‘Really stressed’: Schoolies parent trend reveals grim fear
Schoolies weekend has kicked off and news.com.au has discovered what every parent’s worst nightmare is as their kids let loose.
School leavers have revealed the one thing their parents begged them not to do while they’re away enjoying Schoolies.
Schoolies is always a cesspit of vodka cruisers, crop tops and lanyards, and young people letting loose before they’re forced to work out how they’re going to spend the rest of their lives contributing to society and paying taxes.
For almost three weeks of the year, the Gold Coast, specifically Surfers Paradise, is overrun with teenagers as they relish in their newfound freedom.
It is also a tough time for parents, who are essentially releasing their children into the wild and probably won’t know what they’re up to until the videos get posted on TikTok.
With that in mind, news.com.au headed down to Surfers Paradise to ask Schoolies attendees what their parents had warned them not to do.
The answers were mostly what you’d expect.
Two girls stopped to chat and shared that they were both told by their parents not to “do drugs” under any circumstances.
Another girl laughed and said her mum’s advice was “don’t go too crazy”.
Another said her mum offered her some pretty basic safety advice.
“She said don’t take a drink that has already been opened! Open it yourself,” she said.
Similarly one girl wearing a lanyard said her mum’s advice was very to the point.
“No drugs and no pregnancy!” she recounted.
Her mate next to her said the mum had also given the “don’t get pregnant” warning to her, for good measure.
One girl joked that she was just told by her parents “not to get an STD”, and someone else said she was simply told not to behave like her brother.
Interestingly, though, the most common piece of advice was about balconies.
Worried parents are telling their children not to go on them at all out of fear that something will go horribly wrong.
One young blonde said her parents straight-up told her “don’t go on the balcony” while away.
Her friend chimed in, saying her parents had issued the same warning.
“My parents did say that! Low key they were really stressed about that,” the mate said.
Similarly, a girl said her parents told her not to “not fall off the balcony”, and a group of boys stopped and admitted their parents had warned them off balconies too.
“My parents said watch out for the balcony. It is dangerous,” one boy said.
Two other mates stopped to chat with a similar story, admitting that balcony safety warnings were pretty common for Schoolies.
“That was a big thing!” one of them said.
“We’ve got a guy in our group, and he is a bit of a loose cannon, and we’ve locked the balconies and given the hotel keys and stuff! We don’t want to be risky about that.”
The parental fear about balconies does not come from nowhere.
In 2012, Isabella Colman died during Schoolies after falling from a 26th-floor hotel balcony.
She was only 17 years old, from Queensland, and was a “much-loved” member of her local community.
Tragedy struck again in 2019 when Charlie Scott, an 18-year-old from Melbourne, died after falling from the Hilton Hotel tower.
He was also a much-loved member of his community, and one friend paid tribute to him by describing him as “one of the best blokes you will ever meet”.
The official Schoolies website also has a whole list of rules dedicated to which behaviour should not be tolerated on balconies.
The rules state that under “no circumstances” should there be any yelling from balconies, nor should anything be hung, thrown or dropped from them.
Schoolies attendees are also warned that under no circumstances are they allowed to climb or hang over balconies, and that the maximum number of guests allowed on a balcony is the number of guests registered to the room.
Originally published as ‘Really stressed’: Schoolies parent trend reveals grim fear
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