Feeling a bit pointless after the uni drop off? So did Madonna and Rob Lowe amongst others…… Read More “Empty nest syndrome” or What’s good enough for Madonna is good enough for me
Thursday, 18th August is a crucial morning if you are a parent of an A-level student. Get yourself in panic-free mode to deal with any result.… Read More What to expect on A-level results day 2016
Your child, let’s call her Edwina again, has managed to bag a room on Readingham University campus and can’t wait to kit it out in style. She’s thinking matching cups and plates, decorative desk tidy and floral bedspreads. But have a look at our list before you dash off for what is likely to be a humdinger of a shop to Ikea, or even John Lewis – and, as much as I have sold my soul to John Lewis on a few occasions, in this instance: just NO!… Read More You and your fresher: Read this before you rush out to the shops!
Summertime… and the living should be easy, but I fear that what we can actually expect will be invigorating but much less relaxing than Gershwin. Here is what’s likely to be going on in the mature family’s house this summer: Temperamental weather. Living in the British Isles, we talk the talk about barbecues and picnics,… Read More Summertime with adult children – chilling with challenges
Parenting is tough – as we learned this week. Mess up and the twitter mob will have you on the pillory!… Read More Harambe and Yamato Tanooka: suddenly everyone’s a parenting expert – or an expert parent
I guess I knew that there was ample chance that I would eat my smug empty nester blog words at some point, and this month it happened. My youngest, let’s call her Edwina again, has left her uni halfway through her first year and moved in back home. We made sure this wasn’t just a… Read More Your child at university – when it doesn’t go quite to plan
I’ve done that very rare thing of following my own advice and met up with some lovely parents since uni drop-off day to catch up with how everyone has been getting on. An entirely different occasion happened to be my high school reunion (30th – ouch!). Not only have these been fun evenings out (and… Read More 10 Things I’ve learned since finding myself in an empty nest
The uni drop-off “A child enters your home and for the next twenty years makes so much noise you can hardly stand it. The child departs, leaving the house so silent you think you are going mad.” —John Andrew Holmes Together with thousands of other parents all over the UK we dropped our youngest daughter… Read More Where we stand when they’ve flown the nest: from uni drop off back to the empty nest
In the short lifespan of this blog one topic that has come up frequently is money! Long gone are the days of grants or even reasonable tuition fees, so the subject of being clever with your student loan at age 18 is a hot topic in 2015. There are some very helpful websites out there… Read More Penny pinching at university – helping your fresher with money management
Is your fresher getting nervous about their start at uni? Help is at hand. A survey of recent graduates, unrepresentative and anecdotal though it may be, will give candid snippets of advice, even if it is just to remind them, that despite the varying exteriors, most freshers are as nervous as they are.… Read More Fresher tips from those who know best – recent graduates!
Hello empty nest... I've been expecting you! 