Tatum

Agreed. I am not sure Jeremy even wanted full custody, as that would involve handing baby Addy off to various relatives and friends for weeks on end with no stability, or changing careers which may cause a dramatic drop in lifestyle for both of them. Obviously if the alternative is Leah watching Addy while high as a kite than the former is the lesser of the evils, but it seems like both Jeremy and Corey are trying to think long term and are being pragmatic. It's in everyone's best interest for Leah to get help, and if agreeing to hold off on custody arrangements gives Leah enough incentive to give rehab a fair shot (vs chacking out early the minute she gets wind of Corey and Jeremy filing anything legal), I can see why the guys would agree to it. That said, I am not super confident rehab is enough to help Leah manage her myriad of problems, which include not only substance abuse, but depression, low self esteem, and her general feelings of anger and being overwhelmed. I mean, her life totally sucks. Yes, it is almost 100% her own decision making that caused it, but that doesn't mean it's easy to get through each day. While I don't find Leah to be an overly sympathetic person, I do often feel sorry for her because I think her life is just so shitty. Yeah, it's her own fault, but a shitty life is still a shitty life.

As Nicsac pointed out, these are college kids, not high school kids, so they are actually 18-22. And the reasons kids in that age group are generally not encouraged to have babies (which is not the only reason to wear a condom, but since Maci is in a committed relationship, I don't see a hypocrisy in not using condoms for safety, as presumably they are monogamous and STD free) is because they haven't finished their education, they don't have a job that would allow them to support a child, they're still developing money and time management skills, and also, they just aren't that mature (I am speaking in very general terms here, obviously there are 18-22 year olds who are exceptions to what I wrote above). Those are all valid reasons to wait to have kids. Yet, Maci is pretty much in the same boat they are. She hasn't finished her education, doesn't work a steady job, is wasting her nest egg on cars and tattoos, and if you ask me, is extremely immature. Now Maci's life is her business, and she doesn't need my permission to get pregnant and raise another child. But I personally find it ridiculous that someone who is really no better off/different from the people she is advising was actively trying to get pregnant, despite the reasons that the average person would discourage one from doing so applied to her as well. Yes, she has a car and a house, and she might have some money in the bank. She has no way of sustaining that income unless TM goes on forever. She's shown that she's lazy and unmotivated. And I DO think marriage is a big deal, if only that marriage would show a commitment to her that so far we've not seen Taylor willing to provide. No, marriage is not a "magical" solution. But if someone is not even sure enough about you to want to marry you, why would you even consider having a child with that person? Anyways, I DO see it as hypocrisy to tell kids all the reasons they should wait to have babies, when all those reasons apply to her as well, yet she was trying to get pregnant herself. Again, her own business, but that doesn't mean I can't call her a hypocrite on an internet forum.

I don't recall what the job was, but Amber made a couple references to having a job in her 16 and Pregnant episode. She also worked on and off during Teen Mom in the early seasons. Oh funny- another scene in 16 and Pregnant, Amber and Gary are at Walmart pricing car seats and other big ticket baby items, and Amber runs into a girl from her high school. The girl mentions that she hasn't seen Amber around lately, to which Amber replies something like, I was a senior last year, but-points to belly- I'm pregnant now, so... And the girl kind of laughs nervously and wishes her luck and leaves. Amber snots after she's gone to Gary that the girl was totally judging her, but I think the girl was trying to figure out how being 4 months pregnant currently means you had to drop out of school the year before. I mean really, unless you had debilitating morning sickness, there's no reason you can't go to school while pregnant, particularly for Amber, who with a Nov due date, would have only been 3-4 months along when school was let out for the summer.

That was indeed Gary and Amber. Gary spent about $500 on a new playstation and then was shamed by Amber's entire extended family into returning it. He bought her engagement ring at Walmart and- I will go back and rewatch just to make sure- I am fairly certain the cashier said it was $21.40.

I agree. I don't think she's specifically out to trap Taylor personally. I think she's out to procure a certain lifestyle- that of a young stay at home mom with a full time working husband. Although most of her friends went away to college, maybe it's a common thing amongst the women she knows to go to school, pick up a "fun" degree (a degree where the coursework might be interesting and a good ice breaker, but not necessarily lucrative after graduation), maybe work for a year or two until they marry their college boyfriends, quickly become pregnant, and quit their jobs (which they were just biding their time at anyways) to stay home with their kids, all by Maci's age. Maybe Maci is figuring that now that her high school friends are having babies, she can just slip back in with them and be one of the gang again instead of the odd one out, like she was for a number of years. Just a theory. But it requires the cooperation of a husband- to marry her, agree to knock her up, and agree to shoulder the financial responsibility while she stays home. I think her getting pregnant was a way to force his hand. I also agree with some of the other posters that any guy she was dating for a period of time would have been (and has been!) in this position.

