Page 16 | Spring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where those Crepeys is?

herbaceous · 14/03/2017 12:18

Flipping nora. Have just been told hours of new job. 8 til 4. Eight. In. The. Morning. I am not a morning person. At least it's local.

However, it means that DS needs childcare at both ends of the school day, which will cost £15 a day. Which seems mad, especially as he'll only be in after-school club for 30 minutes.

BeachysSnowyWellieBoots · 14/03/2017 12:43

Would there be a childminder on the way who could do breakfast and pick ups for less? Or a friendly mum who would like to earn £7 or £8 a day?

I'm tempted to go back to Pilates to stretch out all my hurty bits....

I've just been to 'trade' my Xmas pressie from dh....Blaaarrrdy hell - the shop he got it from was unreal (not in a good way!). No piece of clothing in there under about £175 and really not much I would want. I actually don't think I would like the kind of person who would or could shop there....... I've ended up with some perfume that I've never heard of and seems OK. What a waste of time and money

Blackduck · 14/03/2017 12:54

Crem the local health food shop stocks Foxes - nice and cheap....

Cremolafoam · 14/03/2017 13:27

Boo shame! Herbs re job, and Beachy re clothes shop.
BD have just received my Foxs catalogue and am overexcited by gift selections thus:

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where those Crepeys is?

bigTillyMint · 14/03/2017 14:22

Herbs, I had that when the DC wee small - paying for hours of before and after school club when they were only there half an hour before and after school. It's frustrating! But if he enjoys it, you might leave him longer some days and have an hour to yourself?

AIBU for wanting to tell DS to man-up re GCSE stress? He is constantly going on about how he is worried he will fail them (in person and by text) despite getting decent mocks results (whilst stI'll being seriously ill) I am worn out finding ways of saying the same thing

BeachysSnowyWellieBoots · 14/03/2017 14:57

No, BTM, you are NBU, but you know you're not going to, same as I'm not going to

Here, the stress is manifesting itself in 'ignoring the fact that they are happening and not doing any work at all' - not sure which is best! I'm dreading the Easter hols as it will be ds upstairs mucking around and dh pacing around and shouting a lot downstairs.......I am the habitual piggy in the middle.

I have had to step in and replace dh in taking ds to the bus in the morning as the pacing and shouting is unbearable and sets everyone up SO BADLY for the day.......bit of extra work in the morning leads to a proportional drop in blood pressure, I find.

motherinferior · 14/03/2017 15:04

Herbs, will you need preparation time? Use the childcare for that if so. Rather than slogging away in the evenings.

Oh you poor fellow-parents of GCSEers - DD1 may be not quite as nose to grindstone as she thinks but she's a breeze by comparison, I do see

herbaceous · 14/03/2017 15:12

I'm hoping that this job will include no out-of-hours prep. If there's space in his teatime club, I might use the time to go to the gym, or similar! However, at the moment it's full. A rather pushy and unappealing childminder has been in touch, offering to have DS for 30 minutes each day for the bargain price of... er... £10 a day. So, the same as school.

hattymattie · 14/03/2017 16:18

I do feel that we've made such a big thing of stress that they've latched onto it a bit. Are they really more stressed than we were? I remember doing ten O'Levels - that was pretty stressful but stress didn't seem to be a thing then - we just got on with it because that was how it was. I know BTM and Beachy your sons have different issues on top of general exam stress so it is probably ramping the whole thing up a bit. Looking back, I think exams were probably less stessful than other things that come along in life and learning to cope is maybe a first step in learning to deal with stuff that arises later on.

hattymattie · 14/03/2017 16:20

I think I may have upset somebody by saying "Fillon is an arsehole". I was told that was very strong language - obviously I am forgetting to filter myself in "nice society".

Auriga · 14/03/2017 16:20

Rant alert.

I tried to buy tickets from a website. Didn't worked. I emailed the organiser and the website's helpdesk.

In the meantime, I got it to work on a different browser.

The organiser

told me the website was working and asked me to phone, offering to 'walk me through the purchase'
flatly contradicted me when I said there was still a problem a week later
explained to me in another e-mail how popular IE is (gosh) so, if there is a problem, it can't be with IE or it would have been solved by now.
expressed regret at my 'disappointment'
added that if I had bought the tickets two months ago I would not have had this difficulty.

Would anyone like to guess if the organiser is male or female? Approximate age?

motherinferior · 14/03/2017 16:22

I think it's a mix, Hattie. Some things are just more spotted and identified now. When my sister totally lost the plot and developed anorexia nobody even noticed, though admittedly my parents wouldn't have, really, what with my mother's pride in Never Having Weighed Enough To Give Blood.

motherinferior · 14/03/2017 16:24

Auriga my blood is boiling just reading that

WALK YOU THROUGH???

Is he old enough to vote????

hattymattie · 14/03/2017 16:29

Auriga same guess as MI.

MI - agree - I remember anorexia was a totally new thing then. Getting the balance right is very difficult.

Auriga · 14/03/2017 16:34

He is indeed old enough to vote.

Meanwhile, helpdesk has sent an automated reply, (only 48 hours after I emailed them, fat lot of use) saying if having problems with IE, use another browser.

To be fair, I do think organiser could be more condescending if he put some effort in. He could call me 'dearie' perhaps.

Original poster

GiddyGiddyGoat · 14/03/2017 16:58

Give him a chance Auriga... he might yet say "do calm down dear". and

OP posts:

bigTillyMint · 14/03/2017 17:14

Oh dear, and Auriga.
It does seem that some websiyes just don't work on IE. I have switched to Google Chrome which seems to work.

