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TheRealT

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Everything posted by TheRealT

  1. Amber didn't skip the party because she thought it would preclude doing a one-on-one activity with Leah. By her own admission, she was pissed that Leah called her out for being a shit mom and said they "didn't have a bond," so Amber decided to show her that they do have a bond by skipping her birthday party, which, in Amber's twisted mind, would hurt Leah and, therefore, prove that they do indeed have a bond. Apparently, Amber thinks that being susceptible to being hurt by someone means that you have a bond with them. Also, that kind of "bond" is sufficient for a mother to have with her child and the child is an asshole to not realize that. The sad thing is, Amber doesn't even really want to do some 1:1 activity with Leah; that was just an excuse to "justify" not going to the party and a power play to get control after Leah tried to assert control. Amber's hope was that Leah would be heartbroken that she didn't show up for the party and accept that she could only see Amber on Amber's terms. Leah would then agree to see Amber 1:1 when and where Amber demanded and probably apologize to Amber for "disrespecting and not appreciating her." Then Amber would probably make Leah film a scene for the show saying she was so sorry for talking shit about her and that Amber is an awesome mom. Amber would reply, "It's ok, BooBoo. You know I love you and I get that it's hard being a preteen; of course I understand and forgive you!" That's how sick, abusive, and delusional Amber is. Good for Leah for not falling for it because Gary would totally go along with Amber's dream scenario and be all, "Leah gets mad at her mom sometimes and that's understandable, but she knows Amber loves her and is a good mom..."
  2. Wait, I thought Grandma Tonya(?) was Gary's mom? Is she actually Amber's mom? I remember that Gary's mom used to take care of Leah quite a bit (even more than Gary and, obviously, more than Amber) when Leah was young. And Jody(?), her once and current (at that point) partner, was also involved as Leah and Emilee's grandpa (until DNA tests proved him not to be Gary's dad). It's too bad if those relationships have deteriorated.
  3. It really was mind-blowing. I know Amber is mentally ill, but plenty of mentally ill people are sweet, sensitive souls, or at least reasonably compassionate human beings. Or they can at least kind of fake it for a couple of hours a month. Amber is a piece of shit who cares about no one but herself. She actually announced, on national TV, that she was intentionally hurting her 12-y-o daughter (who's already incredibly hurt) in order to "win" by forcing Leah to say that they do indeed "have a bond" and effectively retract her critique of Amber's parenting. She skipped her daughter's birthday party (after not seeing her for however long) to punish Leah and admitted so out loud, expecting her brother/anyone to be sympathetic to her. What the ever living fuck? Like, she honestly expected Bubby to be like, "Well, if Leah's going to be an ungrateful, disrespectful little shit, she can fuck off, birthday or not. It's about time that she started thinking about your feelings!" Just staggering levels of delusion and narcissism. Yeah, at this point, I feel like it's (even more) abusive to Leah for Gary to keep telling her she has to give Amber a chance, that Amber was there for her at some point, etc. Amber is not a safe person for Leah to trust or to be around without some way to monitor Amber and set healthy limits for her interactions with Leah. Gary is actively gaslighting Leah when he tells her that Amber was a decent/attentive mother at any point and there are years of MTV footage to prove that. This too. Honestly, I was kind of put off that Gary and Kristina allowed Amber to be around Emilee. They know for a fact that Amber is crazy and toxic. It's one thing to tolerate her presence in their lives (under reasonable circumstances) so Leah can see her, but there's no reason for Emilee to have more than a "Hi, bye" relationship with her. I hope it was just a put-on for the show that they considered having Amber move onto their land.
