Schoolies Week 2014: Everything parents (and kids) need to know

SCHOOLIES get all the advice for their once-in-a-lifetime week, but what about the parents? Well Mum and Dad, you need not be in the dark any more.

THE only evidence of my Schoolies Week is a set of photos from a night dubbed “pants off Friday” where my knee is bleeding from falling over drunk in the rain, I’m wearing light-up devil horns, my eyes are squinting and I’m clutching a can of pre-mix alcohol that makes me want to vomit if I catch a whiff of it today.

Schoolies is for throwing off the shackles of 12 years of schooling, and I believed I would never have more fun or be as free as I was during those seven days.

I also thought what happened, or what I missed out on, during that one week would set me on my life’s trajectory, which piled on the pressure to have The Best Week Ever.

I now know how ridiculous that is, but just as it’s important for schoolies to keep the week in perspective, it’s important for parents to as well. This is what you need to know:

1. Be on call

My mum is one of my greatest allies, and it was no different during Schoolies. When she told me the mantra I was to live by for that week - “no drugs, drink responsibly and look after your friends” - I listened. She promised to check in with one phone call a day, but I could call her at midday, 11pm, 4am - whenever I needed it. And I did. As it always does for 17-year-olds who’ve been drinking too much, the bitchiness got out of hand and I hid in the hallway and called her. Make sure your kids know they can call you. And be sure to load them up with plenty of refrigerated meals. Cooking a meal is absolutely not on anyone’s agenda that week, but reheating mum’s spaghetti sure is.

2. Drinking

It’s going to happen. As much as organisers push for the event to be alcohol-free, and police crack down on older friends and parents supplying drinks, alcohol is what the week revolves around. If you think the decree that your child must stick to one drink each night will work, accept that might not be the case. Yes, it’s illegal to drink underage, but it’s everywhere and it’s a long, long week with a lot of peer pressure. Don’t live in denial.

3. Drugs

They’re also going to be available, but to a lesser degree than drinking. Drugs may be less taboo then ever but that doesn’t make them worth the risk, and it’s a conversation you need to have with your child just as you would about alcohol.

4. Sex

It’s no different to what can happen at any other teenage gathering, and your child may have sex. Pack them some condoms and broach the topic just like drinking and drugs. Remind your teen that news of what they do that week could spread fast. My Schoolies was thankfully before social media sunk its fangs into the youth. Morning-after Snapchats without permission are the thing of nightmares. Teens need to know that a friend passed out on the beach should not lie there a minute longer so they can snap a picture and upload it to social media for laughs. It’s a terrible friend move, and they never know when they will be the vulnerable one needing help, not a hashtag.

5. Drama, drama, drama

It’s a lot of excitement, hysteria and build-up for one week, and it pays off with explosive bust-ups and cat fights, with the Gold Coast turning into a competitive teen jungle. There was no inkling of issues before my Schoolies, but alcohol and boy-crazy friends led to trouble. I was so annoyed by a friend’s faux-drunk behaviour I purposefully let her walk into a pole. Another friend decided to party in our neighbour’s room and turned into a kleptomaniac. At 3am there was violent banging on our door as the girls from next door tried to storm the room to reclaim their property. We had to call the Red Frogs to protect us. We fled a hotel in a hail of ping pong balls after a stripper arrived. The stories about what went on became legendary for all the wrong reasons.

6. What’s the risk?

You might think Schoolies amounts to the riskiest week of your teenager’s life, but it’s not. Once they hit the golden age of 18, everything that is tantalisingly on the fringes of their life during that week because of their age snaps from illegal to legal (or easier to get) overnight, and is forever at their fingertips. One night out in the Valley and alcohol, drugs, sex and drama is all there. Schoolies is a training ground.

7. What it’ll mean

It means nothing. Remind your teen that what happens during that week won’t shape their future, so if they miss a moment, a joke, an opportunity, it’s not going to short-circuit their future. If everyone hooks up with their crushes and they don’t, it is OK. There is so much more time. Downing an extra shot when they can’t see straight while sitting on a balcony railing because their friends are, won’t make them get a better OP, get them into the university course they want or get them that plane ticket to Europe. It could lead to hospital and lives shattered, which would mean something.