GCSEs 2018 (16) - The Final Countdown

[mmzz]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3304925-gcses-2018-15-the-reckoning?

DS’s CIE results are available on Tuesday, but he’s off in Japan on a rugby tour.

We can both log in, but OBVIOUSLY I wouldn’t do that until he’s had a chance to do it and contact me.

Obviously... (Remembering that long afternoon 5 years ago when I stared at the school yes/no letter lying on the kitchen table, addressed to him.)

Kingscote - I would just tell a white lie to him and furtively check his results, whilst feigning surprise when he told me the result (I need to work on my boundaries). I applaud your self restraint

Sticker Go! Do it alone or as a small group of like-minded people (more expensive but maybe feels safer) Solo travelling is lovely And no compromising needed. (I'd come with you for the Arctic Circle trip!)

Our family holidays tend to always be somewhere that offers more than one thing. Cityscapes for DH, urban culture for DS1, scenery and relaxation for me, sport facilities for DS2. Sometimes we'll actively arrange to spend a day doing what one person wants, followed by a day for another person. Sometimes it leads to arguments but mostly we all find something positive about what we've done. And DH has stopped feeling hurt/grumpy when I refuse to spend a whole day of my holiday looking at steam trains and just goes on his own

@Oneteen
I could have written your post - almost identical to me. Not a bank, DD was about 4, and I did eventually meet someone that was worth being with at the ripe old age of 45. Parents have been invaluable on the childcare front (especially since Ex cleared off up north and didn't pay child support - moved in with his mum and resigned from his job in protest) and DD is very close to her grandparents. Thinking of going part time when DD has finished Uni (assuming I can afford it). I have found that promotions came fairly thick and fast when I reached mid 40s but I was def overlooked before then.

@Stickerrocks - yes I have done a fair amount of solo traveling but it probably helped that I regularly went overseas for work too. The only bit that takes a bit of getting used to is eating alone in the evening. If you are sightseeing it's actually nicer to 'go it alone' than being with anyone else.

Terf...well done !

Stickerrocks Dont hold back - I have done a few solo trips on my own (but I dont always end up on my own - I had one trip where the B & B owner became my tour guide - I think she was lonely and an Ex pat). I run a travel group so I've done some adults only trips and lots of lots of trips with DC's...to all intensive purposes the kids hang out together and the adults hang out together - win win situation when you have an only child. Dd still enjoys the holidays but we dont do anywhere near the number now that I used to ...I probably organise 3 trips a year now whereas I used to organize 10-12 (we were away at very opportunity).
If you want to go up to the Arctic Circle I can help you - we did a trip to Lapland 3/4 years ago and it was amazing (a place called Ruka/Kuusamo), your daughter would love it ...and I could recommend hotel etc (plus experiences of driving a pack of huskies).

There are various commercial groups like Friendship travel who are very good BUT I would recommend joining a travel group on Meet Up ...there are loads of them but I think this is a good one www.meetup.com/Curious-Kat-Adventure-Club/ They are running a Lapland trip to Abisko National Park which is one of the best places to see the Northern Lights etc.

Oneteen

Stick I think I would if DH had a different approach to travelling but we are so very similar and thankfully the kids are following in our footsteps.

The one place I may travel to solo would be my dad's birth country as he has no desire to go there. However I want to make sure the political situation is settled there before I leave DH/DC behind!

Stickerrocks I've been on 4 solo traveller holidays. They are generally very friendly if a bit female heavy. I've used Just You, Solos and Solitair. Friendship travel are supposed to be good too.

I'm old, 53, and I'm clinging on to my term time only job despite the fact that my DC are older. I like the holidays...

I have namechanged (very slightly) to avoid searches, but mmzz keeps tagging both!

Checking in briefly to say Hi to everyone. DD is away with a friend having 'nearly finished' sorting her room out for redecorating (AKA dumped most of its contents in a Mount Fuji sized pile in the corridor). Hope she isn't expecting it to be miraculously finished when she gets home.

hmcAsWas are we the same person?!

