22 Foxhole East

trix-a-belle

Agreed with all of the above! As greenbee says have you set out your expectations for him? that he will be paying X per week from Y to cover Z or household chores of A, B & C are expected in lieu of payment. Given DHs near explosion last night (& likely puce colour scheme as is the image I have in my head) i'm sure he will be on board with any proposal.
Maybe it will scare those who follow into getting in your good graces

f0xh0les

Most of the volunteers at the f/b are  retired or over 70! and we are limited to 4 volunteers at a time due to C0vid restrictions.  Besides, he would ruin my street cred with the oldies!  

We do have a Fare Share just up the road from there though.  Warehouse experience will keep him employed and solvent if he ends up at university or not.  It is a good volunteering idea.

Lunch was fridge bottom soup with brown soda bread  (still warm from the oven), and a flapjack for pudding. 

I have realised I am going to run out of milk by Wednesday so will have to go shopping then.  The roads are still thick with ice so I am just parking myself at home today and will deal with other stuff tomorrow.

DS1's extra credit module is due in today (it is worth 1/2 an A Level, so worth having for later) and he has not finished it.  It is up to him now.  Sometimes we learn more from failure than  from an easy pass.

the_cross_rabbit

Hi if he enjoys gaming Manchester met university do a combined computing and gaming course with a year in industry. Never heard of it before but my friend’s daughter is a big gamer and this is what she is applying to do this year.
CRx

kerri_gt

the_cross_rabbit said:

Hi if he enjoys gaming Manchester met university do a combined computing and gaming course with a year in industry. Never heard of it before but my friend’s daughter is a big gamer and this is what she is applying to do this year.
CRx

One of our friends son was a gamer, he did other jobs and study but wrote some game / app (not sure the details) submitted it to a company and they basically head hunted him to join them. 
Naturally doing something for a hobby doesn't necessarily translate into wanting to do it for a job / career. I have a hobby I love and a couple of people say I should look to become an instructor - they think I'd be good. Nothing fills me with more fear / dread than standing in front of people telling them what to do and they know it  (based on that they still think I'd be good lol)

I also totally flunked my A-levels for various reasons - prob not all the subjects I should have chosen but they went together better than some I wanted, first year school was offering one of them and a 'little' too much socialising. It was the first time I'd done 'badly' at something and did give me the kick up the backside to know I needed to put more effort into my degree (although the first year was really a rehash of one of my a-levels in a lot of parts - again, prob why I shouldn't have bothered studying it). 
But again, girls and boys are two entirely different kettle of fish at times. 

Baileys_Babe

Thanks, everybody for your suggestions and observations. My ds is 15 and would like to get a part-time job to earn some money so he can have some independence. We would like him to get a job so he gets a reality check.

Ds has no idea what he wants to do long term or what route he might wish to take. A couple of months ago we directed him to the careers service and told him to start browsing and to make a long list of jobs which might interest him. Also to note down experiences and or qualifications to see if there is any overlap which would cover a range of occupations he may be interested. With the view, this will hopefully give him some direction 🤞

crazy_cat_lady

I can't believe how my two children can be so different. DD is motivated, hardworking and keen, and ds stays in bed all day and games all night. DD says I'm too soft and make too many excuses for him. So now he's being introduced to the world of consequences when he fails to do something. As he slept right through his alarm this morning and missed his live lesson he shouldn't be surprised to find that his phone has gone - only to be returned when his work is up to date. 
It is completely exhausting though that's for sure.

redofromstart

I feel your pain with UCAS, but I thought the applications now close on 29th or is the deadline one for his school to do their bit?  I stood over mine while he didn't write his stuff, and he actually really wants to do the courses he has selected.  Mine doesn't want to go if it is still online which I get.
DMU do a game design degree, I have two friends who have sons doing it, both recommend it.   

f0xh0les

He says he has no interest in a gaming degree.  So that is one off the list then.

Quite right @redofromstart the school want to look it over early before it is supposed to go in and then  they write their character assassination of him  -  but he still has not done it. 

His EPQ is not in either, and that deadline was Monday- his teacher has given him until Friday. 

It has really taken its toll on me this week.  I have had 2 emails from school today about DS2 and DS3 not being in one of their online lessons and banging on about attendance - they were both in all their lessons today.  I know as I was a prison guard patrolling the bedrooms and landings making sure they were online at the right time and watching the live lessons. They were.

Then that clown says 8th of March at the very earliest for schools, possibly, maybe, as long as  Venus is in conjunction with Mars in the 8th House,  might go back.   Which is exactly 19 days before the Easter Holidays.  So 3 weeks of lessons and then another 2 weeks off - possibly to see whether the death rates goes up again.    Another shocker today - over 1700.   Or is it so that he can tell us all to go on holiday over Easter?

