and walk the remains of the balanced till to the house at 12.00am (most cash went down a floor shoot). The lazy feckers wouldn’t even send someone off the couch to accompany me. These were the days of brown wage bags, Weekends would start from Thursdays :)

YP treatment in local jobs clearly not improving it seems.

I was also in tears at the news about the teenagers in Wales, it's my absolute nightmare anytime DS1 tells me him and his mates are diving (always with him driving) to Manchester or Norwich or any other random part of the country. He has a tiny car which offers no protection and loves playing hip hop very loudly in the car, the extra people in the car laughing and messing around as teenage boys tend to do. My heart broke for their families.

@Cantonet that's so out of order, you're poor DS. Businesses both small and large treat teenagers poorly because they know they have no real understanding of their rights and don't like to make a fuss. that's how they get away with this sort of behaviour.

My DD came home from work and asked me to explain all the different types of coffee to her because of the 2 min training thing too. I didn't think of youtube, I'll tell her.

I went out on a business meal last week, we didn't check the bill very well (other than to think it was cheap) then half an hour after we'd all gone home the person who had made the booking got a panicked call from the restaurant saying they had somehow left all the drinks off the bill and they were going to get the sack. The person with the credit card went back the next day and paid it. I really hope they didn't get the sack.