Thread 52 - Covid GCSE Cohort - Autumn 24 - Start of Uni Yr 3

[Oblomov24]

2024 Autumn, start of year 3 for those at Uni.

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.

51 Previous thread - 51.

Just back from a few days with DD in Wales. I hadn't seen her since August - we speak every day but it was lovely to give her a hug. It's only three weeks until she'll be home for Christmas.
DS's has exams for the next few weeks, some of which are oral law exams, in French. At the moment he's thinking that might be worse than the Nottingham 24 hour ordeals. His flight home is booked for a few days before Christmas and I can't wait to see him. He's had his ups and downs in France and not being able to jump in the car is difficult. But, he's coping, even enjoying himself most of the time. He's made new friends, navigated a new city and French paperwork and has even started to hear his alarm clock (sometimes).
I'm thinking of using the kids refillable advent calendar for me to count down to having both of them back home. They'll be very grumpy if there aren't some treats left in the last few pockets though.

Lovely to hear about how they're both doing @mummyinbeds , was thinking how your son was getting on in France, the not being able to offer some tlc when needed is tough isn't it but overall his experience sounds positive. Good luck to him on his exams, speaking french is I think, one the most complex, with the speed of colloquial speak being near impossible to follow.

SO impressed with your DS's savings skills and work ethic @crazycrofter , he must be their most reliable star worker!

Haha @ealingwestmum he certainly has a good work ethic! He’s now dithering about whether to apply for Economics or even PPE instead of/as well as Real Estate. He just has no time to actually do any research into it. He had a week off work last week (annual leave) and I thought he was going to do some planning for the future /work experience but instead he went to Tunisia! His old school have helpfully said they’re ready to do him a reference but his personal statement isn’t good enough - with no help on why! Of course, he didn’t attend any form periods last year because he ‘definitely wasn’t going to uni’! Thankfully I found dd’s today for guidance!

Amazingly he does seem to have paid for everything and booked flights/had vaccinations for his NZ and Vanuatu experiences in Jan/Feb so that’s positive!

@mummyinbeds your ds has done amazingly considering all his issues in Nottingham! Dd also seems to be managing her work better this year - she’s up to date with her lectures for the first time ever!

@crazycrofter I'm glad your DD is more on top of things this year. DS has still missed a few lectures and they're not recorded. But he's found a website where they appear to have been reproduced in English so his pleased with himself 🤣

@ealingwestmum he's now at the level of French where he can understand conversations in the pub. Lectures he follows about 80% of what's going on. Apparently the Toulousain accent is an odd one - I get the impression it's a bit like Geordie/Glaswegian/Scouse is in English

@mummyinbeds that's amazing finding the English versions of the lectures! 😂

We managed to squeeze in a good chat with ds when he got back from work at 10.30. He really wants to challenge himself and fulfil his potential, after being an idiot through school! He also really got into academic study during the three months when he taught himself the A Level subjects. I was looking at dd's personal statement and it was all about her super-curricular interests in Psychology. I asked ds what all the debates and podcasts and videos he watches are mainly about and he said 'well mainly Philosophy.. and Politics'! So maybe PPE is the way to go. He's just worried about job prospects 🤔

@crazycrofter DN did PPE at York and has just come to the end of accountancy training in London. He's moved into the area of wealth management.

Thanks @EwwSprouts , I guess it’s the same for all humanities degrees, there will be lots of grad schemes available. I told him he’ll need to get some internships and useful work experience.

Just picked up Ds1, he's finished in his London apartment. So, (they all are, his whole class, are keen to get back, loving London, but loving Notts), he's off back to Notts tomorrow for 2 weeks of mahoosive Christmas partying.

@EwwSprouts
Wealth management is where ds1 is now.

Glad he's been enjoying it too. Guess it's more glamorous than audit.

No, it's still only auditing he's been doing, on both his placements, so far. I have no idea when they'll get to the interesting bits!

DD can't really make too many firm plans for next year as a lot of it depends on whether any agents or publishers are interested in her work after Degree Show season in the spring (apparently that's the main showcase). So she has her head down trying to finish this term's tasks (a portfolio and a mini-dissertation) before Christmas. She is in at the studio or library most of her waking life... Her latest thing at the museum where she volunteers is helping with an A-level art workshop, which is good experience too.

DS is busier than ever. He's prepping for a Cambridge interview. Last night, his gf joined us for family dinner and boardgames; he cooked and it went really well. I have never seen the kitchen and lounge so tidy (unless I've just done them... I'm the domestic one in the household)!!

