SparklyEarrings

I have heard this phrase so many times but I had no idea of the meaning! I thought it was just a cute sounding term of endearment. Thanks for this! I love this sort of thing.

I like to think my seances were at least entertaining. 🤣

Probably me. Unhealthy obsession with vampires and dead things, to the point of wearing fake fangs to school and carrying around a book on British folklore. I had a snake and used to take the sheds to school. Kicked a lad in the face during a really intense vampire game at a Halloween party at my house. Ended up dating him when we met up again at college in our teens, so at least all was forgiven! Ended up being diagnosed autistic in my 30s. Still obsessed with vampires, I write books about them now. Folklore remains a hobby and I'm a trained taxidermist in my spare time. PhD in Gothic Literature.

An edit. My point still stands, I'm not arguing with a drunk angry bloke on Reddit at 1am, whose reading skills are worse than my child's. As is your strop. Like I said - go and have that angry wank. There's absolutely no point in me debating with you, nor am I inclined to, because all you're doing is trying to bait me...and failing.  Again - nighty night. 

Your comprehension skills aren't very good. I didn't say that at all - I said she was let down at every turn by the same school we both attended. 1am on a Friday night, and an angry man on Reddit is trying to mansplain my lived experience to me, rambling about topics he has absolutely no knowledge on. Going to guess you've had a few too many, your wife's got sick of your ranting and gone to bed. Go and have an angry wank to the porn subs, that'll sort you out as all you're doing here is highlighting your incredibly poor reading skills. Nighty night. Hope the hangover isn't too bad.

That is an awful lot of guessing and putting words in my mouth. My father was a self employed gardener. My mother was a part time admin assistant. Neither of them quit their jobs at all. I didn't need to convince them of anything, they *saw* my grades plummeting and actually interacted with me *and the school* regarding my education. They put the choice to me, and I willingly accepted. I also don't have a *disdain* for schools. I'm sure there are plenty of good ones. My husband went to one, and did very well. I quite literally said, I'm sure my life would have turned out well *if I had gone to a decent school*. None were available.  All you're doing here is showing *your* disdain, and lack of knowledge, regarding home education. 

I left school because the teachers couldn't control (and sometimes couldn't be bothered to try) massive classes of unruly pupils. Half of the lessons would consist of screaming and shouting, poor behaviour, and a stressed/bored looking teacher standing at the front looking like they'd like to sink into a hole in the ground.  My career success is *absolutely* due to my education. I knew from a young age what I wanted to do and what I needed to do to achieve it. I wasn't getting those opportunities from school. I don't come from a well off background with any contacts. My education was exactly what got me where I am, that and being dedicated.  If it had been a decent school then I'm sure I'd be in the same position I am now. Unfortunately, decent schools weren't available. I was lucky to have clever parents who dedicated themselves to my education. The same as my husband and I are now doing for our son - we both work part time in our respective careers and home educate. It was that or private school, which isn't a guarantee of a good education either. So we took the same financial loss as we'd have spend on school fees by going part time.

I'm sure there are *some* parents who are doing that. There were also *some* parents in the 90s doing it for other ridiculous reasons. The vast majority aren't.  Social media shows people doing the above - or rather, *saying* they might do the above. The people ranting about this kind of thing get noticed because they're loud. Most home educating parents are just getting on with it.  Social media gives people the ability to air these views, but it doesn't mean they'll actually follow through nor that they're even anywhere near a majority. It's a bit silly to say that today's parents are illogical and misled. *Some* might be, but again - not all.  If you went into Liverpool city centre on a Saturday night, you'd think we were a city of drunken knobs because drunken knobs are loud and obvious. The knobs exist, of course they do, but the reality is they're not a majority and nor are they even doing it 24/7.

Your inability to think broadly is showing. Dear me. 

And you're willfully ignoring that school is not a shining beacon of safety. The lads painting flags on the roundabouts in town and throwing up in the gutter, screaming abuse at anyone who looks sideways at them aren't exactly shining examples of schools churning out quality citizens. 

