Thread 55 - Covid GCSE Cohort - Autumn 25 - Yr 4 Uni and Graduates

[Oblomov25]

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 54:
Thread 54

Rest is Politics today have Rory commentating on our Royal Navy & it's involvement/availability in this war. I was a bit shocked. Has anyone else seen it? Thought it was pertinent to this thread.

I haven’t @Cantonet but the whole thing is extremely worrying. We have slashed our armed forces to the bone. Having lived in Portsmouth in the 80s (through the Falklands War) I remember how many ships there used to be and now practically none.

@EwwSprouts I’m sorry about your friend . One of my friends has just been in contact to say her 30 year old son has just had a cancer diagnosis and he lives at the other end of the country from them, awful news.

@craggyrat sympathy re car, mine seems to be in and out of the garage all the time at the moment, I am wringing every last penny I can get out of it’s warranty (I get it serviced at an authorised place which is conveniently on the same industrial estate as where I work) but that doesn’t help with the endless punctures I seem to be getting, bloody potholes.

DD and friends have found another house 🤞

@EndlessDistraction good news re the house for your DD. The process for the Armed Forces is beyond tortuous. Or rather the Capita health check side is. My car is back. £900 - ouch. It's not worth much more than that but at least has MOT for another year...

Eek £900 is painful @craggyrat !

Good news on the house @EndlessDistraction ! I keep nagging ds to go to the accommodation office and book a room for the first semester, but he's not got round to it yet. I was about to ring him this morning to remind him, but I noticed from his location that he was driving through Gloucestershire - no idea what he's up to!

Dd wants to get a studio for when her current lease runs out in August. I'm a bit concerned she won't be able to afford it on minimum wage, but I guess there's always be the bank of Mum and Dad.... There's also the question of what to do with her rabbits 😫

I listened to this yesterday. It is a bit worrying how under-resourced our armed forces are.

@craggyrat hope Capita sort the medical side out soon. This is what held up DD's application.

DS has completed on his house and started to move in. We were able to off-load some of my late mum's kitchen stuff that had been stored in our cupboards. Who needs 3 cheese graters, 2 sets of kitchen scales, 8 Pyrex bowls, 2 potato mashers etc? The previous owner sold him quite a bit of stuff too: lawn mower, dining table and chairs, curtains. We drove over yesterday with a spare single bed, chest of drawers and bedside cabinets, ironing board, airers, a new kettle and toaster etc. My mum moved after my dad died. She moved from the Midlands (50+ years) to Eastbourne after going on a 5 day coach trip there. She did not know a soul in Eastbourne and bought everything new for her flat. Sadly, she only had 18 months in her new place before she passed away of cancer. She loved her time in Eastbourne, so it was a great move for her. I could not face throwing away good stuff, so we stored it in the garage or used it ourselves. Now DS is able to use it too.

It might be a family thing. My older mum's sister emigrated last year to South Africa at the age of 90! She sold the family home of 60 years and got rid of everything to move to Port Elizabeth. She loves it and is now near her daughter who emigrated to SA 40 years ago.

I hope no one here has DC in Kent? re: Meningitis outbreak its very worrying that the vaccine is out of stock.

No, but it's just awful isn't it.

It's absolutely dreadful. So very sad.

Very awful. I tried to book the vaccine for ds yesterday but heard on the news the vaccine is out of stock which is quite worrying. This cohort never had the vaccine.

We had the DCs done privately (Boots) a few years ago. The government will have to re-think on this lack of a catch up for this age group. Apparently the take-up of the ACWY one in y9 is only about 75% and in this age group they were in y9 during Covid, I remember reading at the time that lots were missing it because of school closures and the general chaos.

Just had all the guarantor / tenancy paperwork through for DD's house. I must admit to feeling a it out of my depth with all this stuff. DH is no use whatsoever for complicated paperwork and it feels like a big responsibility. Have just run it all through copilot and sent some questions back to the agent.

I am so tired of admin. I have to do everything for our family (DH does his own tax return and car insurance and that's it) including all the complicated SEN stuff over the years. Now I am doing it all for my parents too as DF did all theirs and now he can't and Mum is even less use than DH and bugging me about things ALL THE BLOODY TIME. Then there's work. I feel as though I am going under with it all sometimes and the weight of responsibility weighs heavy. I know I have to do this for DD but I do wish it didn't all fall to me.

@EndlessDistraction that sounds absolutely exhausting. Life admin is such a responsibility and a worry and is just compounded with elderly parents now needing help too. You have my complete sympathy

Thank you @craggyrat yes, it is at times, I just feel as though I can never switch off, there is always someone or something needing me to do something.

@EndlessDistraction That is exhausting! I dont think i could do it. I remember the yrs of managing the admin around DS's conditions, i was so glad when they showed signs of wanting to manage it all themselves and took over contacting the GPs and hspital visits by themselves. I'd have been really pissed off if people kept asking me for things. Is there any chance of you delegating slowly to other people e.g some of your parents' admin, are any other siblings?

Sibling is about as much use as a chocolate teapot unfortunately. Does that thing of waiting to be told what to do, maybe doing it, but more often than not waving his hands in the air and saying he doesn't know what to do or he hasn't got his LPA access sorted or whatever.

Sibling is about as much use as a chocolate teapot unfortunately. Does that thing of waiting to be told what to do, maybe doing it, but more often than not waving his hands in the air and saying he doesn't know what to do or he hasn't got his LPA access sorted or whatever.

I’m trying not to worry about the meningitis outbreak. After all Newcastle is a loooong way away from Kent. All the same, I’ll be glad when DS comes home at the weekend so that I can keep an eye on him.

I think DD had to be vaccinated against meningitis as a condition of her contract with the hall of residence. And apparently DS should’ve had the vaccine via school in Y9 (although as that was peak covid time, I need to check).

Endless that sounds so draining. The admin. No one forewarns you how awful it is.

I am really worried about the guarantor thing. It all came through on Friday when I was up to my eyes in other stuff, I had to go through credit check processes which was complicated because of our finances (we don’t earn much in PAYE but take dividends from our business and most of our PAYE goes into our pensions). There were draft contracts at the end and I read through them and signed a box but it came back asking for more checks. I passed those, but then got asked for another signature today and I read the draft agreements again, but spotted something I didn’t see first time which was unlimited liability for damages, I have queried it but am worried that because I already signed a box last week they will say that’s it I’m already signed up. Feeling so stupid. DD hasn’t signed the tenancy agreement yet though. I don’t want to make it all fall through but am scared of what I’m committing to. I am so tired. Why is adulting so complicated.

I had assumed it was just to cover rent, I had no idea damages could be part of it.

The meningitis situation is scary. Trying not to worry too much, but lots of students at UEA come from Kent, and DD has been mixing with other unis at her dance comps. Kent was at one at the end of February, but hopefully that was before all this started. She is coming home on Monday, but still has the Surrey comp the following weekend. She definitely had the Y9 jabs, but that covers the wrong strains.
Fingers crossed that everyone keeps safe.

My daughter got herself the MenACWY vaccination last year but it doesn't cover this strain.

Scarily a lad on her course in her year died over the New Year and they were not told. She only found out from a newspaper report that came out this week. She didn't know him though she recognises his face but it is a very large cohort so she only tends to actually know those in her tutorial groups.

Sorry about yesterday, feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment. Although we did get the MenB jabs for our two, I have looked at the records now and it was 10 years ago so may well not be effective now. The whole thing is extremely worrying, uni students do mix all over the place, going home, visiting other unis etc. At least now everyone should be very vigilant for early identification of symptoms.

Has anyone here used guarantor insurance?