  4. I think Tyler's mom (Kim?) is more run-of-the-mill fucked up, compared to the Olympian levels of fucked up we've seen with Butch and April. Kim is poor, poorly educated, and not particularly bright or ambitious and when she was with Butch she was young and maybe was hung up on him because he was her first "true love," the father of her kids, etc. But I still think that her years-long relationship with Butch, having two kids with him, and (seemingly) allowing Butch to put the kids (and her) through all kinds of shit indicates a higher than "normal" level of dysfunction. Even since she split from Butch years (decades?) ago, she continued to allow/support including him in her kids'/grandkids' lives for years, even after he was horribly abusive to C & T over placing Carly for adoption (to name just one egregious example). She doesn't seem emotionally healthy to me in the sense of understanding how to set healthy boundaries, how problematic fucked up family dynamics are in the short and long term, etc., etc. Apart from that, Kim seems to have been blissfully ignorant about parenting when her kids were young and to have learned little to nothing about parenting since then. I can understand the challenges she faced in supporting her kids' education when they were young, but she doesn't talk about it like, "I wish I had had the time to read with you guys/go to parent-teacher conferences/etc. when you were young, but I was working multiple jobs..." She doesn't seem to have understood then why that kind of thing is important and she doesn't seem to understand now. Instead, she was surprised that kids are supposed to do any kind of academic work before (or during) kindergarten. So, on that level, it's not surprising that (apparently), it never occurred to C & T to teach Nova the alphabet or how to write her name or anything. They seemed kind of confused even after their parent teacher conference, as if the teacher had told them they should be teaching Nova quantum physics or something. I wonder whether Nova has ever even watched Sesame Street or anything like that. I get how C & T came to be who they are, but I still can't believe how fucking lazy they are about parenting. Tyler puts more effort into his physical appearance. You don't need to be an Ivy League graduate to come across the idea that it's good to read to your young children. Has either of them ever spent an hour reading/watching anything about how to take care of kids? Weren't they on some website reading about how to teach your child to protect herself from unwanted touching? I know that was just a storyline for the show, but neither of them was like, "Wow, there are websites with all kinds of parenting advice. Maybe we should spend 10 or 20 minutes reading an article or two... Hey, it says that it helps your toddler prepare for school if you read to them. Who'd a thought? Is that why one of the MTV producers gave us those children's books? Maybe we should read them to the girls? Why not? Do you remember where we put them in the garage?"
  5. Yeah, I think there's something very off about Mac too. She seems kind of one step removed from reality, like she talks about stuff in this sing-songy voice and tries to be "positive" (I guess), but, at the same time, she's testifying to/acting out tremendous pain. I totally get being devastated by a parent's death, but the way she's like, "Grandma this, Grandma that, let's call Grandma!," all with this cheerful tone is... weird. And her relationship with Josh (and how he/her family/her friends gaslight her around it) is very weird and depressing. I feel really bad for her kids. ITA. IMO, Gary (especially, but Kristina too) are very codependent with Amber and I saw that as teaching Leah to be codependent too. Leah is 11/12 years old and is a lovely person (not that that even matters in this context) who has never done anything bad to Amber. Her voicing her feelings and holding Amber accountable for being a lazy, shitty mother isn't her "not meeting Amber halfway" or anything like that. Amber sucks. Yes, she's mentally ill, but she also has had resources and opportunities that are not available to so many other mentally ill people who are genuinely trying to get better/be decent parents. Amber doesn't have to deal with the stress of some shitty job or worry about where she's going to live, whether she can get the mental health treatment she needs, or where her next meal is coming from, yet she can't be assed to get an Uber to Gary's house (she can afford it) to visit Leah. I'm sure she figures out a way to get to her dealer's house when she needs to and she even figured out how to get her bf over from Belgium. Leah sees what's up. She's not being hard on Amber, at all. (and she has every right to be hard on Amber) I think part of the problem is that Gary recognizes that Amber is mentally ill, but he's afraid to even utter the phrase "mental illness" and he has some idea that if they talk about Amber's mental illnessES openly that it might somehow lead to Leah having the same problems. Maybe once Kristina completes her "Medical Education" she can explain to him that that's not really how it works. Leah is CLEARLY much smarter than Gary, Kristina, and Amber put together (I actually think Amber might be the most intelligent of the adults) and, despite her youth, she sees that all is not well with her birth mom. It's unfortunate that Gary is resistant to getting Leah support in sorting all of this out because he's afraid that getting support for emotional problems just leads to more emotional problems. Despite his personal experience, which strongly indicates the opposite. Sigh.
  6. "Starting her schooling pursuing her Medical career" is such a weird way to phrase whatever Kristina's doing. Why didn't he just say "starting her CNA/LPN/whatever program"?
