Remember university open days?
You'd blag a day of school or college and go to see the universities to which you were applying... except that in reality you'd sort of stick your head around the door and then go to see what the beer prices were in the Union, and spend the rest of the day there before belatedly realising that you were about to miss the last train home and didn't know how to get to the station anyway. Good times.

Now?

Prospective students come with their parents. Some come with both. Seriously. On any given open day, we get at least as many parents as potential students. It's completely bizarre.

I'm pretty certain that there'll be parents coming along to registration within a couple of years.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 5 May 2016, 15:57, 11 replies)

is that because they are paying for it these days?

( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 5 May 2016, 17:17, closed)

I'd wondered, but I don't think that that passes muster.
I mean, it's not as if parents'd stop their kids going to university; and since all universities charge the same, it's not as if they'd even stop the kid going to the university of their choice. (Note that this phenomenon isn't restricted to students from cultural backgrounds where we might - with or without grounds - expect parents to be more protective of daughters/ nervous about them leaving home. It's universal. Unfortunately, it's universal cretinism.)
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 5 May 2016, 21:39, closed)

It's because my kid is thick and I don't trust it enough to give it a front door key, never mind choose the right place to waste 3 years getting pissed and racking up debt.

( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Thu 5 May 2016, 22:06, closed)

I work in a Uni and this was one of the first things I noticed
When I was uni hunting I hopped on a train to London had a nose around, stayed the night and came home. My parents weren't the slightest bit interested in where I went. When I left school and went to college they had no input either. I guess the cut off point was 16. Now I get angry phone calls from parents because their precious 20 year old baby is unable to sort things out for themselves.

Mind you, some of the mums are quite fit.
( Peej, Fri 6 May 2016, 8:19, closed)

uni?
or soft play?
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 6 May 2016, 9:15, closed)

Could you afford that?

( Peej, Fri 6 May 2016, 10:00, closed)

even if i could
I wouldn't be caught dead at a soft play centre.

hell.


on.


earth.

hot noisy screaming hell.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 6 May 2016, 10:03, closed)

What will you do when it's pissing with rain and your toddler is going stir crazy?

( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 6 May 2016, 11:21, closed)

What a bitch eh
My kids like soft play centres so I take them. She's right, its hell on earth sometimes but some of the good ones sell booze.
( Peej, Fri 6 May 2016, 11:29, closed)

i shall have to work that day, whatever day it is
and that will be meaty's problem :)
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 6 May 2016, 11:46, closed)

Swipe can afford almost anything.

( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 6 May 2016, 14:01, closed)