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Ground rules for student living at home

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  • Errata
    Errata Posts: 38,230 Forumite
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    Look on the bright side, if he doesn't / can't find work during his gap year the family has gained a cleaner/cook/gardener/handyman/laundry person for nowt and you can make him up a nice bed in the cupboard under the stairs.
    .................:)....I'm smiling because I have no idea what's going on ...:)
  • Savvy_Sue
    Savvy_Sue Posts: 47,324 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Errata wrote: »
    Look on the bright side, if he doesn't / can't find work during his gap year the family has gained a cleaner/cook/gardener/handyman/laundry person for nowt and you can make him up a nice bed in the cupboard under the stairs.
    :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

    I am already wondering who is going to cut the grass when he leaves, and he is probably wondering who is going to do all the washing up!

    And he seems to think that now his big brother has moved out, he can spread out into that room from his own massive bedroom (and onto the landing! :mad: and all over the hall! :mad:), and he also has designs on the loft but again that is AS WELL AS all the bedrooms he seems to think are his!

    Reality check on its way ...
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  • Indie_Kid
    Indie_Kid Posts: 23,097 Forumite
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    Errata wrote: »
    Look on the bright side, if he doesn't / can't find work during his gap year the family has gained a cleaner/cook/gardener/handyman/laundry person for nowt and you can make him up a nice bed in the cupboard under the stairs.

    :rotfl:I am so glad you're not my parent...
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  • The_One_Who
    The_One_Who Posts: 2,418 Forumite
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    To be honest, if you live so close to the university there is no point in moving out just for the sake of it. He could save the money. The 'experience' is what you make it, and in my opinion halls don't offer as much independence as private renting where you have to sort out all your bills and whatnot.

    I am in my final year and still at home, but that is partly because the Scottish maintenance loans aren't enough to live on and because I will use the money I have to pay for my postgraduate degree.
  • Savvy_Sue
    Savvy_Sue Posts: 47,324 Forumite
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    I discovered today that one of my colleagues lived at home while at Uni, and was able to buy a house with a sibling at the end of it on what they'd saved!

    It's a good job that nothing has to be decided for over a year (deferred entry), as we can see how many times we want to throttle each other in the year he's working. :rotfl:
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  • Living in halls is part of the Uni experience and you generally make friends with folks in halls and frequently move in with them in the second year. I think not going into halls could limit some choices.
  • olly300
    olly300 Posts: 14,738 Forumite
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    Living in halls is part of the Uni experience and you generally make friends with folks in halls and frequently move in with them in the second year. I think not going into halls could limit some choices.

    I didn't move in with my flatmates from halls after the first year* however I gained some friends for life who I would never have met due to the diverse courses we were doing.


    *I did disappear off to their houses if my new house-mates annoyed me.
    I'm not cynical I'm realistic :p

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  • Savvy_Sue
    Savvy_Sue Posts: 47,324 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    So far, the older two have lived with people from their courses as much as people from their halls in their 2nd and subsequent years (although there's some crossover there too!) So I don't think not living in halls would be too detrimental to him finding friends to share with later.
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  • Haxo
    Haxo Posts: 39 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    What about going all in with rent? Talking about food really. I guess this depends on what your son is like and what times the rest of the family are in for dinner etc, but maybe he could take his turn at cooking. So, he'd learn how to cook (hopefully) and what to buy (eventually) and give you a few days off of cooking each week.

    (I'm away from home for Uni, but this is how my parents approached it when I was on my gap year and now when I'm home in the holidays. I taught myself to cook different things, as neither of them like doing it and generally just shove stuff in the oven, and now I end up cooking more than they do when I'm back.)
    I generally lurk :0)
  • Savvy_Sue
    Savvy_Sue Posts: 47,324 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Well, I'm considering all the options, but he can already cook anything he likes to eat, and is generally more adventurous than I am (DS1 was absolutely DIRE to feed until he went off to Uni and discovered that 'free food' was good, even if you didn't like the taste much to begin with!)

    But if he's eating with us, it will be more restrictive for him, because I'll want to know which days he wants to eat, rather than trying to get hold of him as I start to cook!

    We'll have to start experimenting over the summer, really, as soon as his exams finish, to start seeing what 'works', even though I won't charge him rent until either September or he starts his hoped-for gap year job, whichever is earlier!

    BTW, he DID say the other day that if he couldn't get the kind of gap year job he's after, he would look for ANY kind of work, so that's progress! And he does know that dossing around doing nothing is NOT an option, apart from jobs around the house DH is in touch with LOTS of groups who rely on volunteers, so we'd 'encourage' him to do something useful there!
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