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Home | The brat files | Chill-out zone | Who cares? | From adversity to adventure | Find out more
Age: 16
Jenni, who lives in a well-off part of Southampton, has a younger brother with whom she has always argued. Her parents say she has been constantly aggressive and argumentative.
"I wouldn't listen to my parents. If they said I couldn't go out I would be, like, yes I am thank you. They are so unbelievably whingy and so dramatic about everything, it's ridiculous. I don't care what her friends think. I think leaving a turd in the plant pot was quite funny."
Jenni's parents, Izzy and Jo, feel she has always been trying to upset them and purposely embarrassing them in front of friends. During the past year her parents have been concerned that she has become violent. An intelligent and articulate girl, she has been viciously rude to people close to her as well as everyone else.
Her parents have tried every sort of parenting. 'I feel her sheer enjoyment at upsetting me,' Izzy says. 'Jenni is destroying our family life. It's as if she wants to shock us the whole time. I went into her room once and there was a glass beside her bed with urine in it. On another occasion there was a massive turd in the plant pot. Another time, she was screaming and screaming and she just took a massive swipe at me. She also went through a phase of every time I spoke to her saying, "Shut up you fucking bitch from hell". It's very hard. I feel as though I've lost my daughter.'
"I pushed mum and she fell to the floor and was, like, rolling round on the floor. I can be so rotten to people and I can be really, really mean. I think my mum is just going to be retarded until she dies, to be quite hard about it."
Jo adds: 'If you ask her to pull the plug out of the bath, tidy her room or ask when she's going to be back or anything else she just picks a fight and screams and shouts. We have no means of control. Lots of people have advised us to throw her out, but I can honestly see that if we did she would be begging on the streets of London by now.'
Jenni has now got a job and she has a clean-cut look. She was keen to go on the camp, but panicked at the last minute. The camp has made a big difference.
Her parents say she is happy and fun to be with, able to appreciate consequences, committed and determined, but still untidy.
Jenni during camp said she, 'used to have a mild disinterest in horses, now I'm petrified of them'. After the camp she says 'I love my horse. I really have to go back to Utah in the summer. I miss everyone so much!'
Think you know better? Are you a teenager and think you can sort out other people's parents? Get a word in edgeways on the forum.
See also: Alex, Josh, Joe, Xanthe, Ed and Jemma
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