  7. At this point, I'm really intrigued by Ryan. WTF is going on with him/his family? Obviously, it's scheduled in advance when MTV comes to shoot him and, obviously, his/Mac's/his parents' goal is to make him look good and use his segments as an opportunity to tell his side of the story and counter Maci's (alleged) smears. So, obviously, he and Mac do whatever they can to present the best face during their segments. Yet, he can't even comb his fucking hair?! I can't believe that Mac didn't say, "Hey, Ry, the MTV people will be here in 20 mins., why don't you comb your hair?," so I can only assume that he cussed her out and refused to do it and/or he was holed up somewhere in their house getting high behind closed doors and only emerged (super high) after the MTV people were already there and Mac figured her best bet was to go ahead with filming the scene without mentioning his hair. At least she got him to hold their baby (along with the dog) for a couple of minutes this time. Where the fuck do Mac, Larry, and Jen think this situation is headed? Do they imagine that Ryan (who seems to be a selfish, spoiled manbaby, in addition to a far gone addict) will wake up one morning and decide to get his life together? Has Mac ever known Ryan as a functioning adult? She has not only had unprotected sex with him when there was ample reason to believe he was an active IV drug user, but she continues to pretend that everything is fine with them/their family while Ryan is a train wreck visible from 28 miles away on national TV every week. It's weird to me because she doesn't strike me as a tenderhearted sap who's deeply in love with Ryan (the only comprehensible reason to be with someone as far gone as him).
  8. It's really disgusting. Maci should be concerned that Bentley is starting adolescence with these unresolved issues with his dad, a potential genetic predisposition for addiction/mental illness, the trauma of being on MTV, alienation from his paternal grandparents, etc., etc. NOT TO MENTION his potential issues with his mom and stepdad being significant boozers (it seems) and whatever direct or indirect pressure he may feel from them to be a super helpful big brother; "successful" in ways that vindicate his mom for her teen pregnancy and other flaws; on "their side" in conflicts with his paternal family and/or online critics, etc., etc. Instead of providing as much support as she can for all of that, Maci is actively throwing Bentley under the bus at every opportunity and even laughing about it. What's next, a "cute" storyline about Maci discovering B's nocturnal emissions on his sheets? I feel gross typing that, but it's literally the next logical step in the storyline she's building. It's really sad. You can tell that C & T want Brandon and Teresa (among others) to see them on the show and think they're awesome parents who have totally gotten their shit together, but-- no. They're so. fucking. clueless. It's not just their ineptitude at fairly basic parenting, it's how they think they're coming off so well. I'm sure they both thought people would watch this episode and be impressed with them. But, in addition to their schtick being incomprehensible, they were lying. They said they've told Nova that only Mommy and Daddy can wash her in certain places, but she has stayed with April (at least) for days at a time and they seem to have at least a few hangers-on who have served as baby sitters, in addition to workers at her daycare and even at her school. It's not even necessary to tell your kid that only her parents can bathe her, but they have a loose grasp on what is and isn't appropriate parenting and they're used to lying to seem "together." I actually feel bad for both of them (but even worse for their kids). It was so great to see Amber realizing her creative vision and getting her business off the ground (again)! She has such a great brand focused on positivity and emotional growth and well-being! She's not just a crazy, violent layabout; she's a business woman and creative visionary! It's so ridiculous that she seriously hopes/expects that people will react like that to her ridiculousness. Her storylines are 90% made up. She really does live in IN; she works on a reality show with MTV producers; and Leah is her bio daughter and Gary and Kristina are Leah's parents. Everything else is fake.
  9. I doubt that Amber knows the difference (or cares). I can only imagine that someone told her, "Hey, if you want to study psychology, there's this great program at Perdue that you can get into. You don't have to take any entrance exams or anything. It costs $X per semester." and Amber thought it would sound good and didn't think much about how or whether she'd do the work. I think she's TOL if she counts on them to do her homework. She'd be better off waiting a few years and getting Leah to do it.
