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

I'm sorry to read all that, @Oblomov23, and can only join with the others in hoping that your 2024 can be a fresh start.

Oh @Oblomov23 it sounds shit for you. Hold on to the good thoughts about your boys.

I'm sorry 😞

Thanks all. I used this thread to get that all off my chest. Glad I did. Onwards and upwards. Love sound of Seeline's choir. Makes me happy to think of others getting so much out of a nice group of ladies. Like us. And Photodad! I'm off out for 3 Christmas do's this week, 3 nights on the trot! My PNG, then 2 closest friends, then 2 other closest friends. I'll be fat as a turkey soon.

I'm now watching the Snowman. One of my favourites.

Glad you're feeling a bit chirpier now @Oblomov23 . That all sounds a bit rubbish. Hope you have a good week of Xmas meals. Definitely roll on 2024!

@Oblomov23 just awful for you. Joining the crew rooting for a better 2024.

@Seeline such a lovely family spirit! We are not great at doing stuff together, probably because DH and I ran a company very intensely for dinner formative family years and there was not much family leisure time, so we lost the habit.

@Oblomov23 Sorry you have so much crap going on. I'm a bit stunned by the hospital and them labelling it harassment. Dinners with friends sounds like an excellent way to see out the year. Fingers crossed for 2024!

@seeline Sorry to hear you are suffering too. How lovely of your DS to do that. An early present!

@PhotoDad Scotland sounds like a lovely respite. Hope you shed the cough soon. I've just started with it this weekend. Thinking I ought to do a covid test.

This afternoon DS is playing sport, DH is watching sport on TV and I'm in another room watching Scrooged (which I don't recall watching ever) and looking for online inspiration for Christmas gifts.

@Oblomov23 what a horrible year for you indeed, I’m so sorry you are feeling in such a bad place but really hoping that 2024 turns things around for you. Enjoy some good and bad Christmas films and have some diabetes safe treats with your lovely family.

@Oblomov23 I'm so sorry you've had such a shitty year. May you have a brilliant 2024💐
I'm loving hearing about all the joyous returns.
Mine's returning on Wednesday from UCL via Wales. We're adopting a Cocker Spaniel from the Dogs Trust there. And they want to meet the whole family. Dd1 met the doggie in her Vets surgery & told me how lovely she was. We've been very lonely without a spaniel in our lives. So we're bringing home a spaniel for Xmas. The best 🎁 ever !
Plus ds1 has just passed his test with one fault! - Yeah 👏

@Oblomov23 that all sounds crap, although pleased you have a good week ahead.

@Cantonet great news on the driving test pass and the spaniel! Fingers crossed all goes well on Wednesday.

Just got home from picking DS up, lots of driving over the last few days for various reasons. Can't wait for a couple of days at home. Not done any proper talking with DS yet but it's lovely to come home. He is enjoying a nice long power shower as I type, and is excited about being able to lie around in a towel without freezing.

Had a good clean of his kitchen sink and drainer, the half bowl sink was full of old manky cloths, really grim! It turns out he is the one who tries to arrange a rota but the others are not so keen. Some of them left things like an open pot of cream and half a chicken in the fridge... DS cleared his shelf and we emptied the bins (plus I couldn't resist cleaning the sink and drainer properly, it took a good scrub) but he left the other's stuff on purpose as he's so fed up of cleaning up after them.

@Oblomov23 . So sorry, so many really tough things to deal with. I felt really hopeless about back issues for years. The hip replacement fixed lots of it, weirdly. May be worth asking them to check that the back issue hasn’t triggered another problem?I do hope you find something that helps. I love that your Dh stood up and got Christmas going. It’s also great that your boys are doing well, and giving you joy. You are such a trooper, I’m sure you will find a way through.

We do have Covid, despite having the booster jab, and it really is shit. But I couldn’t sleep for 3 days and now I have slept for a night and a day, andalmost feel human. Our girl is home and really happy, we are normally last minuters but I’d actually bought all my gifts, so that’s lucky. But I have lost all taste and smell. How long does that last? I want to be able to enjoy Christmas dinner.

Woohoo Cantonet, a new floofster for Xmas, how lovely. Enjoy!

@Zebracat sorry to hear you have covid. I only lost my smell the second time I got it and it came back after about 10 days, so fingers crossed for you.

