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Original poster

Teenagers holidays in Magaluf

36 replies

allo2101 · 17/01/2013 14:46

My nearly 17 year old has just wound me up by pretending to have booked a holiday in Magaluf this summer. After a few irate texts from me she admitted she was joking - but she still wants to go next year. I know it's a rite of passage and they all do it, but the news reports and various TV shows scare me to death. She's relatively sensible-ish but I have no idea how she'd be with lots of peer pressure and so on. I know once she's 18 I can't say no but am fretting about this already. Need some reassurance or otherwise!! It's the whole Geordie Shore influence and I hate it!!

OP posts:
theodorakisses · 17/01/2013 14:52

Have you seen the Stacey Dooley documentary? I trust her, she isn't usually sensationalist and it was horrific. Regular rapes and attacks, sex games where pissed girls are encouraged to give blow jobs on stage and generally exploitation of young people. You can't stop her but I would worry, it's so bloody hard, why can't they stay 7?

TheTiger · 17/01/2013 14:56

I went at 17. I didn't tell my mum til I had booked it. I loved it.

DS is never, ever, ever going. I will steal his passport if I have to! Not a chance is he getting up to anything that I did!!

Original poster
allo2101 · 17/01/2013 14:59

I know - I'd like them to jump from being about 12 to being 23 - they all seem to find it highly amusing but they just don't see the dangers that ensue on these things. I haven't seen the documentary, Sun Sex and Suspicious Parents is enough to scare me!!

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specialsubject · 17/01/2013 15:00

it's a bit sad that lots of kids only think had a good time if they can't remember it. No objection to alcohol, but to drink just to get unconscious seems a bit sad.

all you can do is remind her that getting blasted means she is a) going to look and be disgusting b) vulnerable to rape or injury and c) will not be covered by her travel insurance for rape or injury. This means that she had better start saving for a possible hospital stay or medevac. If (hopefully) these things don't happen, then she has lots of savings.

Sugarice · 17/01/2013 15:02

Shall we start a 'Teens first foreign holiday' support thread! Grin

DS1 is going to Kavos in June, he will have just only turned 18. I am very unhappy at the thought of him and his friends being there but if not there , it will be some other resort with much the same ethos of 'having fun'.

I sympathise with you, it's very hard to say no especially if all of her friends are allowed to go.

WileyRoadRunner · 17/01/2013 15:05

Ahhh Shagaluf.....

YummyDollie · 17/01/2013 15:06

The more you say no etc the more likely she is to book up and go when she's 18, I'm only 22 myself (am currently pregnant with first baby - a girl - and dreading what I know is coming when she hits teen years!) but I went on two girls holidays when I was your daughters age one to magaluf and one to marmaris in turkey. I can assure you the TV documentaries make it look ALOT worse than it actually is! I saw non of what the poster above me mentions although I know stuff like that most definatley can happen,, it all boils down to the descions your daughter makes, do you trust her enough to just let her have that week of freedom? I can assure you her and her friends will argue and fall out whilst on holiday I think nearly all girls do on their first girly holiday but fortunately the "wild girls holiday" is just a part of her age and the current trends. I can honestly assure you its not as bad as you think its going to be, just don't watch the TV programmes on it all they make it look worse as it makes good TV, if you know your daughter is sensible she'll be 100% fine and she'll come back from that holiday with lots of lessons learnt and a new outlook on things, honest! Smile

YummyDollie · 17/01/2013 15:08

Sorry I was referring to the poster who mentioned the TV documentry lots of people posted while I was slowly typing out my comment Blush

littlewhitebag · 17/01/2013 15:09

My friends son went to Shagaluf when he was 18 with a bunch of mates. Mt friend e mailed the hotel without his knowledge to request they were given rooms on the ground or first floor to minimise balcony accidents. He returned intact!

My DD on the other hand was much more cultured and went to Paris with her best friend at 17!

pjmama · 17/01/2013 15:09

I had my first parent free Spanish holiday at 17 - I snogged 11 boys in 10 days, pretty dull by today's standards but it was the 80's! Grin
All you can do is drum the dangers into her and hope she's as sensible (boring) as I was. Or you could book into the hotel next door, disguise yourself and follow her around? I'm considering this for when mine go! (joking - mostly)

DragonMamma · 17/01/2013 15:09

I went to Kavos when I was 17 with my friends. It was like a meat market and even at that young age I was shocked at how disgusting it was. Luckily we booked through a non youngsters company so our accommodation was fine but the rest was just dire.