  10. You're just like Ryan! (LOL) I get what you mean, though, it's ridiculous how Maci acts like she's curing cancer or adopting a bunch of disabled orphans when, in fact, she's primarily creating a storyline for her reality show and secondarily going on some lame podcast or jogging. I did think Ryan's "WTF is PCOS and why should anyone care?" scene was hilarious. I don't assume that that's the best he gives MTV, but why would he say that shit at all? His intention is to disprove how bad "Maci has made him look," but he can't even muster up some fake scenes of him playing with his kids or something? He's always petting the dog and bitching about what a c*** Maci is. Him looking 100% like a bum (hobos work for a living!) was the icing on the cake. I did think Mac's half-hearted, "Well, I'm sure PCOS is terrible. I would hate for Stella to have something like that..." was hilarious. Totally reaching for some kind of empathy points, like whose mind immediately goes to their baby daughter when thinking about gynecological issues?
  11. Is that for real? Amber got accepted to Purdue? Amber took the SAT/ACT and filled out a college application? I'm assuming it's some kind of extension program that accepts anyone with a GED (even if they got it in gel). I guess she's planning to major in psychology since she's a "mental health advocate" (according to her IG bio). How does it work for someone with clearly un/undertreated mental illness(es) to be a mental health advocate? Does staging a scene where you talk about mental health with some random "advocate" on your reality show in between scenes of you acting, well--crazy--on and off screen count as "advocacy"?
  12. Plus, there are so many businesses locked into pre-COVID leases that are probably practically giving away any space they can sublet. It seems like a no-brainer to do that rather than taking on a lease in such uncertain times (when Cate's personal future is also uncertain). It was all probably staged for the show, though. It's gotten to the point where they all have storylines that are practically (or literally, probably) scripted. Showing themselves looking at residential or commercial real estate is a popular theme. More than half the time they never end up buying/renting anything. Amber's real life: She's on probation for partner and child abuse (again) and will go to prison if she gets in legal trouble within the next year or so. She has no job besides being on MTV and she's not really even maximizing that with endorsements, podcasts, etc. because she (seemingly) sits around in bed or on her couch all day self-medicating. She doesn't have custody of either of her kids or (seemingly) any plans to change that. Her ex-bf/baby daddy and his wife play a significant role in taking basic care of Amber and she's very dependent on them, even for her participation on the show. I think all of her scenes this season have been with G, K, and/or Leah or the producers. Amber's storyline: She's doing great, despite having her heart broken by yet another terrible bf who used her and made her abuse him, which led to her (totally unfairly!) getting into legal trouble. She has a great relationship with Leah and with G & K. Her biggest problem is that people are mean to her on SM and some random woman called her fat, but she's bravely using that to be a role model for others who are bullied online.
  13. Well, the bills don't pay themselves. Actually, I think even if they didn't pay her, Mac would still want to be on TV. Apart from that, Jen and Larry seem comfortable, but not "rich," and I think they are Ryan and Mac's sole/primary source of financial support apart from MTV. I assume that J&L and Mac's fantasy is that one day Ryan will straighten up and get a job, but does he even have any skills or training? I think he used to have a job (years ago), but I don't know what he was doing. Mac doesn't seem to have any type of profession or career aspirations. It seems like she's never really had a job; she's pretty young and has been a mom since she was in her very early 20's (at least). So it makes sense that she'd want to milk every penny she can out of MTV. That's probably the most sensible thing she's done since she hooked up with Ryan.
  14. I forgot to ask before, does anyone understand what Cate and Ty's thing is about OBVIOUSLY not wanting to have a kid after age 30? Ty's mom agreed that OBVIOUSLY no one would want that and I think I've seen at least one other TM say the same. Obviously, they're idiots, but do they think having kids after 30 is bad for biological reasons, like it will be hard to get/be pregnant? Or for lifestyle reasons, like they'll end up stuck with kids when they're over 50 and want to have a kid-free life? Or that people over 30 don't have the energy to raise young children? I honestly don't get it.
  15. I agree generally about cutting well-meaning young people some slack, but it's hard for me to see Mac as well-meaning. I can't imagine being married to Ryan for a million reasons, but, if I were, I would be horrified by how he treats Bentley and would try to be as nice as possible to Bentley. Or at least do the absolute minimum by saying more than "hi" to him when he came to my kid's b-day party, especially since his dad didn't talk to him any more than that. If I couldn't be assed to talk to Bentley when he came to my kid's b-day party (and was undoubtedly more engaged with my children than their dad), I would at least not talk shit about him and his mom on TV. Mac is trash.