Hatty, I think the reality is that the exams are harder - it is no longer purely regurgitating facts - they are asked to manipulate them much more (DD says that DS's new style Eng Lit GCSE is much more like Alevel than hers was) Plus the pressures on schools and individual teachers is enormous (with effing league tables) and they are passing it onto the pupils far more than ours did. I feel that we were taught the subject and then there was an exam whereas now they are really just being taught how to pass the exam.

motherinferior · 14/03/2017 17:22

Yes to being taught how to pass it. While WRINGING THE JOY out of English, that's for sure.

hattymattie · 14/03/2017 17:29

I think teaching now is definitely more stressful and yes to it being passed on. My English Lit teacher was useless though - I love reading and regret very much that we weren't well taught. I love what my DC's have done in school.

Auriga · 14/03/2017 17:44

I'm reluctant to switch to Chrome, partly because lots of pre-installed software on my phone and desktop urges me to do so and partly because I have so little control over the info they collect. But many government websites won't work with Mozilla so I have to have IE. Thinking of changing to Ubuntu now.

Meanwhile DD has been cold-called by a company offering her a free makeover and photo-shoot if she books within two weeks and pays a booking deposit . If they got her mobile number from YMT/NYMT I am going to go nuclear.

Lalsy · 14/03/2017 19:25

Auriga, good god, that is extraordinary.

Herbs, I'd go for the club as soon as spaces come up. if he likes it, that is probably more stable less faffy arrangement and am sure you can use the extra time sometimes, for gym or getting ahead ith chores or whatever? I can't see how anyone would do it for less as the admin/set up wouldn't be worth it....

Loads of people at my school were stressed and had MH problems. And at university. I doubt anyone really knows how it compares as so much went un or under-reported then.

Go Hatty on unfiltered Fillon-bashing! How worried are you about le Pen?

Stropperella · 14/03/2017 19:42

I sold my soul to the devil years ago and use Chrome, except for key areas where I need to know that the latest security patches have been applied, and in those cases I use Mozilla (more out of superstition than anything else, admittedly). Historically, IE was always full of security holes, but I don't know anything about recent versions and have the new version on my laptop, which I don't use for anything critical.

How old is your dsis, MI? I was diagnosed with anorexia in 1978. But that was because my dm recognised it very quickly and so did the GP (in rural Dorset, I might add). Not that this equipped dm well for dealing with it. But that is a whole 'nother story. It got recognised all right, but no one I had access to knew how to treat it.

As for stress in schools being responsible for the rise in MH probs among today's teens - I am not so sure. I think the change in the education system has certainly played a part, but the internet and the 24/7 communication culture is also incredibly pressurising and generates a lot of misery. I think the damage done via always-on social media is a lot more than people realise, even where teens are only passive consumers. I am currently still on my FB 'fast' and it's giving me a different perspective on certain aspects of how I use the internet. I was a late adopter of FB as I strongly disapproved of it (for various, possibly peculiar, reasons), and only joined because I had promised dd she could join when she was 13 and I wanted to be there to keep an eye on what she was up to. It grew on me, and I used it for work. But I may be coming round to being a Luddite again. I deleted my LinkedIn account 3 years ago and my life didn't end. I've never used Twitter and never will. I don't think being on FB (or any other social media thing) has ever done dd any good.

Monty, dd is not too good at the mo'. She is struggling to keep her head above water, but it's hard to know what to do. Also dh is still prone to gnashing his teeth about what he thinks she is/isn't doing and ds is furious that she's here because he wants her room. I am getting through the days and ignoring the feckers as much as I can.

Stropperella · 14/03/2017 20:26

Dear god, this is depressing. And enraging. Happening in the UK in 2017:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39266056

Lalsy · 14/03/2017 21:06

I know, Stropps, I saw that earlier. I am ashamed.

Sorry to hear dd's road still rocky - I am sure you predicted as much. Does she have anything approaching the hint of a tincture of a whiff of a plan? I like your coping strategy.

SM - I think it is different for everyone. I use Twitter with caution but love reading what vastly cleverer and better informed people are thinking and reading every day. Hate Linked In but have to be sort of on it. Like FB in mild kind of way for enjoying seeing friends' dc grow up and nice holiday snaps. I think it causes massive problems for some teens partly because of the amplification of all the stuff and social pressures they have always had to contend with, but do know others - my dd included - for whom on balance it has been a positive. I really feel for anyone who feels harassed, hunted, overly visible or the opposite because of it.

I have the house to myself - whooooopeee

IDismyname · 14/03/2017 21:43

I've just rejoined LinkedIn, calling my profession the one I started after graduation. Its not 'quite' the subject I graduated in, but pretty close. Its the career that I had whilst I worked in London, and earned a crust.

SIL (no love lost between us) got herself on a day a week course, same as my 'career profession', and has spent the last 10 years carving herself a living out of it. Good luck to her. Its been a slog, and she's at last making progress through some real grit and determination on her part.

Trouble is, she's taken great umbridge (sp?) that I refer to myself in the same vein as her.

Meanwhile (reasons to be cheerful?) - I've had a phone call and an email from friends asking if I'm starting up again, and could I pop round and advise?

Probably nothing will come of it, but lovely to have some moral support.

(I only rejoined LinkedIn to search out SHL that has stopped working and has since disappeared.)