My other neighbour has two sons in their late teens. They're drug dealing, antisocial little rats who have been in and out of prison/young offenders units or whatever they're called for years.  I don't think they've got a GCSE between them. School certainly wasn't helping them, there may have been *some* level of checks but there's really only so much that can be done in a massive class in a deprived area, with Music teachers carted in to teach Maths.  I absolutely understand that there are issues with *some* home educated children slipping through the cracks, but school is not a bastion of academic glory or child safety. My husband used to be a teacher and left the profession as he was told, and I quote, "don't get involved. Just do your job and go home."

Same here! I found college so irritating because no one wanted to bloody learn. The teachers did try a little bit harder than I remember in school, but certainly half heartedly. Uni was better because the vast majority of people actually wanted to be there by that stage, but God I hated college. 

I was home educated, too. PhD here and lecturer in a university.  School was hell for me. Big city, massive classes, and teachers who either couldn't control their pupils or couldn't be bothered trying. I flourished at home, as did my brother, and we had a very busy and fun social life too.  Just as there are children who will be let down in home education, there will be children let down in schools. My neighbour is the same age as me, went to the same school I did, and while she's very clever she was let down at every turn and now works in Tesco. Absolutely nothing wrong with that *at all*, but the people saying that home education equates to educational neglect are wrong.  Abuse can happen everywhere and anywhere. Home education isn't a cesspit of abuse. There are flaws just as there are flaws in the school system - I know two people who were molested by peers in school, and the school did nothing about it. I know none who were abused by their home educating parents. 

There are many parents who *do* home educate (home schooling is the American terminology), and do a perfectly good job. I was home educated as was my brother. I'm now a lecturer in a university, and he's a solicitor. We attended group meetings regularly, did extracurriculars such as drama, music, dance. No issue socialising and a very nice life. Far better than the life I'd have had if I'd stayed in an abysmal school with overworked teachers and out of control pupils. There are *some* parents who abuse the ability to home educate, but there are plenty out there who don't. All of the friends I made as a child have gone on to have successful lives. 

Not really though. The guy who okayed it on the phone to me won't have been the person who ticked off the form I sent and accepted it. It's the people manning the phonelines who are hit and miss.  I can't speak for the passport office because I haven't got one. DVLA is known for being useless when you ring them.

I'd honestly just give it a go! I thought the same as you did, and I panicked a bit because while I do know a few people in those positions, none of them can bloody drive! But this worked absolutely fine. Another guy I spoke to didn't have a clue what he was doing and just kept reading from the website. Second guy was lovely. I'd just send it off tbh! Get it special delivery so you can track any documents. It's more expensive but worth it for peace of mind. I'd honestly wager that you'll be fine with the ex mechanic or engineer. 

The DVLA offer a list of *suggestions*. They don't need to be people directly on that list, nor do they need to have degrees. I got my licence sorted a few weeks ago. My neighbour is a Subway manager and he signed for me.  DVLA told me it's all just suggestions and that yes, it does all sound a bit silly. You're taking things to literally and possibly getting jobsworths on the phone when you ring the DVLA.

My neighbour is a shop manager and he did mine. 

We do first footing in Liverpool! Well, some families do. I think it's more an older generation thing these days - my dad would make a massive deal out of it. We loved it. I'm 35 now and carried on the tradition, but not many of my peers do.

I'd prefer that tbh, but I keep seeing stories of people being banned on the spot because it buggers up. I did it for Reddit just fine, but it's a different company on Discord.

Tea. Normal and herbal. Coffee. Hot and iced.  I like the non-alcoholic gin - Clear I think it's called. Nice with fruity mixers and ice. Non alcoholic prosecco isn't too bad if it's cold.  Fizzy elderflower water is nice. Lots and lots of water!