  16. In all fairness, I think Amber, Gary, and Kristina cooked all of that up for a storyline. At this point, the original cast are pretty adept at keeping their real drama off-camera, whether that means doing "juicy" stories about their older kids' personal traumas or exploring various careers and business opportunities/looking at properties/helping family members with various problems/etc./etc. I think G&K were offered more money to be more involved in Amber's storyline (which had pretty much become 90% off-screen) and the three of them were like, "Let's talk about how well we get along and how Amber comes to our house all the time. We could do an episode with a ride on our boat. Maybe something with selling some of our stuff at a roadside stand; that would help to support our businesses. Yeah, Amber, good idea, we can have you be the one to suggest the stand so you'll be included in the story." The thing is, Cate hasn't ever had trouble getting pregnant. She seems to get pregnant within a few months whenever she tries. She had a miscarriage, but I would think that would give her less reason to tell a bunch of people and be filmed with a bowl of urine on her kitchen counter before she even missed a period. There was something very off about how she was acting, even apart from it being kind of a put-on for a storyline. She and Tyler put so much effort into coming off as "together" and "normal," but they can't even fake it. A "normal" happily married woman with 2 kids who decided to start trying for a 3rd a week ago wouldn't be freaking out and imagining positive pregnancy tests. If she wanted to do a "cute" storyline about trying to get pregnant, she could have been reading stuff online about a good diet for expectant moms or tips for getting young siblings ready for a new baby (even though that would obviously be fake). They could have even done some dumb thing with getting a realistic baby doll so the girls could practice being big sisters. Instead, she showed (again) how deeply troubled she is.
  17. ITA. Maci seems to think that she is "winning" by highlighting what a shitty dad/person Ryan is and that Bentley is hurt by that, which is all kinds of fucked up. She certainly talked to Bentley in advance about the scene where he said he didn't want to go to Ryan's house and called Mimi to tell her and I have no doubt that Maci basically wrote the script, right down to Bentley saying, on camera, that he wanted MTV to record the call. She did that for herself, not for Bentley, in order to make Ryan look bad and to deflect the criticism she knew she'd get online. So gross. She obviously doesn't get that, even if Bentley came to her and said, "Hey, Mom, this season can we do a storyline about how my dad clearly doesn't love me and how bad that makes me feel?" the appropriate parental response would be to tell him that that wasn't a good idea. Bentley isn't benefiting from this in any way (except that it's paying the bills, I guess). Exactly. I think she likes being pregnant/talking about getting pregnant because it gets her positive attention and alleviates the pressure she feels from Tyler and herself to do something. When she's pregnant, she doesn't have to pretend that she's searching for her passion or put forth much effort toward anything; she's automatically useful (at least until she finds out she's not carrying a boy) and doing something. I don't know why she doesn't just declare that her passion is being a SAHM, except that I think she pretty much sucks at that and Tyler has decided that that's not enough (probably in no small part because he's really the SAH parent, while pursuing his "passion" AND practicing basic personal hygiene). Their whole situation is so tragic. When Cate was being all manic about the pregnancy tests, I was like, "Hasn't it been like a couple of weeks since they started trying?," then Tyler said it had been literally a week. What? This episode was like a PSA for "You Probably Shouldn't Be Planning Another Child." I seriously wonder whether/how Mac and the Edwardses think this situation is tenable. Do they really want Ryan's kids to grow up like this? With Daddy being high and surly all the time while everyone else pretends that he's fine? What are they going to do when the toddlers are old enough to follow Daddy when he goes off to his room (at his parents' house!) to do-- whatever-- during family events? Is Mac hypervigilant about making sure that whatever drugs Ryan is on aren't accessible to the kids? How could she be? Do they ever spend time with Mac's family? What do they think about all of this? It seems unlikely that people who aren't codependent with him like Jen and Larry will ignore him acting like an asshole, being/getting high at their house during family gatherings, etc.