My mum paid, think she was only too glad to get me off the family holidays.

theodorakisses · 17/01/2013 15:10

Its ok,I agree it's all about perspective. I think the reps on the organised holidays are vile though

carabos · 17/01/2013 15:22

DH has worked in Mallorca on and off for the last three years. I have been there to visit him lots of times. I have never been to Shagaluf because he point blank refuses to take me on the grounds that "You don't want those images in your head". He's not a fuddy duddy and has travelled extensively.

redexpat · 17/01/2013 18:10

I remember seeing an episode of sun sea and suspicious parents, and the parents of the girls kept saying 'Oh don't they look glamourous and beautiful? Oh thank God they're drinking lots of water, oh good they're being sensible...' If she behaves responsibly during a night out at home she'l probably do the same on holiday. Do you know her friends well?

Original poster
allo2101 · 17/01/2013 18:19

She's usually fairly sensible at home although she and her friends do drink at parties but are normally more or less in one piece at the end of the evening. She's very anti-drugs but not anti boys Smile but it's hopefully another 18 months away so she has time to become more sensible in the meantime. I do know her friends, one is sensible, the other less so Hmm I'm going to let her have a short break in this country this summer (not Newquay!) as a little trial run. Thanks for all the replies - at least I'm not being totally paranoid it seems!

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TinyDancingHoofer · 17/01/2013 18:37

I went at 16 and don't think i even got a snog. Was more about dancing with my girls. Though next holiday was a bit different Blush.

gindrinker · 17/01/2013 19:26

I went on a hen do there at the end of the season, we were 25-30, got drunk, flirted with stag parties and sat on the beach. It was harmless.
I can imagine with a younger crowd it would be wilder, but if she's going to snog boys and get wasted she can do that in her home town.
If her and her friends are fairly sensible here then it will carry on even on holiday.

specialsubject · 17/01/2013 19:37

if they are sensible why do they want to go to this dump?

determinedma · 17/01/2013 19:46

Glad that my two have never wanted to go and probably couldn't think of anything worse!

iloveeverton · 17/01/2013 19:51

I went to magaluf for a weekend with the girls last year (I'm 31!) It was a massive fail on my behalf- I booked Palma Nova instead of Palma (nice bars, cathedral etc!)

It was hell- she will not want to go there- vomit everywhere, drunken idiots, fighting. When I was younger we went to greece- Rhodes, Kos- much nicer but still lots of fun.

ajandjjmum · 17/01/2013 19:56

DS went to Shagaluf with a group of mates, and enjoyed it, despite being attacked and having his wallet stolen by a group of prostitutes! He coming up for 21 now, and has just booked to go away with another group of friends to Portugal - so he's growing up! Grin

DD went to Ayia Napa - group of girls, never really ends well. But it was friendships that were damaged rather than people, so no real worries. DD is VERY sensible.

katiecubs · 17/01/2013 20:05

hmm i went on a few of these type holidays when younger - including Kavos. We got hideously drunk and had a great time but it was all fairly harmless - i don't think there is much you can do to prevent it. TBH university was more of the same, just part of growing up......

Newtothisstuff · 17/01/2013 20:23

I've been to maggers loads! The last time being last year (I'm early 30's) I absolutely love it ! It's what you make it. If she's sensible enough and doesn't drive to oblivion she will be fine, I've been for 2 hen weekends and a couple of weekends here and there,Palma beach is nice enough and the bars are fun !! I'd probably wait until she's 18 tho. Ask her if I can come Grin

SassySask · 17/01/2013 20:29

All part of the experience of growing up!
Just make it your job to teach her more about safety and whatnot. The TV programmes are so OTT, I wouldn't take them with more than a pinch of salt to be honest! It'll be so much worse for you if all her friendship group go and she doesn't!

Original poster
allo2101 · 18/01/2013 20:01

Thanks for all the replies. We've compromised on a holiday staying with a friend's family in Portugal this year and will tackle the Magaluf situation again next year - although she'll be 18 by then so not a lot I can do about it!!

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