@Cantonet So exciting.🐶😍

@Zebracat Sorry it's covid. Fingers crossed taste returns for Christmas lunch & other treats. Glad your girl is happpy.

Sorry you’ve got covid @Zebracat - I think taste should be back by Christmas but everyone has it differently don’t they. It seems to be going round my workplace too.

@Oblomov23 glad to hear you’re proud of your brilliant boys and I hope you have a better year in 2024.

@Cantonet that’s brilliant, lovely to hear some good news!

For those with struggling (possible) ADHDers, @Cantonet @286NeuerNahhhhhhhhmen @mummyinbeds and anyone I’ve missed, dd had her assessment and first session with the HANDLE practioner yesterday. It was really thorough, with lots of tests of reaction time, mental capacities, concentration etc. The initial focus is sleep and organisation I think. I’ll let you know how she gets on but it seems very personalised. If she manages to start getting to sleep before 3am that would be a big win!

@Cantonet how lovely with the rescue pup! And congratulations to DS on the driving test. 🎉🚙

@Zebracat sorry about the COVID, my sister and her son have come down with it too. Hope you get your taste buds back before Monday!

@crazycrofter glad that sounds positive. Did you ever find out how much the usual sessions are? DS has a depression diagnosis rather than ADHD but 🤷‍♀️. DSA form is with the doctor and he has a meeting with disability services at uni in Jan so hoping something will come of that but I am interested in HANDLE.

@crazycrofter thank you, my DD will be 18 soon and we can get her on the list for ADHD assessment as an adult, will be contacting the GP in the New Year. She has just flunked one of her A level mocks because she just couldn't concentrate on revision. In the meantime she is self-medicating with coffee. How did the HANDLE therapy come about? I haven't heard of that before.

I think that the initial assessment would be £300 - it’s very thorough - and the sessions are £50. It just so happens that one of DD’s uni friend’s mums is a practitioner and has offered to help her at very little cost, which is very kind of her. They help people with various neurodiversities I think - it sounds like your ds’ depression may well be related to other struggles he has @286NeuerNahhhhhhhhmen

@EerilyDecorated i knew I missed a tag! Sorry to hear about dd. Ds is in the middle of a controlled assessment, which required him to prepare reams of notes to take in. Because he can’t do things til they’re urgent, he had a nine hour session on Sunday night, finishing at 2.45am and was then really tired in the assessment 😢

Dd self medicated with energy drinks and I do worry about her consumption of them.

@286NeuerNahhhhhhhhmen the £300 also includes teaching the programme (so I think maybe there’s a chance you could go alone after that?) and a one hour check a week in.

Congrats on the new pup and a newly passed driving lad @Cantonet 🚘

Sorry to hear you've got covid @Zebracat, hope it's short lived and you get your taste buds back by Monday 🤞

That therapy sounds super interesting @crazycrofter

@Oblomov23 what a time of it you're having but I'm super proud of your amazing resilience and going to Christmas events despite your pain. My DH is under a rheumatologist and has struggled for years with pain and is having a horrid flare up at the moment - seems to happen around this time. He's on a medication that is in short supply and not for once he's 60 so it's worrying as he approaches that age in a few years (been on it for years) as there isn't a suitable alternative that he hasn't tried so like you just gets on with life but it's so so wearing when the pain moves from one place to another but never goes so it's constant.
Think having to look after elderly needy parents is taking its toll too ☹️

Enjoy Scotland @PhotoDad - is snow likely where you are?

DD is out ice skating but luckily she chose to book the indoor one as it's really wet today here.

I'm also getting used to newly given varifocals and adjusting to full time glasses.

Thanks @crazycrofter

Chronic back type ailments really are so debilitating. DH lives with spondylitis but still resisting the fortnightly injections. Apparently a common diagnosis with long time sufferers of psoriasis. It’s like living with a snake :( To make matters worse he’s severely allergic to NIACS (or whatever the group of pain meds are). Paracetamol just doesn’t cut it.

Still got fingers crossed for Delphi’s DD, hoping she’s become the roundabout slayer this week!

Love to all. Thanks for so many nice wishes. I've now been threatened with redundancy, they want to move my job to the Head office in Leicester. and also fell over going up the stairs at work today. Great.

Loving idea of @Cantonet's Christmas Spaniel.