Room with a View

They may be young adults in their 20's and taking responsibility for their own lives and actions but to parents their offspring are still as small, vulnerable and in need of constant care and direction as though they were still infants.

This is the further stage in our family life with eldest daughter just deposited at a strange house ahead of her final year at University. Younger daughter has recently graduated and is in lodgings in another City where she is in her first full time employment. Youngest, our son. is at home amongst a suite of rooms vacated by his sisters.

It is not necessary to go into specifics about the location, postcode, demographic or crime statistics for this new neighbourhood but suffice to say it would not make it onto a relocation, relocation, relocation type TV programme but may feature regularly on Police Action type features.

Our first impression of the street, claustrophobic and with unusually narrow fronted  three storey Victorian terraced houses was founded in the dark. After a bit of a stressful drive on the M1 and hastily drawn up arrangements to collect the house key from someone behind twin decks at a rave we were not, as parents, really expecting too much.

Perhaps the weekly rent of £35 plus bills should have given a clue. Although I try to be optimistic and positive I am still firmly of the opinion that if something, like a cheap rent for a student house , is too good to be true then it invariably is not. In this case it appeared, before opening the front door, to be a fair reflection of quality and condition. I stepped over a discarded, split and discharging bin bag between the tailgate of the car and the gateway. Nudging the item with my foot I was startled by a movement within the black polythene but reassured by the emergence of a rolling  plastic pop bottle rather than a rodent or close relative.

The forecourt, raised and shallow behind an old brick wall was well overlooked by a good proportion of the housing opposite and in true middle class style when confronted by an inner city environment I clicked, re-clicked and clicked again the central locking on the car as though the accompanying flash of orange hazards would ward off unwanted attentions from behind net and partly drawn curtaining.

Another high step over the threshold and then an excited daughter as she explored the immediate ground floor living room, stair lobby, kitchen and boiler room. I noticed my wife drop her shoulders in an expression of acceptance of a student house and its characteristic fusty, musty odours but in this case, mixed in with a nicotine aroma. The first two years of the Uni course had been in brand new purpose built student apartments which represented everything a concerned and doting parent could hope for in a home away from home. The shoulder movement was subtle so as not to deflate the thrill of the moment.

I busied myself in examining the arrangement of heavy duty locks and bolts on the front door and found them quite impressive. Daughters room was on the first floor at the top of a very steep and tortuously turned staircase. Such was the gradient that I could stand half way up the flight and simply push bags and boxes at head height directly onto the landing.

In an earlier existence as a single family dwelling her room may have extended the full, albeit scant width of the house but as a concession to modern standards it had been partitioned to form an indoor bathroom and across a window that would have been a welcome second source of natural light. I understand that spartan and sparse are the new in-vogue styles for a 21st century lifestyle. The room followed the trend but on an enforced basis because of the restricted size rather than a commitment to a populist creed. Having transferred the contents of the car boot to the room there was hardly enough space to get into it. I again busied myself checking the sturdy mortice lock into her room.

Our son, helpful in the transit operation between car and house commented after one of the trips that for the calibre of the street there was certainly a higher than average concentration of BMW's with tinted windows than he had seen for a long time, apart from some celubrious parts of Bayswater and Kensington.

Daughter settled in instantaneously and was already talking about staying there for Christmas.

Me and the Wife were a bit emotional about the whole thing and also that daughter had not arranged any contents insurance cover. If the Insurance Company wanted any details I had busied myself memorising the types and brands of internal locks.

Feelings at such a time can be very mixed.

On the one hand you are very proud of your offspring taking up great opportunities to enrich their lives and futures but on the other it is hard to accept that they are indeed grown up. We were reassured, as we drove away over the speed bumps, by the fact that daughter had just spent the last 12 months living in Brooklyn, New York with no great dramas or concerns and had become assimilated into that vibrant, multi cultural environment. This location by comparison could appear rather suburban, pedestrian and boring.