And I am still wrestling with Jersey and English lawyers about my late dad's estate. The latest thing has been HMRC mistakenly refunding overpaid tax to his account, which is obviously closed, rather than to the estate. Things are never easy, are they?

Here's DD's latest work-in-progress! I don't know which story this is from, though.

Best of luck to your son on his Cambridge interviews @PhotoDad !

Your DD has a great work ethic, I’m sure all that she is doing is going to pay off, whilst personally adding value as she seems to take on stuff that help others develop too.

Love the picture @PhotoDad ! Good luck to your ds for his Cambridge interview.

Ds has decided (for now!) on PPS; he just needs to write his personal statement before he goes away at the end of the month! He’s talked about applying for more apprenticeships but I can’t see it happening this month 🤔

I had my best Nottingham run to-date, there and back in the quickest time.

Love the picture @PhotoDad Good luck to your DS for the interview.

@Oblomov24 So much satisfaction when you get a smooth run.

We saw this little pup this afternoon. He was 45 mins old and we saw mum pass the afterbirth. What a privilege. Anyone else been to see them this year?

@EwwSprouts very cute! Where was that?

@Oblomov24 makes such a difference having a good run!

@PhotoDad best of luck to your DS for his interview. Sorry to hear you are still having trouble with your father's Estate.

@craggyrat Not that far from you. Donna Nook. 1400 born so far this year!

Looking for a reality check after a truly terrifying experience this weekend. Having got my two to 20 and 23 without really seeing the need for location/tracking apps, I'm having a bit of a re-think.
It was my eldest's birthday this weekend. He went for unplanned drinks after his shift at the pub on Friday night. We were woken by a very drunk call from him at 4.15 am saying he was nearly home, but couldn't get any other info from him. This could have meant anything from asleep at an empty London station, trying to get back from eg Brighton having fallen asleep on a train or on a night bus. We'd been expecting him at around midnight so were already concerned. We couldn't get him to answer his phone. DH decided to go for a slow drive around the local bus stops and possible routes home. I walked up and down our road.
Luckily DD was home on a flying visit so I woke her to see if she could find him on snap maps. She wasn't pleased at being woken, but tracked his phone to a bit further down our road. We found him passed out in someone's front garden! Both DH and I had passed him several times on our searches, but it wasn't until we knew where to look that we actually spotted him.
He was in a right state, and subsequently having chatted to friends we think it likely that he was spiked. I have never seen him anywhere near this drunk before.
But I can't help thinking how long he would have been lying there if DD hadn't been home. Or if it had happened further away. It seems his mate put him in an Uber, but he collapsed on getting out.

I feel really bad about asking a 23 yo if I can start tracking him! But I really don't want to be in that position again!
Do any of you have tracking apps? What do you use (we have an IPhone/Android blend to deal with)?

Oh, @Seeline, what a terrifying experience for all concerned! I'm glad that it ended well.

All of our family can see each other with Location Sharing on Google Maps which works cross-platform. (DS often turns off data and disappears but this is more to do with his budget PAYG plan than anything suspicious, at least I hope so.)

@Seeline thank goodness you found him, what a nightmare. We are an all Apple household and have Find My active on all devices, both so we can find lost items and for emergencies, but also used for the occasional quick check e.g. for me to see if DH is still at work or on the way home, saves calling or texting. Our unwritten rule is that if you check then you respect the person's privacy if they are not where you thought they might be and don't start quizzing them, bar emergencies and don't over-use it. My friends who are Android use Life360 for tracking.

@EwwSprouts how gorgeous!

@PhotoDad DD went through a phase of turning hers off too, she always said it was to save data but I think it was also a bit of a pushback, she goes off for countryside walks on her own and it used to worry me, but she leaves it on now.

Gosh, terrifying!

I don't have any tracking at all. DH would be very obsessive about it if we did as he is a micro manager as it is and obsessive about things like bank apps. I sot of feel we managed without all those years back. The first person I ever knew who did it (he is now and adviser to Hunted) was in M15 and, at the time in maybe the mid noughties we all thought it was creepy - but now everyone does it!

When they went interrelating, DS2 shared his location on Google Maps but he switched it off recently.

Don't your teens think it's a bit sad to be tracked by parents? Or is it just the way families work these days?

Things like your story do make me think they have their uses...

@Piggywaspushed I completely get that some folks wouldn't want to be tracked. My two DC like the safety aspect. My DW prefers being tracked to "are you on the way home yet?" exchanges of messages.

I have just noticed that my spell checker thinks interrailing is interrelating. Apt!