Thread 50 - Covid GCSE Cohort - New Year of Adulting

[OrangeSpicedBun]

2024 here we are... our young people are still getting used to adulting and we're still doing that adulting thing ...it's tough !

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
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/parents_of_adult_children/4922401-thread-49-covid-gcse-cohort-the-nights-are-drawing-in?page=10

Haha @Seeline thanks, but he has plenty of food, just could not eat it (even the icecream) because he could not swallow, but a lift to hospital would have been good - he went into wrong bit, has never been to an A&E, so did not know it was a separate bit, but hospital staff were lovely. He lives really close to your DD (in Courtyard A), so that might have worked! Thanks also @ealingwestmum and @craggyrat .

@Shimy love that little scene with your boys. Hope you make a full recovery this time.

I have good news in that after 3 whole months of going from London to Dublin, then to NYC and back to Heathrow, DD’s identity documents have returned home. With the envelope showing we and RM documented everything correctly.

So now to try again. Refuse to use RM tracked again (apparently it’s a real thing to place anything into excise due bucket for goods from here to Ireland), can’t drop them physically anywhere, can’t courier due to Passport office being a PO Box, the blocking goes on and on.

Serves me right for being so smug that we were nearly there after four years of applying! At least I know they didn’t fall into rogue hands.

Glad you got docs back @ealingwestmum ! But how totally frustrating..

Hope your DS is feeling much better very soon, Monkey. Awful when they're away from home and unwell.

Gosh, Shimy, you've really been through the mill. Any sense of why it reoccured and whether it's been fully resolved now? I hope your recovery isn't too arduous.

We collected DD from Brum yesterday and met her (on/off) BF - the one who's off to Australia for his international year. They've decided to enjoy the time they've got together until then, so I'm hoping it won't be too awful when he leaves.
DS is home on Thursday. All NEAs and coursework has been completed and submitted, which is a big relief, but now it's the revision sprint to the finish line.

Thanks all, for the commiserations & well wishes.. No one was more shocked than me, one minute i was chatting happily on the phone and next felt an awful shift in my stomach. few hrs later I was back in A&E, back in the same ward i was previously discharged from and being told surgery very likely AGAIN! luckliy through conservative managed it sort self resolved and i swerved it.

@Alwaysplayspicc as before they said, its due to adhesions from previous surgery obstructing the bowel. What that means for the future I do not know except right now is about living life to the full. Had good laughs on the ward though despite all the pain & contraptions i was on, I met some lovely ladies who were all in similar positions and one very poor lady who i think was homeless.

@ealingwestmum So pleased to read you've got your rogue docs back. bet they had quite an adventure, jumping on ships & planes and being handled by strange people before deciding this is all rather boring and finding their way back home where they belong.

@Seeline Sorry to hear your DS won't be home for Easter as needs must. Wishing him luck with his dissertation. DS was doing his this time last yr and I'm not sure who was relieved the most when he finally submitted.

Just catching up. Sorry to read about the health difficulties - students and mum's.
DS is battling on to his last lecture on Thursday and staying in Nottingham for Easter weekend (football) He's trying so hard to engage and today is a good day apparently.
DD is on a train right now, and then a rail replacement bus, and then another train. One day, the journey too and from Aberystwyth will be straight forward and take less than 6 hours 🫤 She's asked to go to McDonald's when I collect her from the station. Another downside to Aberystwyth - only an out of town McD's which she can't get to. She doesn't even really like the food 😂 She knew how isolated Aber was before she went so I have no sympathy. I have made her a belated birthday cake though.

Hi all. So sorry, Shimy. Very glad you didnt have to endure more surgery though. Our girl came home today for a week. She had 3 difficult things to say to me and managed them all in the first hour. In the old days there would have just been a pregnant pause until the last minute of her stay. She asked to borrow some money. It’s a tricky one because she gave up fabulous bursaries when she changedUni, and I don’t think we should have to pay for that decision. But, of course, I don’t want her to go without, so we have given her a hundred pounds and the price of new shoes. The others were really interesting issues that we were able to discuss openly. So it’s all good.

It’s quite a privilege to watch all our DC mature over the years (and take steps backwards at times). Yours is definitely in the former Zebracat. Lovely to read the progress.

Sorry to read this @Shimy.

@Shimy glad you swerved surgery and love the image of your boys on alert.
Best wishes to others and the DC suffering at the moment.

Thanks @EwwSprouts . Best wishes to everyone else who's feeling poorly.

DS was discharged from hospital yesterday afternoon, feeling so much better after a night in an en suite room by himself with IV fluids, antibiotics and steroids. They think it was a severe bacterial tonsilitis.

