Thread 56 – Covid GCSE Cohort – Spring 26 – Yr 4 Uni and Graduates

[crazycrofter]

The old thread has filled up and no one noticed - I think we're missing @oblomov26 sharp eyes!

I've tried to tag in everyone I can think of, but apologies to anyone I've missed!
@shimy @endlessdistraction @justherewithmypopcorn @mummyinbeds @aslockton @oubliettebravo @craggyrat @anothernewname460 @ealingwestmum @ewwsprouts @seeline @piggywaspushed @nctdn @icanbewhatiwant @comefromaway @heifer @kingscotestaff @delphigirl @zebracat @cantonet @socks1107 @blinkbonny @anneofcleavage

I know what you mean about not being able to leave adult kids to adult!
DD is still job hunting - has had several interviews over the last few weeks. Got offered a job for retail in a museum on Monday - full-time, but not really her desired area of work. Had an interview on Thursday for what seems to be her dream job, said they'd let her know by the end of the day, or Monday at the latest. They emailed on Friday to say they couldn't decide between 2 of them and would she come for a second interview on 13th. Meanwhile, retail job has emailed contract which has to be returned on Monday with a start date on 12th! Argh. I think she's going to turn down the retail, and hope that she gets the dream. If not, it's start all over again 😞 It's so difficult knowing what to advise!
Meanwhile, older DS has decided to buy a flat....
Not stressful here at all 😁

I felt my blood pressure rising reading your posts @Aslockton. Hoorah for a solid network of resourceful friends; hope your DD’s next posting goes well.

He is going to have a great time @Piggywaspushed, I hope the adjusting to his leaving doesn’t remain painful for too long.

@Seeline 🤞 the right opportunity finds her, great that she’s getting through the door so well.

@NCTDN lovely to hear your DD thriving in her new role and area. Mine has just completed her first month. Next month will be in Manchester for more training but thankfully she is solo and can recharge evenings in a hotel without being ‘on’ and having to be observed.

DS has just completed the first month of his job and got paid including a welcome bonus which he told me he has put into his trading212 account to invest! Then he bought himself a new phone straight away. Suffice to say, I think that his salary for the first few months will be on various bits of expensive tech.

Just been having a little catch up:

I read your update before I read the dilemma @Aslocktonand my heart rate was racing high so can’t imagine what yours must have been doing. So glad everything ended well!
Shame about DD flute @crazycrofter- did you have to buy her a new one? Does she still play?

Crossing everything re the dream job outcome @Seelineand how level headed your DD is being turning down the secure not so dream job for hanging on to her dream job hope. Good luck with the flat hunting - how exciting for your DS.

How lovely, @NCTDNand the weather has been gorgeous lately so hope it was down there for your visit.

Hope DS has settled in to his lodgings in Worcester @Piggywaspushedand I hope the empty nest feelings settle soon. I would feel the same. Glad Halfords sorted the tyre out for DS1. Cars are money pits esp if old - I’m looking at my 16+yr old Kia and dreading the MOT in Jan.

DD has just had her first month pay come in too @sansouand is very thankful I insisted on sorting her tax code and giving it to the school as talking to other ECTs they got taxed heavily. She paid us back immediately without us asking for the money lent over the summer. She’s also been a bit spend happy too and bought theatre tickets for a show her and her boy’f want to see next summer and other bits.
She now feels the teaching job is more worth it 😁 esp as this month she gets a week off for half term. She’ll need it though as she is working ridiculous hours at the moment and has attended her first ECT training session so has lots of course related stuff to do as well as teaching 30 5yr olds. Her first lesson observation went well too with her mentor and the Head popped in unannounced to watch a maths lesson last week so she’s doing okay at the moment. I’ve been helping with lots of sticking and gluing and laminating in the evenings, DH too so all hands on deck.

DD and DS got home at 1.20am after the dash to Oxford then Bristol. Luckily it was DD's bag and everything was still as she left it. She was very fortunate; lessons learnt. That bag travelled 400+ miles unattended. It could have ended up anywhere. Thank goodness for the Manchester friend having a train-nerd brother who could work out where the Oxford to Manchester train would be heading next and that DD had a friend ahead of the train who could intercept. It was like an episode of 'Hunted' but for a very important bag.

Good to hear an update on your DD @AnneOfCleavage . I hope she gets some good rest during half term. I remember my family all helping with cutting and sticking, naming books etc during my early years of teaching.

How did the move-in go @Piggywaspushed ? Glad the car got fixed.

Fingers crossed @Seeline that your DD gets the dream job.

What a story, @Aslockton! And it sounds like @Piggywaspushed is dealing with all sorts of stuff right now.

I've only skimmed the thread as I've been rather busy helping my DC get organised(ish) over the last week. We drove DS to uni yesterday, which went smoothly apart from needing to do a zillion-point-manoeuvre to get out of an overfull carpark (!), and DD heads off to her au-pair gig next weekend!

I have been catching up on all your news. Lots of new jobs etc.

I can’t remember whether I posted on here since Ds finished. He was very disappointed not to get a first, most of his marks were a first, but he did a group assessment and 2 out of the 4 didn’t show up, the other person wasn’t helpful so Ds did most of it himself. They didn’t get very good marks at all on that one, plus one other he did badly in, apparently it was nothing to do with history, so he didn’t bother but didn’t realise it was quite a chunk towards final grade. I think he was 2 points below a first. So he had to settle for a 2:1 He wouldn’t go to the graduation. I suggested appealing if it was just 2 assignments but he said he didn’t want to bother.
Ds worked his usual summer job, that finished mid September, he’s done nothing since. He says he’s going to China for 3 weeks then he’s going to get temporary work. But the China trip is yet to be booked. He is still saying he wants to do a PGCE but he didn’t get round to applying a year ago, so no doubt the same will happen this time.