I watched Amber's 16 and Pregnant episode for the first time last night. I had never seen it before and I could not believe how awesome it was. It is a little sad to watch though because Amber and Gary both seem so normal and almost functional. I mean, Amber still comes across as kind of lazy and Gary is not the sharpest tool in the shed, but they seem like a normal teenage couple (well, maybe Gary was 20-21) who actually care about each other. There were some AWESOME lines in that episode though. My favorites: -Amber and Gary eat at the Steak n Shake, and Gary gets on Amber for not eating properly and using her pregnancy as an excuse to eat cheese fries. Yes, Gary is giving nutritional advice. He does appear to be eating a salad while lecturing her, but it's a Steak n Shake salad which I bet came with breaded chicken nuggets and was doused in dressing. -Amber talks about needing to save money and how expensive babies are, and then gleefully exclaims, Gary and I found a crib at a garage sale for 15 dollars! She's just so earnest and happy about their find. The crib came disassembled too so not only were they trusting garage sale merchandise but also Gary to assemble it correctly. -And my ultimate favorite: so, Amber's mom was openly hostile to both Gary and his mom (she explained in the episode that Gary's mom let Amber sleep in Gary's bed unbeknownst to Amber's mom, like, hey, why is Amber sleeping over at her boyfriend's house in the first place, Tonya?) and blamed them both for Amber's pregnancy. Anyways, things come to a head at a family cookout where Tonya is downright rude to Gary's family and Gary is bitching about it to Amber. He says something, I didn't catch what it was, and Amber says something like, you better not say that to my mom's face. Gary responds, oh, like when she called me an Inbred Piece of Shit? I laughed so hard I almost peed myself. Still, unlike Maci and Ryan, or most of the other 16 and pregnant couples, these two did seem like they honestly cared for each other and wanted to do right by each other, and regarded the accidental pregnancy as something that was the responsibility (and fault) of both of them, which is a nice change. Both of them morphed into extremely unlikeable people as the show went on.

Per one of the articles published, one of the selling points to get Leah to go to rehab was that each dad promised they wouldn't do anything with custody until she got out. I guess both guys thought it would be better in the long run if Leah got sober.

I agree that if Taylor did not want to be a dad, simply going along with Maci's explanation that as a sufferer of PCOS, she did not need to be on birth control was not a smart thing to do. Taylor was irresponsible. But, if Maci intentionally led him to believe she could not pregnant when she knew it wasn't impossible, that is appalling. Neither comes out very well here. I would not excuse Maci's dishonesty by saying, well, he should have wrapped it up. If someone left something valuable in their unlocked car and came back to find it stolen, I would definitely roll my eyes that they hadn't hidden the item and locked the car. That doesn't mean I think the thief is justified in stealing because the owner was dumb.

The only explanation I can think of is if they have jail overcrowding issues where Jenelle lives. Maybe the local law enforcement/DA figures having tax payers support Jenelle while she's in jail is actually worse than letting her just commit battery against her loser friends and boyfriends while supporting the local economy by patronizing all the coffee shops and tattoo parlors. I really don't see how someone can be arrested 15 times (and for multiple crimes!) and never have any serious jail time.

She should also ask Kailyn from Teen Mom 2. And insist that along with the BM dress, Kail buy a bunch of hideous accessories and pay for them herself. We should start a previously TV pool about the first TM1 girl to get married. Wonder what kind of risk junkie would be willing to lay odds on Farrah?

I have no idea how Taylor felt about it and I don't think he's said one way or another (although I could have missed it). But Maci has changed her story a number of times. The impression I've gotten (and I by no means insist this is the real story, it's just my interpretation) is that Maci told Taylor she was not likely get pregnant on her own (or it was impossible) and birth control was superfluous, and Taylor agreed she should not bother with it then. Now, nothing was stopping Taylor from doing his own research on PCOS or asking to hear it directly from her doctor that contraception was unnecessary, or hell, just insisting no one ever died from wearing a condom and he'd like to wear one anyways just for extra precaution. If he absolutely did not want a baby, there's a lot he could have done differently. That does not mean I think it was morally okay for Maci to intentionally mislead Taylor about her chances of getting pregnant (if she did). Perhaps Taylor was 100% on board and Maci was never dishonest. She doesn't need to run her life decisions by me and it's not like she's using public assistance to fund her family, or hitting me up for money. That said, I'd still argue that a college could find a better role model for teens regarding safe sex than a young woman who couldn't be bothered to complete her education, hold down a steady job, or have a firm commitment from her partner before deciding to try to get pregnant. For that reason, I do have to side-eye giving her lectures while pregnant.