I messaged to ask how he was doing today. Knowing his priorities, I asked him when he would make it to the gym - he went yesterday, within a couple of hours of being discharged for "a very easy session", but it was "a bit much", well durr!

He is going to Nottingham this afternoon to visit his GF, feels like his spell of illness was just a dream, they can be amazingly resilient!

@monkey Sorry to hear your DS has also been in hospital but glad he's now discharged and raring to go.

He sounds very resilient @Monkey2001 , glad he’s bounced right back! Dd had similar in first year and it turned out to be GF and tonsillitis - but even so, it didn’t linger too long.

Sorry to hear about the re-occurrence @shimy but lovely that your boys are being so attentive. Good news about your girl’s progress too @Zebracat !

Gosh I have missed a lot on here. Glad your DS is better @Monkey2001

DD1 home now until mid April which is nice. DD2 has got her Year 12 Mocks after Easter. It feels like it’s come round very quickly

So much has happened since I last caught up.
Sorry to hear about the relapse, @Shimy but glad you swerved surgery. Glad your DS is on the mend @Monkey2001 - that sounded a particularly nasty infection. Very impressed with the walk in A&E he has near him. Their quick diagnosis averted a much prolonged infection I reckon.
Great news on your girl @Zebracat. Good luck on Easter mock revision for DD2 @BlueMarigoldBlueMarigold.

@Monkey2001 Missed about your DS being in hospital. Glad he is already much improved and out.
@Zebracat Lovely update.

Is this rain ever going to stop? we can't plan anything as it keeps pouring down.

Haven't caught up with the million messages I've missed but hope everyone is doing OK!

Easter holidays have arrived and I must now gird my loins and somehow persuade DS2 (without getting into a fight) to get revising for his GCSEs which start imminently. I just want his Art done and out of the way too so he can focus on the other subjects, it's taken more of his time than anything else.

I am also sick of the rain @Shimy both because I am sick to death of the cold, wet, greyness and also the river is full and fast and DS2 hasn't been on it since before Christmas I don't think.

Sick of the rain here too. DD breaks up from college today, she is shattered and went to bed straight after college last night, A levels are coming along fast. She has submitted her history NEA and has organised herself an online tutor for biology which is going well and she says is helping. I think losing her job in Jan (pub closed down) was goo timing too. DS is plodding away at his various assignments and spending a lot of his days in the local library working. He goes back a week on Sunday.

Oh I remember the pain in the arse GCSE Art! ds1 did art but totally loathed it by the time GCSEs came round. His portfolio unbeknowst to us was practically empty as he hadn't been doing the work! DS2 also good at Art wanted to choose it for GCSE but we managed to steer him towards Music which had emerged as a much more enjoyable hobby for him. Wish your DS luck with it all, does he enjoy it?

Raining here too. Taking DS back on Saturday as he has course work and needs the libraries. He has got mini online internship with a London law firm next week- so that's good. Been lovely having him back

The river round our way looked like it was going to spill over this morning so by noew I'm sure it probably is. It's just annoying dull and hope it doesn't last the whole of easter break.

@craggyrat Well done to your ds for securing a law internship, those are quite hard to get. My DS will be starting his Spring week from next week and worrying about what to wear. I've told him to pop into Next or STAG our local men's shops but he came back yesterday and described the NEXT suit as 'very cheap looking'. Apparently people at uni have told him they wear £5,000 suits to internships .

It's weird how out of sync the uni holidays are. Some of yours are going back whereas dd is home tonight for four weeks. We're away with family next week, but she needs to put in loads of work for her exams, after the shambles of the Jan ones. She's going to Rome for a few days at some point too and wants to get plenty of work shifts in to top up her funds. She left revision far too late for her Jan exams, so I'm hoping she's learned but we will see.

I'm feeling quite stressed about ds' A Levels. For various reasons, which I've probably mentioned before, he's barely attended any lessons/the teachers have been absent and he's not caught up in year 13 for two of his subjects. He's now switched on his ADHD hyper focus and started working, but around his gym sessions, 15 hours a week of work and just general inability to focus for a long time, he's getting through his subjects VERY slowly. His teachers seemed quite panicky at parents evening about how behind he is and whether it's possible to actually cover the year 13 work in the time available. Dh and I came out feeling quite panicky too and I've been trying to plough through the Business text book and the revision notes, to see how they correlate and whether the revision notes are enough for the material he's never come across before! Ds seems chilled....

@Shimy good luck to your DS and wow to the suits!! DS wears Marks and Spencer. I work at a law firm and our partners are either in strawberry crumpled cords or board shirts and flip flips.... even the London branch!

@crazycrofter that's all sounding quite stressful for you. Much sympathy