I know that I would fully intend to do the right thing and honour DS's right to see his results first, but if they were sitting there, whispering to me, just a few clicks away and I could get away with peeking because no one would ever know, then I'd crack before the day was over!

Terf you are amazing! Well done on your interview. Be warned, a friend in a similar position went along for a job interview with the NHS, just to see how it went. She's been working there over a year now!
It's so mean to make people wait for iGCSE results.
Holidays are fraught in this house. DH is very risk averse and useless at booking time off work. I go to France once a year with a group of friends. We go to different parts and try out the food and wine. Oh, and practise our French!

NCS is over. DD found the boys easier to get on with than the girls, realised that some people have no common sense and organisational skills and discovered that she doesn't gave the courage to jump off a cliff. Summarises much of what the rest of us already knew really!

Well done terf that sounds very positive!

Funnily enough I have spent this week helping a close friend prepare for an interview. She has been a sahm for about 18 years (our eldest dc are the same age) and was terrified.
She has 4 dc, 2 still young primary school aged, so she's hoping to go into a school based, term time job.
She had her interview this morning and it sounds like it went really well, I'm so proud of her!

I am the opposite of a lot of you. DD1 came along in my first year at university. I naively thought I could just take a year out then just pick up and carry on with my degree, but it didn't quite turn out that way!
I didn't qualify for the funding I'd hoped to get, so childcare wasn't an option as I wasn't earning anything.
So I was a sahm for a few years, had DD2, got married and completed my degree via distance learning (over 8 years instead of 3!)

My job now suits me/us perfectly. I'm a HLTA, work almost full time but have 2 afternoons per week off, and obviously only term time which is a huge bonus!

I did always say that when DDs were older I'd do a PGCE and become a qualified teacher, but haven't felt the need to do it just yet - perhaps that can be my "empty nest" project.

Mmzz "^I'd crack before the day was over"
^
I wouldn't last 10 minutes!!

HesMyLobster from what I've read, you might be better just staying as you are, rather than taking on the debt. Teachers seem to be leaving in droves, some of them choosing to become TAs instead.

That's very true mmzz - and probably the reason I haven't done it yet! Don't want all that extra paperwork and stress.
We had 2 entry level l, part time TA jobs advertised at my school in June - over half of the applicants were qualified teachers!

Ellen but you have that magic 2 years less to work until you retire than me & if everyone is happy with the sutuation, nothing has to change. The friends I worry about are the ones who haven't considered what they will do once their DC have left home and assume that the status quo will be maintained, then discover that their DP expects them to increase their hours/ change role to ease the financial pressure on them with no idea that this could have been looming.

Don't say that, I spent Monday persuading a friend to finish off her degree in education with QTS because she loathes her TA role and her little one is about to start school.

TBF, I don't have to answer to my exH, that's true, but will have a tiny pension at 67. I will downsize if/when money gets tight. My role is at the same rate as a TA, but 37 hours a week at least.

Checking with new username. Member formally know as Oddsocks15..

Thanks so much for all your support, I haven’t actually had an interview yet just decided that I’m already being passed over based on a comment senior manager made. Sorry for being such a downer
terf well done sounds promising

Sticker I met someone who had travelled around the states and Canada and had a good experience of

www.womenwelcomewomen.uk/article/home.aspx

DS did 3 CIE subjects (English x2 and History) but school will give the results out with the rest on 23rd. It doesn’t bother me actually-could do without the stress of 2 results days, and ignorance is bliss!

@MongerTruffle I'm afraid curiosity got the better of me and I did an Advance Search on your user name. (Didn't read your back posts though if that helps - I don't like it when people do that to me and cross reference threads).

Anyway, I can see that you've had that username for while but haven't posted on the GCSE threads until now.

So, this post is just to say Welcome! and I hope our attempts to work out if you were one of the posters from the previous thread under a new user name hasn't put you off posting again!

Name change here too - previously known as slink

Well to perk things up after we got thoroughly morose earlier, what's everyone done today Tthat's nice? I've claimed some tickets for a big rugby match just after Christmas, so that's something to look forward too. DD also emerged from her room and gave me a voluntary cuddle.