I still have ds1 at home (who doesn’t talk to us) and ds3 is year 13 so we are looking round a few unis over the next few weeks. Durham being his first choice at the moment for Physics.

DS now ensconced. He has discovered parking by his new house is a total lottery. He has filled today with stuff though - been to the supermarket. the gym and for coffee with his coursemate who has just started in the same job.

I can't quite yet adjust to the fact that he is not a student. His house is nice enough but is really just nice student digs. It is also next to a halfway house which I spotted straight off and they didn't spot on their viewing! However, what his room was was spotlessly clean : you don't get that in a student house!

So glad he is settled @Piggywaspushed - the house sounds much more good than bad so I hope he has a lovely time there and in the new job!

It's his first day today so I hope it all goes well for him!

He did say most of his coursemates haven't landed jobs yet.

Good luck to him today @Piggywaspushed I'm glad the house got sorted in the end.

Not much to report here, I hardly see DS, he is juggling 4 voluntary roles as well as three days paid work and darts/hockey. Still applying for full time jobs but he does like the PT one so not too much pressure as he isn't in a rush to move out.

DD seems to have settled back into uni, I still haven't seen inside her house, I dropped her back a couple of weeks ago whe she popped back for a few things but it was 10 at night and it didn't seem fair on the housemates to start looking around at that time of night. She's on the committee of a club this year so busy with that at the moment.

I’ve just been catching up. Gosh - what a lot of stress! You’d think that parenting would ease off now that our DC are adults in their 20s. Apparently not!!

DH and I have left DD home alone for 2 weeks and are currently enjoying the sun in Cyprus. Although we did arrive to an extremely lively thunderstorm which crashed on through the early hours of Sunday morning. A year ago she was preparing for her final interview for her current job. The time seems to have flown!

DS is back in Newcastle and back to being somewhat uncommunicative. Although he did eventually confirm that he’d managed to register and pay his fees (he was switching from the 3 year BSc to the 4 year integrated masters and simultaneously changing from chemistry to medicinal chemistry). I’m going up for a friends 50th in November, so I’ll take him out for a meal and generally check up on him then!

Good luck to ds with the new job @Piggywaspushed! The house sounds pretty good overall? Hope his housemates are decent.

@EffortlesslyDistracted your ds is juggling so much - but that’s great for the CV and for his confidence. It’s good that he enjoys the part time job.

Dd’s job has been frustrating so far in that they’ve struggled to build any momentum but she has her first actual referral this week - she’ll be doing six weekly sessions with him - and she’s also arranged for them to be available during some church coffee mornings, so they’re gradually raising awareness of their service.

Ds is enjoying uni and has finally (a week late!) managed to register onto his modules! Admin is not his strong point, and we’ve found that it’s not Nottingham Uni’s strong point either 😩 Dd had regular problems with them despite being much more on it. Ds starts a one day a week internship this week and he’s been applying for placement years too so he’s being pretty proactive. He also needs to think about sorting his visa out for France - @mummyinbeds how long does that take?

@OublietteBravo after lots of chats with ds about communication, we seem to have made some progress! He will send voice notes and even the odd text in response to my questions (not immediately- but that’s ok!). I tend to check his location and give him a call if he’s in his flat. But he’s different from dd - he doesn’t just randomly tell me what he’s doing so it feels like harder work!

@crazycrofter ahhh French visas - that's a trauma I've buried at the back of my mind. It's all about getting the paperwork right from the outset. DS had one failed appointment because a document didn't have his middle name. From memory it only took about a month but we were very lucky getting appointments.

@Piggywaspushed Very pleased for you re: Your DS. All the best for him there. New ventures!

Had a quick catch up. Pleased @Piggywaspushed and @Aslockton seem to be out the other side of nail biting scenarios.

@Delphigirl We got kicked out of puppy training. Well my dad did with our puppy while we were on holiday...

Just back from a trip to Canada with DS to see family and as it turned out, very luckily, some amazing wildlife. I'm reeling with jet lag but DS has gone straight off to a 3 day training course.

My baby ds2 is 26 today… 💕💕. Saw him for dinner last night - he seems really happy in his new job, it has given him confidence after the shitshow that was the last one. Hurrah!

Ah, the evergreen abilities of youth @EwwSprouts, of course he's bounced into training :)

Happy birthday to your DS2 @Delphigirl, and to his shedding the dark experiences of the last job!

I love a naughty pupster; I think puppy training classes are designed to to make one feel like a failure, like NCT classes (this is purely my own anecdotal experience)!

Happy birthday to your ds @Delphigirl and that's great news about the job!

Canada sounds amazing @EwwSprouts - we're just watching the Race across the world series that was based there.

Not a good week here.
Had to coerce dad into hospital as he's losing the use of his legs. They have no help and mum is exhausted and getting confused at being called by him every 5 minutes. He's got a series of small fractures in his spine following the MRI. He's also a retired doctor and never goes near the gp or anyone, and knows it all.
To cap it all off Ds2 has had a bad reaction to Prozac and attempted to do something dangerous on Saturday and ended up in hospital. But then didn't tell me until Monday evening at 11pm when we'd returned to pick up dad's PJ's. He's ok and one of his flatmates has been looking after him for the last few weeks. But I think she was so shocked she didn't think to get into contact with one of us. Dd2 is there now with him

I’m very sorry to read your post @Cantonet, so much going on; you must be permanently on high stress alert.

Oh @Cantonet , I’m so sorry about all of this. Must be incredibly worrying about your DS in particular. Big hug.

@Cantonetthank goodness for wonderful house mates. Glad he’s ok.

@Cantonet so sorry to hear of all your troubles. Remember to look after yourself too 💐