I recently had a wisdom tooth removed. Called a dentist for an emergency appointment, and had it seen and sorted on the same day for £75. That was NHS.  They did emergency NHS appointments, but had no spaces for new patients. I've since found a new NHS dentist and for the other wisdom tooth I'm having removed, it was £27 for an initial consultation, and it'll be £75 in a few weeks for removal.  I don't know about your area, but in mine most dentists will offer you emergency treatment on the NHS even if they can't sign you up to their surgery. I've had a filling done in the past like that, too. 

'Tick' in Liverpool, too. My son calls it 'tag' and it drives me mad!

Can't stand roast dinners, not even at Christmas. Don't like Monty Python. Most definitely do not do polite and friendly when I'm pissed off. Hate football. The monarchy can sod off.  Love Marmite though, and have a dark sense of gallows humour which has made non-Brirish friends *very* uncomfortable in the past.

When my dad died, he stipulated no black and no mourning behaviour. We all wore bright hippy/boho style clothes.

Yep, 35 here and I remember going to my first club at 15.  Can't imagine it now! I think I burned out on clubs by the time I was 21. 😂

That actually made me feel *rage* on your behalf. They still haven't moved on from their hidden expenses, either. Charged me for getting the entrance line into my house moved from the living room to the hall, despite absolutely no mention of this beforehand.  But *five hundred pounds*. I remember when we first got Virgin "on demand" music, and you could buy music videos to watch. Entirely my own fault, but I think I racked up something like 90 quids worth one month, and that was bad enough. But at least it was my fault. I'm going to aggressively drink a cup of tea about that now. Bastards.

Yes! The worst here was when the engineer came out, got us back online. Not five minutes after he left, and the bloody thing had gone down again. It was like groundhog day!

Ooohh, did your MiniHub work? I called it a SmartHub in my post but it's been a while so I was wrong. I've used it once, and it suddenly disconnected and wouldn't even switch back on. Then they tried to charge me, saying I must have damaged it! I've had days where it's been up and down a dozen times, too. It always seemed to coincide with bad weather, but they'd always deny it and say it made no difference. Weird considering I'd go all summer with it working fine, then a smidgen of rain and down it goes. When you tell them you're WFH they don't even care. The engineers seem as baffled as I've been half the time, so God knows what's going on there.

It's genuinely appalling. The engineers insist it's running on full speed when it won't even load a bloody YouTube video! Glad to be free of them.

Interesting. I was with Virgin for ages and they'd usually be out the next morning, sometimes later in the day. BT and it's usually 2+ days. And the fuckers refused to refund me when I was internetless for over a week.

Strange! I've had them in a few different properties and they've always been a nightmare. Maybe I've just been unlucky. Either way, just the name gets my blood pressure up these days. 

BT. Their Internet service is a fucking disaster. Rainy? Well there goes your connection. Trying to actually contact them to fix it is impossible, because all they do is book an engineer to come out. In several days time. Oh, they'll send a SmartHub, but it won't turn up until the engineer is on the doorstep. Then they don't let you keep it for the next time it all goes to buggery.  Also Nestlé. Fuck Nestlé. 

Same here, I teach Literature and when students ask me for recs outside of class reading material, I'm always pushing this.  I remember it had a profound effect on my dad, and he couldn't wait until I was old enough to understand it. He'd talked about it so much I felt like I knew the characters personally. 

This was and still is *the* most important book I've ever read in my life. I came to say exactly the same thing.

Omg, I once bought him a fancy pants kettle with all different settings for Christmas. It was dead within 6 months. 💀 

My old dad was like this. Don't think I ever saw him drink a glass of water!

Travel, but keep your finger in the game with qualifications and any volunteer work to build up your CV. Keep an eye on your chosen field.

He's not in school yet. 🤦‍♀️ I've just had a look though and it seems like I might have been reading it wrong. I *do* have a birth certificate and marriage certificate, so that alongside a referee without access to my records might be do-able.  Very possibly running on fumes trying to sort it and misunderstanding. 😵‍💫 I kind of hope so because that's easier.

So they didn't need to have physical access to your records? This is what's concerning me. Like I know people in professions that would match but I don't know if they're going to query information they haven't got.