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

Happy new year all🎉🎊🥂.
Glad you're feeling better @Zebracat.

Happy new year everyone!

Happy new year everyone.

@Oblomov23 sorry to hear about an awful end to your job. Hope you are getting enough pay/redundancy to take some time off. Sometimes a horrible thing can act as a catalyst for change which works out for the best.

Both DSs were out last night, after a lovely meal at home with both GFs. I gave everyone oodies (or imitation oodies) this year and, surprisingly, none of them had them already. My DSs have used theirs as dressing gowns for the many pyjama days they have had since Christmas. We were planning a quiet evening in front of the fire, but the dog was terrified of the fireworks this year. She retreated to our bathroom, which has no windows and cried, shivered, shook and panted for an hour. She hates the bathroom as she sits not like getting wet and usually only goes there when she has rolled in something disgusting! She got really stressed when I went out to collect DS2, and would not go to bed until DS1 came home at 3:30, I think her sheepdog thing of herding and her fear that the fireworks might be having one of her pack combined. It was very sweet, but exhausting!

This is her now, catching up on the missed sleep and modelling the Christmas gift from DS2!

Cute doggie @Monkey2001. Poor thing, she must have been terrified.
Ours tried to become friends with a solitary bumblebee on the Winter Jasmine this morning 🤦🏼‍♀️

@monkey,our little dog got lost 1 Bonfire Night and spent it in a park with a huge display. He’s been beside himself with any bangs since, to the point where I thought he might die. This year we got an Adaptil plug in, and he had no reaction at all to fireworks, slept right through. It was an absolute miracle and also 1 in the eye for my Dh who muttered grumpily about spending money-on something that wouldn't work. Are all middle aged men ( except Photo dad) like that ?

Also, I love your dog. Is she a collie lurcher?

@Zebracat yes, well spotted, mum was a collie, dad a lurcher, here is a less weird angle on her. Glad to hear you found a good solution for your traumatised dog, goes to Google adaptil....

Gorgeous doggie!

I spent the evening watching the four Christmas Specials of Ghosts (before turning over to Queen). Ghosts has been a huge thing for us this year - DH and DD watched it from the start but I never did, however I found out you could go on a filming tour and its not far from us so I took DH and DD for his birthday and of course had to start watching - what an amazing show! It is the first thing for a few years that DD and I have both really loved, we have watched it endlessly, listened to all the podcasts in the car, discuss it all the time.

I also got my photobook finished for DD’s birthday, phew! I really enjoy doing them but it is time consuming especially when doing it in secret. Talking of photos….

Love the photo @EerilyDecorated, well done! We are also massive Ghosts fans in his house and have all watched from the beginning. It’s a fantastic series and we all had a tear in our eye for the final.

@Monkey2001 your poor doggo, I do feel sorry for pets when fireworks are going off, they were very noisy here and started from about 6pm! Our cat isn’t bothered by them thankfully, slept through most of it and watched from the window occasionally but I see on the local FB pages how many pet owners have traumatised animals when the fireworks start.

Lovely timeless photo @EerilyDecorated

Super photo @EerilyDecorated

Love the photo. So calming. Did you have to get up super early for a deserted street?

Thank you, no it wasn’t super early, it was 5 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon in September, the street is off one of the main streets and I was just walking past the end of it and glanced in, it is always a lovely view. There was a man with a brightly coloured carrier bag doing something to one of the gardens, I had to wait for a few minutes to see if he would go inside, I remember standing there pretending to be on my phone till he did.

Beautiful photo!

We love Ghosts here too. Has anyone seen Wonka?

I loved wonka!

Oh good! There’s a negative thread on here about it and I wondered if it would be a disappointment! Haven’t seen it yet due to illness.

You'll have to title it serendipity!

We saw Wonka the week before Christmas and really enjoyed it. I've never seen the other two films but it was my favourite book growing up and this was just how I imagine a young Wonka would be. A lot of the negativity seems to have come from comparisons with the other films.

@EerilyDecorated Oooh, I do love a good rule-of-thirds composition! Cracking shot.

@PhotoDadI remember when I first learned about the rule of thirds many years ago, it is SO useful, it transformed my picture taking.

DS2 started his mocks today and I'm having horrible flashbacks to Christmas 2019 and DS1 arguing about revising and then ending up with his GCSEs based on exams he did half arsed revision for (or no revision for French, Physics, and Chemistry!).

In sympathy with you ...Ds2 also doing Mock's here @JustHereWithMyPumpkin. He had some in the last few days of last term & more the first few days of this term.
He forgot to take his ADHD pill this morning. Luckily we realised 5 mins drive away, so had to come back. He wouldn't have done well without them - Maths & Bio. today.
Really lovely tranquil picture @EerilyDecorated.

Good luck with mocks @Cantonet and @JustHereWithMyPumpkin . I'm having similar stresses with A Level ds. He just can't plan ahead and thinks he has absolutely ages until his mocks start (in 2 weeks). He's not factoring in that once he's back at school, between that and the gym (roughly 10-15 hours a week) and work (15 hours a week) he has very little time! I asked him the day before last if he'd done any revision and he said yes. I jokingly said 'how much? 5 minutes?' and in all seriousness he said 'a bit less'! Yesterday he did 25 minutes, so at least it's going in the right direction...

Hand holding with you both! Glad you got the meds in time @Cantonet.

DS just had maths today and said it was harder than the past papers he’s been doing - where are they getting the questions from??

At least DS2 is doing some revision, a bit more than 25 mins @crazycrofter but nowhere near as much as he should be doing. Will his mocks be used for predicted grades?

Question for Notts crew, apologies if I miss tagging anyone (or mistag them). DS and friends have just withdrawn from the house they had organised (due to one of the planned tenants getting into her year abroad scheme - rather than find a replacement tenant for the room, they decided they'd rather get a one-smaller house. Don't get me started on what I think about that solution. At least they do not lose their deposit).

So he is now, as well as writing four essays, frantically looking for a new house and very likely to panic-buy the first thing he sees, which may be more expensive and in a less good location. Fun!

Do any of you have any recommendations for agencies your DCs have used? I'm sure my DS will know them better than I do but thought I'd ask if you have any recommendations of where you've had a good experience. He'll probably be looking in Lenton area again, or closer to uni campus if he can get it.

Thanks for any intel! HNY all 

@Monkey2001 @Oblomov23 @JustHereWithMyPumpkin @crazycrofter @Heifer @singingstones