I think Maci is doing the best of all of them. Sure, Bentley has to deal with ... well, being named Bentley, AND Ryan. But he's got a guy who seems like a good stepfather and I think things are okay for him. His life is focused on school, sports, siblings, and Ryan and MTV filming are just things he does on the side. |
Maci continues to whore her child out on tv and expose all of the family’s challenges to the world instead of getting a real job. Every season she asks Bently awkward questions about his father and their lack of relationship. None of these people are equipped to be parents and raise their children without trauma. |
This. Imagine having a child who is a tween and you’re seeing forever in existence clips of your mom talking about your dad, restraining orders, dad on drugs, the fight with grandpa and dad, your dad trashing your mom, etc. not many kids would want this. |
+1 |
Everyone is in a struggle of some sort. If the cameras exposed your life on MTV, how would the viewers judge you and your relationships? |
I would never sign up to expose my child’s life for all the world to see. Would you? |
THIS. Their only real source of income is MTV -- other things like properties they want to flip or books they ghost write or whatever are temporary -- but their steady paycheck is MTV. What does that require them to do -- somehow keep their teen pregnancy from like 12 yrs ago relevant. So they just marinate in that sadness of giving her up over and over again. Instead of normal couples who may place a child for adoption, spend time healing but then largely "move on" focusing on earning a living in some manner that does NOT require them to think of their child ever; focusing on raising the kids they do have etc. MTV has been good for them because $$$ for like over a decade but it's been bad because they have not healed at all. While MTV likely wants them to keep their teen pregnancy relevant, reality is the cameras would still follow them if they created some type of life beyond Carli -- focusing on their own careers, their other kids etc. It's not like Maci spends every moment of the show discussing the fact that she had Bentley at 16 -- there are many episodes that Ryan isn't even on; lots of the show is focused on her life with Taylor, her raising all her kids not just Bentley etc. So they could have something like that if they wanted, but I think they at first probably felt VERY insecure about being dropped from the show -- after all it could show all these other moms struggling with their kids at age 2 but they didn't have that because Carli was being raised by B&T -- so likely their strategy was keep talking about Carli, keep her at the forefront so MTV will keep renewing with us. While that strategy may have made sense in years 2 or 3, now 12 years in they can pretty much ignore Carli and show whatever life of their own they want. |
I'm late to the party, but didn't Chelsea kind of turn things around? I haven't watched in awhile. |
Yes, and she’s not on the show anymore. |
Yep. Married someone else and seems to be in a loving stable marriage that is not dependent on MTV income -- I believe he's an engineer; I think has 3 kids with him, 4 total -- he treats her kid just like his own first kid. They just built a huge custom home together. And then after like 11-12 seasons she said enough and is off MTV; likely MTV wanted her off too because her life is really pretty conventional and boring now just like every suburban family in America. She didn't keep the drama going in her life just to stay relevant to MTV. |
She said she didn't want them filming during COVID because they were requiring weekly tests of the kids. |
That was just related to why the kids were not on much of the last season. Her statement on why she left the show is because Aubrey is a tween and she did not want her to go through the tween/teen years on camera. |
Chelsea is adorable and amazing and I’m in love with her IG account. She seems to really have it together. |
Of course they’re not equipped to be parents! They started on “16 and Pregnant” and these girls weren’t honor roll kids from upper middle class, loving households. |
I wonder what that nasty Farrah is up to... I could not stand her nor Janelle. The worst ever! |