  18. At this rate, how will Cate ever find her passion?!?!
  19. I feel like to the extent Andrew is a gold digger it's balanced out by his taking primary/sole care of their child since he was born. I don't think Andrew originally hooked up with Amber with dollar signs in his eyes, but I think once they "connected" he considered it a bonus that she had more money than him/enough to support them without either working. She got pregnant pretty quickly, which may or may not have been something they discussed/planned, but, once it happened, Andrew is the only one who significantly changed his life to accommodate their child. So it's hard for me to see him as some evil user who manipulated Poor Amber (not saying that's what you're saying, but that seems to be how Gary and Amber frame it). I think Taylor is a basically not too ambitious guy who's ok with being somewhat submissive to his wife and she encouraged him to quit his job to focus on their family and family business and they had enough money to make that work so he went along with it. I question how successful their t-shirt business is, but Maci is still making 6 figures from MTV, SM, etc., so I believe that they're financially comfortable at this point. I think Taylor would/will be fine with going back to having a normal job if/when it comes to that, so their family will probably be better off than some of the other TM's when the MTV gravy train pulls into the last stop. Mac slouches around all day too, so that's at least part of why she's willing to put up with Ryan. Apart from that, I think there is something wrong with her (to put it bluntly). She could have found a husband who had a job and wasn't a heroin addict, but, for some reason, she attached herself to Ryan, who was nodding out on his way to their wedding. Maybe he seems glamorous to her because he's on TV? Maybe she likes how Jen & Larry (and MTV) support them so neither has to work? Even that doesn't make sense to me because I would think she could find a guy with a long-term career to support her/them without her having to work and that would obviously be better than relying on the short-term MTV money. Ryan is like a 3rd/4th child to care for with no realistic hope (IMO) of him becoming a functional adult.
  20. I think Andrew has done at least one short-term TV/film job since he's been with Amber and is, theoretically, a freelance cameraman (or whatever he does). I think he hasn't been able to work much lately because he has to be based in IN and he's been a single parent to a baby for over a year now. Gary is/was an auxiliary police officer (or something) and he owns and manages (I think) at least a handful of rental properties and runs his own small farm. I think he also does some small side businesses like selling pies and maybe some stuff he raises on the farm (on a small scale). Apparently, he's not that busy since he had time to drive an hour each way to do errands for Amber. Taylor had a job when he first hooked up with Maci, but he quit it a while ago. They still wear those stupid shirts in every scene, so I guess that company is still a thing, but it doesn't seem like a full-time job for either, much less both, of them. Tyler is "running their clothing company" (his passion!), but I think they said production was on hold a while ago. I believe that he takes primary responsibility for caring for their home/animals/kids, so there's that. I don't think Ryan or Mac has a job and I assume they rely on Jen and Larry and MTV for financial support. Ryan was living in his grandmother's house (not sure whether she died or had moved somewhere else) a few years ago, so that might be where they live.
  21. I remember that too. I've actually looked at the distance from where she's sitting to the other side of the hedges/whatever that seem to separate her yard from the street and it looks pretty far, which could be deceiving and/or people have their own levels of comfort with that sort of thing. Her mask wearing has been more conspicuous to me when she's with Gary, Kristina, and Leah, who are effectively in her "bubble" and who are being regularly tested by MTV, even when they're in Gary's 5-acre yard or on a boat. It's possible that she just feels more comfortable wearing a mask around others most of the time and that's fine, but I do wonder since she doesn't seem super careful about other things.
  22. Why would Amber want overnight custody of a toddler? She can't even handle an overnight visit with her 12-year-old (who's more mature than she is). Maybe her plan is to have Leah and James over concurrently so Leah can look after him?
