Balllina mum's tough love for unruly son | Northern Rivers News | Local News in Northern Rivers

Rebecca Lollback | 4th July 2009

STRICT MOVE: Lyndal Denny fears for the wellbeing of her son Jono so much she has sent him from Ballina to live with ‘new parents’ in South Africa.

Courtesy of Channel 7

A BALLINA mum was so worried her son would end up 'dead in a gutter or in jail' that she felt she had no option but to send him to live with 'new parents' in South Africa.

Lyndal Denny said her son Jono, 16, has been in 'an enormous amount of trouble'.

“I don't know how many times I reported him to the police as missing,” she said.

“Then he moved into a house with a group of other young boys, aged 15 to 18. It was appalling.

“This house, which I call the 'lost boys home', had a lot of parents in Ballina very worried.

“There were drugs and alcohol. There was no 9.30pm bedtime or homework. It was anarchy.

“I'd take the phone to bed with me and wait for a call, expecting the worst. I couldn't sleep imagining beatings, stabbings.

“I felt hopeless, but Jono said it was part of his journey. It was a period of incredible stress.”

The problems became so bad that Ms Denny signed Jono up for a new reality TV show, World's Strictest Parents, in which unruly teenagers are sent to strict families around the world in an attempt to straighten them out.

Jono told the show's producers that 'rules are made to be broken'.

“I get stoned like every day, I smoke like a pack a day and whenever alcohol is there, I'll drink it. I just get loose all the time,” he said.

A Channel 7 crew flew from Sydney twice to visit Jono, and both times Jono didn't show up.

When they eventually started filming, the crew visited Jono at the 'lost boys home'.

“I am not quite sure what to expect from that footage,” Ms Denny said.

“I know there will be alcohol and drugs.”

Jono was sent to live with the Bethe family in South Africa. House rules included no swearing, no drinking and no drugs. The children of the family must help out on the farm and tell their parents where they are 'at all times'.

Mum Portia admits her rules are tough.

“I can be very harsh, very harsh,” she tells Channel 7.

“Yes, my kids think I am too strict. But I always talk to them and make them understand why I want them to do things.”

Ms Denny can't reveal whether her son is now reformed, but the show will air on Channel 7 this month.

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