Yeah, of all the teen moms, Chelsea is the only one who has the combination of a responsible, intelligent parents, and the personal maturity to recognize that her parents are usually right and have her best interests at heart. I think Maci has pretty sensible parents as well, but if she doesn't like their advice, she doesn't follow it. I expect Randy has had a heavy hand in managing her personal finances and encouraging her to stick to a budget, which she appears to be doing. Really, except for taking forever to get her GED and continuing to flirt/sleep with Adam (both of which have been resolved for years now) I can't think of too much Chelsea has done to annoy me over the duration of the show. Good for her, and good for Randy for being able to advise her and encourage her.

I wouldn't have a problem with it if Maci didn't try to claim that Farrah's porn endeavors were harming her "message". Yes, Maci can say that her pregnancy was planned, even if the majority considers it ill advised, and therefore it isn't hypocritical of her to speak about unplanned pregnancies. That said, what's more incongruous to safe sex talks- a woman who's been involved in professional porn (where I assume the actors have certain testing and safety standards) and sex toy modeling, or a woman who has not finished her education, does not have stable income, and is unmarried and currently pregnant? Maci's argument against Farrah would be pretty thin even if she weren't pregnant in her situation- but the fact that she is makes it downright laughable.

The Ashley Reality reported that the girls get paid a one time fee of $5000 and nothing for doing any updates or reunion shows. After taxes it prob wasn't much.

I totally agree. Cate is not really that bright and her general laziness in every facet of her life (work, school, fitness, household chores, etc) sometimes annoys me, but she does appear to be a genuinely kindhearted and caring person, and has shown herself to be very unselfish at times. I also appreciate that she doesn't seem to care about huge houses and fancy cars and seems very grateful for the material things she has. Tyler on the other hand needs to just go away. On top of always manipulating Cate, he just does not come off as very likeable, and like Maci and Farrah and Amber, has a real penchant for rewriting history.

Yeah, but even if they could somehow organize and enforce that (and you know no one in production is going to want to deal with the admin side of that) taking away that much financial autonomy from the girls greatly decreases their chances of signing on to do the show. While in 10 years, they may wish the above plan had been in place, I don't think any of the girls would have considered subsidized college tuition and trust funds for their kids enough of an incentive for dealing with the hassle of being filmed. The sad thing is, I think there are a few girls profiled on 16 and Pregnant who would have jumped at the chance for any kind of financial help and would have used it as a stepping stone, not as a long term income plan. TM really picked some lazy, unlikeable girls out of the lot they had from 16P.

I remember that episode. I don't know how long they were dating, but it ended when Farrah got a Facebook message from his longtime girlfriend. From what I put together, the dude was an aspiring male model and was dating Farrah to get on TV. I got the distinct impression the girlfriend messaged Farrah less out of jealousy, but more that she was appalled her boyfriend would stoop to dating someone to get TV exposure and she honestly believed telling Farrah was a kindness as opposed to just trying to scare her off so she could keep this prize to herself. Anyways, yeah, Farrah rounded up her Buffalo Wild Wings friends (who were probably also there for the camera time) and asked Debra to babysit so they could drive 4-5 hours EACH WAY to confront this guy, since once he realized he was busted he would not answer Farrah's calls, and god forbid Farrah be denied the chance to bitch him out. It was awesome because when Farrah asked Debra to babysit and had to explain why, Debra gives her this look and is like, so this guy made a fool out of you, and your response is to spend an entire day of your life- that you could be spending working, studying, or you know, being with your kid- tracking him down just to tell him that you're mad at him, which he has no doubt already figured out? And was just like, wow, could you look more desperate? She actually gave pretty sound advice, telling Farrah it would look a lot better if Farrah just moved on and that any time spent on him was more time than he deserved, but naturally Farrah did not listen. And she was a real bitch about asking (demanding was more like it) her mom to babysit so she could complete this endeavor.

