Who's got dc leaving for/starting at Uni 2022?

[weegiemum]

Hi!

My middle child (ds, 20) is leaving home in 2 weeks to go into halls and start studying to be a nurse (Glasgow Caley). Anyone else in the same boat? Persuading him to pack is doing my head in!!

Oldest dc is at art school but kind of left home in stages, ds is doing it all at once and I'm getting a little frazzled. At least dd2 has decided to stay home for now.

DD4 is heading off to Strathclyde shortly. She's very excited as she has unexpectedly (didn't think she qualified as we live less than 20miles away) got a place in halls. It's the most basic and old fashioned but will do her a world of good as she is becoming rather fond of the finer things in life. Not quite an empty nest as DD2 couldn't find accommodation last year so is back with us.

I am used to the visceral feeling of missing them when they first go so am prepared for that. She took a gap year as she's a Feb birthday and didn't want to be underage for most of her first year. Job hunting at the moment and hoping she secures something before semester begins.

Theres a superb Facebook group called WIWIKAU. (What I wish I knew about university), or something like that. Has lots of good tips and advice.

Dd1 off to Leeds in sept. Really pleased for her obv but I think I'm going to be a blubbering mess on the day! Still got dd2 at home though (13) so not quite an empty nester yet!

DS (18) is off to Aberdeen to study English in a couple of weeks. We've been buying bits all summer but we've taken the week before he goes off work so we can get anything else he needs including books when he chooses his courses.
We're having a garden party for him and his school pals the weekend before they all disperse for their studies.
Aberdeen is only an hour up the road for us and DH and I both studied there so DS is no stranger to the uni and it's environs. It's the same but different from the time we're there.
We're excited for him and he's ready for it, but he's an only so I know it's going to be a massive wrench for us all.
Best of luck to all new students and their parents!

Dd starting at Glasgow, but she moved out three years ago to live with her BF.
She's 21 and went to college first.

Ds is starting a 5 year slog integrated masters on mechanical engineering at Strathclyde. We are in Ayrshire and he has chosen, like a few of his friends and his girlfriend to commute. It will save us a small fortune, especially with the free buses, for that first year at least. Suspect he'll want to move out at some point maybe year 2 or 3.

He has been working all summer saving up and with not leaving home to sort out is just relaxed about the whole thing. SAAS for tuition fees done, he plans to keep working PT, or if it gets too much will stop and apply for a maintenance loan later in year. He's registered at the uni, picks up his student card this week, got his student bank account weeks ago, ordered a new laptop, says he'll use his school bag and some unused note pads, and is just looking forward to just showing up for freshers and seeing where it takes him 🙄

Im sure he will have missed something he should have done.

I noticed on the WIWIKAU facebook page some people are taking about their dc getting the Men B vaccine privately. Is anyone else doing this? Ds isnt interested in getting it and says none of his friends are getting it either.

Ds off to uni and moving to halls in September. I’m so excited for him but he’s my only child and as a single mum we’ve been through it all together so it is sort of and end of an era for me although I’m super excited for him. My mum died suddenly, under pretty bad circumstances last year 2 days before Christmas, she was quite young and I think as I’m buying all his kitchen stuff and bedding and bits and bobs for going, I can’t believe she’s not here as she’s really the only person who would have helped me with it all and enjoyed getting it all prepared with me. I know when he moved out I’d have phoned her that evening for a little bubble and I still can’t get my head around the fact that she’s not here anymore.. I’ve got all his stuff in now and just boxing it all up and it’s quite nice he’ll be back and forward for holidays etc so it’s not too ‘final’ for either of us., I’m just so happy for him he’s going where he wanted and doing what he loves! But it’s a big change none the less!

@jays 😥
DS3, the baby, moves into halls on Saturday. He's going to Edinburgh College but it's not feasible to commute so he's having to stay in expensive private halls (only ones near his campus) he better not get to used to an ən-suite bathroom!
I'm really going to miss him, he's the most interactive of children, the most like me and a fun person to have around.
I'm actually a bit concerned about the empty nest focussing attention on flaws in my relationship with DH. Poor DH, menopause + children leaving is a tricky combo, a few years ago I was looking forward to it but now I'm a bit worried.

Hope I’m replying properly, I’m new to this…I totally get it with the ‘most like me’ thing. I only have one son but oh my, the laughs we’ve had, and the huffs etc, he’s so like me too. .he’s in his room or out most of the time but we sit at dinner and show each other daft cat videos ‘ we had a family cat we adore’ I remember when it was just the two of us after exdh left and it was so nice when we got the cat, somehow made us a family again. I have a partner but we don’t live together and he has no kids so he just doesn’t get it and my rxdh, we’re on ok terms but he’s remarried with 3 kids so he has his hands full. I’ll sorry about my boy every night, I’m so scared he’ll be attacked or hurt or goodness knows what l, but I don’t say that to him, but I am. And I’m frustrated that no one in my life is going to feel it like me when he goes.don’t let anyone tell you it’s not a big deal and it doesn’t put your relationship with dh under the microscope. Of course it will. I console you get it. Hopefully come November we’ll be ok and looking forward to Christmas! That’s what I’m hoping for! Big hugs to you…. It’s not easy.

My DS1 is away to Uni early Sept, staying in halls. I am happy for him but privately really dreading it.I keep bursting into tears thinking about it and how much I will miss him.

💐@jays My heart goes out to you, but you sound like you are staying strong and being a great mum. It must be very hard for you but well done on your DS getting the course and Uni he wanted!

Aw thank you so much, that genuinely means a lot to me. I’m so proud of us all, none of it is easy and we’re all still doing it and trying our best and getting up again every day even when we want to hide under the covers and I love us all for that. Thank you so much for the kind words, sometimes people hang on to a nice thing you say and it really does keep them going and that applies to me right now! 💖

That’s nice. It’s always nice to find other mums in a similar position. I can remember my sister being happy that her kids were all flying the nest and I never understood it. I knew that wasn’t the way I would feel at all.
I know we all just have to get on and make the most of it. Perhaps there will be some positives we just haven’t realised yet!

It can seem hard but my 3 have all gone away and it has been really good for all of them

@weegiemum - I've sent an invite for you to join WIWIKAU

@jays - the only time I had tears was after dropping ds off at Uni up in Aberdeen 4 years ago and dh and I were driving away from Hillhead Student Village. I sooooo wanted to share the experience with my mum and ask her questions about how she'd felt dropping me off at St Andrews 40 years earlier (). She'd died 6 years earlier as an indirect result of an accident 6 years before that, so we'd really "lost" her then My dad is far too unsentimental and pragmatic to share that sort of thing with.

Ds has graduated now, has got in a job in his fairly nice field (public affairs) and is temporarily back home, working from home and saving up for his own place. My mum would have been so proud of him (as my dad is), especially as he's now in a career heavy on "good" English (she was an English teacher).

I have one starting at Caley in September and one who graduated from Caley this summer and is a couple of months into new graduate job and loving it. Both are still at home, though the oldest has saved for a deposit to buy a flat while studying and has already had me out looking at potential ones.

So sorry to hear about the loss of your mum 💐so much harder when you are on your own.
My daughter left for uni last year she’s my only child. I have my husband (who works very long hours) but I’m not working due to chronic illness that’s not going to get better so I don’t get out and about much. I don’t have any family nearby, I would recommend trying to keep busy, know that might sound obvious and just trying to do stuff for yourself (money dependant of course )but seeing friends joining a group or evening class etc. It does get easier and they do come back Xmas etc.