  23. ITA that Bentley should have family therapy with all of his parents, separately and together, but it seems like Maci is very insistent on framing Bentley's need for therapy as being about working on his issues with Ryan (NOT her/Taylor). She explicitly says that over and over. I think all of Bentley's family see therapy as a bad thing that one only needs if one has some kind of problem and they're all eager to point to one another as the problem rather than taking any kind of personal inventory or responsibility. In reality, even if everything in Bentley's life were "perfect," at minimum, it would be super understandable if he needed support dealing with his entire life being on a salacious TV show. But Maci is really invested in a narrative in which she is an awesome Super Mom Against All Odds and her current family is Perfect, so the only "problem" Bentley could possibly have is what assholes his dad, stepmom, and paternal grandparents are (and the fact that he can't just cut them loose). I think Taylor is a good stepdad and a basically decent person (more so than Maci), but he also sees Bentley's attachment to Ryan/the Edwardses as a problem. I think Maci and Taylor would be THRILLED if Bentley told them he was no longer interested in seeing Ryan at all and that he'd be good with meeting up with Jen and Larry at a restaurant once or twice a year. And neither of them has any interest at all in exploring what problems Bentley might have with their family. Ryan is beyond hope and his ideal scenario for Bentley is that he sees Maci as the "problem" and blames her for his estrangement from Ryan and any bad feelings he might have. I think Jen and Larry are only slightly more in touch with reality and they'd probably privately admit to Bentley that Ryan has "made some mistakes," but would love it if B would mostly go along with their program of pretending that Ryan is totally fine and that Maci bears (at least) significant blame for Ryan's (apparent (because of Maci's evil machinations!)) failures as a dad. That whole narrative is so gaslighty that I don't know how they can sell it to Bentley, or even Ryan's younger kids once they're old enough to see what's going on. There is so much film footage of Ryan ignoring or mistreating Bentley since B was an infant, as well as footage of him obviously high on drugs and even admitting that he shot heroin. How can all of that be blamed on Maci? (and I hate Maci) Bottom line, Bentley is screwed (poor kid).
  24. It's really sad how woefully inept Tyler and Cate are as parents. I know they didn't grow up with good parenting role models, but they could buy a book or watch some videos or take a parenting class. They could even afford to hire a private parenting coach if they wanted to. But I get that it probably doesn't occur to them that "parenting" is something one would learn or study; they probably think that as long as they aren't smoking crack in front of their kids or being dragged away by the police that they're doing a great job. I think their ideal vision of what parenting could/should be like is the kids occupying themselves most of the time so T&C can be 90% focused on their phones. They're willing to look up once in a while to take scissors out of the kid's hand or pop some junk food into the microwave, but that's about it. Neither of them has a job, but they talk about taking basic care of their kids like it's a huge chore that they constantly struggle with. No wonder Cate can't figure out what her passion is when she has to change diapers, make lunch, AND entertain the kids all day! Why the fuck do they want to have another child? Well, I know it's because they want a boy, but don't they realize that boy babies need attention all the time too? Why would parenting suddenly be less arduous because one of the kids has a penis? I have never believed that Amber was sober, though she may be primarily/exclusively on pharmaceuticals. Didn't Andrew say that she was high all the time (I think on pharmaceuticals and pot)? I think maybe she doesn't drive because she knows she's intoxicated most of the time and maybe something similar is going on with her being so scrupulous about wearing a mask. She might be hanging out with random people to buy/do drugs and know that she is at greater COVID risk than she lets on.
  25. Amber doesn't need help buying a car or figuring out how to call an Uber. She has no interest in doing those things. She has lived in IN for her entire life and probably has more money than anyone she knows, so (especially now) she would have no problem finding someone to drive her around, do errands for her, etc. She has admitted to paying Gary and Kristina to work for her (in order to shame them). Similarly, Gary knows plenty of people who would be happy to be paid by Amber to do her errands, clean her house, etc. (Kristina does too). I think there is truth on both sides of their stories. Amber probably has called on Gary to wait on her hand and foot and G&K probably have taken loans, gifts, and generous payments from Amber in (at minimum, tacit) exchange for their support/service. When Amber calls asking Gary to come over to do her grocery shopping, he could say, "I'm busy with other stuff, but Kristina's cousin/my friend/my mom's hairdresser who's laid off b/c of COVID is looking for odd jobs." He doesn't do that because he wants the money/control/codependent involvement. That's arguably more on him and Kristina than on Amber, who's generally acknowledged as crazy and incapable of being a responsible adult. Similarly, when Amber decides she'd rather have someone else go grocery shopping or whatever for her, she could call her friend/relative/ex-housekeeper/etc. who she knows would do whatever for money, but she chooses to call Gary, who's an hour away and who will certainly infringe upon her "privacy." If she really wanted to maintain healthy boundaries with Gary (after he was allegedly sexually inappropriate with her), she wouldn't want him buying tampons for her. It probably gives her some codependent satisfaction and makes her feel good to have some power over G&K, who are constantly shaming her as a parent (in her mind) (well, also in reality). They're all fucked up.
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