I did wonder who he was going to get to staff these Summer Schools, that he suddenly pulled out of his hat,  to get everyone back up and running at their educational year level before September?   I am also annoyed at them dismissing all the yr 11 and 13 students as if they will never learn another thing for the rest of their natural lives.   Stop writing these kids off!  They are not all going to become teenage crack addicts and hoodlums. They still have brains. 

They will need opportunities, not to be told they are victims.

So what happened? I went out shopping for the bare essentials (bread and milk) , and came back with 1 litre of milk, 2 bags of oven chips, potato waffles, sausage rolls, crisps, party rings and 5 pots of B&J Choc Brownie ice cream, and 4 x 1 litre cartons of d/f double cream.     I cannot shop while stressed - I do not normally do stressed as it messes with my reasoning capabilities. My shopping turns into a 1970s beige buffet.  I cannot be trusted with a trolley. I got annoyed by people standing around on the street chatting.    Today was not a day I should have been allowed out in public.

So I am £25 lighter than I was, have barely anything I can make a meal out of, and still need to go shopping on the way to work tomorrow morning.  We have 1 litre of milk left and I am on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

But there you go. We are all in the same boat.

DS4 is taking advantage of the situation by avoiding both me, and his work.  So tomorrow night will involve Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday's work, and Friday is a half day as they need 'finishing off ' time.

  As long as he is doing the English and Maths and handwriting, he can skip his 'well being'  and PSHE work.   The amount of laughter and giggling coming out of the top floor means they are doing perfectly well and dwelling on 'Worries' and 'What frightens me' is not going to help him in the slightest.   Bunch of self obsessed narcissists that they are. 

f0xh0les

We are currently half way through Wednesday on the primary school work list. DS4 has just done a runner.  The fool. If he just sat and did it he would be all finished by lunchtime tomorrow.  Muppet.

The UCAS form went in!!!  Now just the extra credit module to get in today.

The house is clean and shiny and hoovered.  3 loaves of soda bread made.  Menu planned for the next  6 days or so.   I nabbed 2 of Herr L's  £1.50 f&v boxes yesterday, so the fruitbowl overfloweth, the fridge is rammed with lovely things, and I end the month with a bit of money left over. 

Only need to make another £1.50 and I will get another p/a payout - the surveys are coming and going so quickly at the minute. As soon as you get a notification they are full.      Still managing to clear about £10 a week though.

I have been living out my fantasy life as Columbian drug lord,  bagging up laundry powder in 5 washload portions, I have a full box of extremely dodgy looking product in the hallway, waiting to go back to the foodbank.  My kids are calling me Mrs Escobar!

The things we have to do to get by eh?  How can all my children know facts about Pablo Escobar but have no idea about Jess Phillips or Alastair Campbell or David Cameron? 

So on the cards (or the table) tonight is  3 salads  with battered veggie-prawns (£1 in Her0n) and wraps, and banana fritters with ice cream.  They will have more than their 5 a day in one meal.

Saturday is an Irish stew with soda bread, and a lasagne followed by a huge fruit salad and d/f cream - 69p for 1litre of d/f flora double cream.  Some fell into my Her0n basket this week.  Again, many more than the 5 a day

Sunday is some kind of chinese stir fry with  (ys) spring rolls, and 'A Roast,' consisting of  roasted veg, roast spuds,  yorkies, stuffing balls, peas and corn and carrots and gravy, because it is Sunday and that is the kind of thing my traditionalist children seem to think we should have.   Surprisingly the traditionalist trip to church, or after lunch walk is not in their vocabulary.   Compulsory 5 a day is in my vocabulary!

Monday is tomato and red pepper soup  with homemade foccacia for lunch, and a shepherds pie for supper.   Easy food as I am on a split shift at the f/b.  Might poach some pears, and they can have banana smoothies with their breakfasts. I froze some earlier this morning, so smoothies and 'nice' cream are going on the menu plan.

All of which can be done with no shopping necessary.  Monday is the 1st and so I will have a fat bank balance for 25 seconds until all the bills go out and I overpay a chunk off the mortgage.  It is limbo time until Monday payday, now.  Nothing can happen.

I 'spent' some free money on The Big River shop, on a tiny digital tv aerial for one of the tv's on the top floor.  If it works then I can get another 2 and the boys can all have a tv in their room if I find anymore little ones being given away on the local fascbook recycling site.  People are getting bigger and bigger tvs as I am getting smaller ones!  It is working quite well in my favour.  Plus I have one still in the kitchen that I might be able to get up and running with a sub £10 spend on a 'new' power supply.   Must get on with that.  It has been on the list for too long now.

That is a job for this weekend, find the part, then pounce when I have money on Monday.   Right. That's the plan.  Now to get on with it.

badmemory

Get your priorities right.  I am assuming the one in the kitchen is considered to be "yours".  In the grand scheme of things that would seem to be normal.  It should therefore come before boys' bedroom ones.  Unless they will pay for their own aerials of course.  I bet you can hear my laughter from there.