It was a day I’d been dreading. The lease on my son’s rented house came to an end this week and he asked me to help him move out. He’s fiercely independent and would have done the move by himself – except he’s got mountains of stuff, a turbo trainer and several bikes. He doesn’t have a car and the insurance on hiring a van would be sky-high. But when ...keep reading
The cacophony burst out of nowhere. Dozens of car horns hooted at full blast, a motorcyclist did an impressive wheelie in the middle of the street and wedding guests wound down their car windows and bellowed at the top of their voices. Most bizarrely of all, a man in a sharply cut suit gesticulated wildly from the roof of a Mini as it sped along. ‘Welcome to Marseille,’ laughed my ...keep reading
Your twenties are a golden decade – the time in your life when you’re free as a bird and blissfully happy. That’s the view of an Australian academic whose research hit the papers this week. The timing was particularly apt for me because a couple of days earlier I’d pitched up at a reunion with university friends I hadn’t clapped eyes on for thirty years. We’d all studied at the University of York ...keep reading
University open days are part of the academic calendar. Every university worth its salt throws its doors open at this time of year, giving teenagers the chance to tour the campus, meet students and teaching staff and ‘find out what it’s really like to live and study there.’ They admittedly leave out the non-stop drinking, rowdy all-night parties and wall-to-wall daytime TV. When I applied to university countless years ago ...keep reading
“I can’t believe I’m leaving you in Paris,” I told my daughter as we hugged goodbye on the Boulevard St Germain. “I’m more worried about leaving you on the metro,” she replied, deftly handing me a train ticket and a bright pink Post-it note with scribbled instructions to Charles de Gaulle Aéroport. We’d just spent two action-packed days together and it was time for me to head home while she embarked on ...keep reading
Like thousands of other teenagers, my son is counting the days till he starts university. He’s bought the Freshers’ Week wristband (it gets him into every Freshers’ event – alarming for me, thrilling for him), has worked out which student block he’ll be in and has “met” most of his new flatmates on Facebook. But what should he take with him? I mean, apart from the obvious things like his ...keep reading
Helicopter parents are a well-known phenomenon these days. You know, they’re the mums and dads who micro-manage every single aspect of their children’s time. They hover overhead, watch every move their children make and constantly check that their lives are going according to plan (the parents’ plan, that is). I didn’t realise though, that the trend has moved up a gear, with parents and even grandparents of university students meddling ...keep reading
Where did that time go? One minute my darling daughter was a baby with blonde curls and a penchant for Madeline books, felt-tip pens and The Jungle Book video. The next she’s a fiercely independent student who’s fixed an internship in London for the summer (with no help from me or her dad, I hasten to add) and moved into a rented flat with friends. When I was nineteen I ...keep reading