Should I take a gap year?

I applied to uni this year to study law at five RG unis (received 3 offers so far) all outside of London. Without going into too much detail, I’m having some family difficulties regarding looking after my mum. I wouldn’t personally describe myself as a young carer, but I’ve been told before that in some ways I am a young carer by my psychiatrist. I’m a bit worried to leave her on her own as it seems like she’s not really getting any better and she’s not looking after herself properly. I’ve had conversations with her about this and how I have so much anxiety about going to uni bc I don’t know how I’d be able to leave her when she’s not got support in place. She said she’ll consider it but I doubt she’ll end up saying yes to help as she can be quite stubborn. In the likely event that she doesn’t, I’m thinking of taking a gap year to stay home and look after her so she hopefully can come around to the idea of getting more support. I don’t love London as a uni city but it’s not like I hadn’t planned on coming back anyway. My current firm choice is a midlands uni which isn’t too far, but it’s not close enough for me to check in regularly with my mum in case anything bad happens. I didn’t apply to any London unis this year bc I wanted to leave, and still do, for uni, but I’d be happy to reapply to London unis on my gap year. I also didn’t apply bc they were really competitive and I didn’t think I would get in. I really like KCL’s courses for law and I quite liked UCL too when I visited, but it’s not as much as a campus uni which I think I prefer more than city unis. I didn’t apply to LSE because of my GCSEs but I might rethink it over. A gap year would also allow me to make sure that I want to apply to law since I never really explored many other options when applying and there are other subjects that I like but didn’t do much research into in terms of degrees. I would also be able to work and I rreallly like my job even if it’s only part time right now. If I were to reapply, I think I still might only apply to one or two London options and keep my other choices open for cities closer to home or with good transport links. This is all taking a toll on me mentally and I’m probably overthinking it all but I’m just a bit worried about my mum since it’s just me and her. She doesn’t want me to take a gap year and has encouraged me from the beginning to leave London for a few years to explore and then come back, so I’m worried that these aren’t the right reasons to take a gap year. What do you guys think?

I applied to uni this year to study law at five RG unis (received 3 offers so far) all outside of London. Without going into too much detail, I’m having some family difficulties regarding looking after my mum. I wouldn’t personally describe myself as a young carer, but I’ve been told before that in some ways I am a young carer by my psychiatrist. I’m a bit worried to leave her on her own as it seems like she’s not really getting any better and she’s not looking after herself properly. I’ve had conversations with her about this and how I have so much anxiety about going to uni bc I don’t know how I’d be able to leave her when she’s not got support in place. She said she’ll consider it but I doubt she’ll end up saying yes to help as she can be quite stubborn. In the likely event that she doesn’t, I’m thinking of taking a gap year to stay home and look after her so she hopefully can come around to the idea of getting more support. I don’t love London as a uni city but it’s not like I hadn’t planned on coming back anyway. My current firm choice is a midlands uni which isn’t too far, but it’s not close enough for me to check in regularly with my mum in case anything bad happens. I didn’t apply to any London unis this year bc I wanted to leave, and still do, for uni, but I’d be happy to reapply to London unis on my gap year. I also didn’t apply bc they were really competitive and I didn’t think I would get in. I really like KCL’s courses for law and I quite liked UCL too when I visited, but it’s not as much as a campus uni which I think I prefer more than city unis. I didn’t apply to LSE because of my GCSEs but I might rethink it over. A gap year would also allow me to make sure that I want to apply to law since I never really explored many other options when applying and there are other subjects that I like but didn’t do much research into in terms of degrees. I would also be able to work and I rreallly like my job even if it’s only part time right now. If I were to reapply, I think I still might only apply to one or two London options and keep my other choices open for cities closer to home or with good transport links. This is all taking a toll on me mentally and I’m probably overthinking it all but I’m just a bit worried about my mum since it’s just me and her. She doesn’t want me to take a gap year and has encouraged me from the beginning to leave London for a few years to explore and then come back, so I’m worried that these aren’t the right reasons to take a gap year. What do you guys think?