I know. If you want to try and claim that your stance against Farrah is due to her involvement in an industry that exploits and undermines women and that the porn industry promotes degradation against women and your stance is merely political, then you need to recognize that Farrah (and all other "on screen talent") is one small cog in the wheel of the industry, and that the real harm is being done by those who produce, distribute, sell and -most importantly -BUY or WATCH porn. There would be no porn industry if there was no demand for it. You can't just pick and choose who to blame for the presence of porn based on who is involved that you don't happen to like. If MTV is going to try and claim that they are anti-porn and that they are only singling out Farrah because she's the only one involved that they know of, that's a bunch of bullshit as I'm sure every one of their reality participants has watched it, or bought it, not to mention their viewers. And it's a slippery slope from there if all the sudden MTV is going to play the morality police on a network that has been accused of promoting women as sex objects for over THREE DECADES. I'm just beyond disgusted that Farrah's porn past was even brought up as an issue. I don't blame Maci and the others so much- they're immature and not known to be critical thinkers capable of looking at the big picture. But a big network like MTV should know better, and Dr. Drew should as well.

Exactly! If anything, isn't using sex toy molds kind of promoting safe sex? And I'm sure porn stars have more incentive to practice safe sex as their livelihood depends on it.

Amen. Amber's only redeeming quality as far as motherhood goes is she seems to enjoy her child's company (when it's convenient for her). But it takes a lot more than liking your kid on a good day to be a good mom. Absolutely agree, Amber is a shitty mom.

You just know Amber justifies stiffing Gary on CS by rationalizing any money she gave to him would just go straight to Buffalo Wild Wings and Dominos anyways. I'm sure she doesn't feel like she's doing anything wrong, and hey, she bought Leah an ice cream cone two weeks ago anyways.

Right. It's Maci's body and her business, but she spent most of the season referring to this pregnancy as her "miracle baby" and suggesting that she thought she was infertile so birth control was unnecessary. PCOS and irregular ovulation do not mean you cannot get pregnant without intervention and I refuse to believe any doctor told her otherwise. If Maci wants to get pregnant with a guy that she's merely dating (as opposed to married or engaged) without finishing school or having a steady job, that's her business. I don't think it's smart, but it's her life and her money. But then she needs to just say that. Say, it's my business, I have the financial means to support another baby, I'm willing to do the work of raising her, I'm not asking anyone else to fund my lifestyle, so no one needs to be concerned about my situation. Instead, she spent all season spinning these bullshit stories about how she quit taking birth control, not because she was trying to get pregnant, but because she honestly believed birth control was just unnecessarily adding hormones to her body and pregnancy wasn't an option for her anyways, She did that because she just can't stand for people to call her irresponsible, even though she totally was (by most people's standards). And as far as needing to get pregnant in order to give Bentley a playmate- I think that ship sailed in like, 2011. 3-7 year old boys aren't notorious for wanting to play with infants. I think once kids are 3-4 years apart, it's unlikely they'll play together much. Just too much of an age gap.

Maci reminds me of the girl in high school who does a ton of extracurricular activities and volunteers regularly, but only does it to pad her college applications, and actually has no interest in the activities. When she goes to her volunteer appts, she comes late, leaves early, and interacts as little as possible with the others. When she's doing school activities, whether it's sports, yearbook, newspaper, etc, she's only putting her time in there as well- she skips as often as she can get away with, she sits to the side and doesn't participate, etc. Yet, she smugly accepts accolades when people toast her for being such a caring person and such a team player and wonderingly ask her how she is able to do it all. She probably calls herself an overachiever too. That's Maci in a nutshell to me. She's always doing stuff (in my estimation) for the sole purpose of looking good to others and then basking in the praise. No, it's not on evil Farrah's level or psycho Amber's, but it IS irritating.

In all fairness to C&T, depending on what kind of shape that house was in in 2012, it may have been a lot more than $36K that was needed for the initial investment. I've seen some houses that are bought with the intent to flip, and the amount of maintenance or environmental upgrades needed to make the house attractive to live in is not insignificant. I would not suggest that two kids with no construction, electrical, plumbing, or carpentry experience buy a fixer upper in dire need of work. Not to mention no financial savvy at all- they could easily be taken for a ride by an unscrupulous contractor. If this is a rent to own property, then I doubt the purchase price was still $35K when C&T signed the dotted line. No doubt whoever owns that trust sunk some money into the house performing all the upgrades and would expect to recoup some of that, if not make a profit.

Wait, the reunion is in real time right? Like, filmed very recently? Maci was photographed wearing what looked like an engagement ring about a month ago. So...are they engaged and just not telling MTV? Or was Maci just wearing a diamond ring on her engagement finger for the hell of it? Or was the reunion taped more than a month ago and they got engaged afterwards?