On last night’s season finale, the young mothers struggling with money, custody disputes, and poor decision-making. Although concerns have been raised about the girls’ burgeoning fame, no amount of magazine covers could make the reality of their lives glamorous.
Least enviable of all of the moms’ situations is Amber’s. She’s had a tumultuous relationship—plagued with arguments, violence, and an investigation by the Department of Child Protective Services—with her baby’s father Gary. Although the two are currently back together, having recently exchanged promise rings, during a break, she began dating a guy she met in Wal-Mart and after only dating for a few weeks, let him move in with her and her child because he didn’t have any money or a job. (Shouldn’t those be the reasons why he shouldn’t move in?) He’s like the definition of a mooch, vocalizing an empty fantasy about marriage to her before he asks to borrow her car.
Oh, also, the Wal-Mart boyfriend was fresh off of completing a work release program after getting arrested. It’s unknown, at this time, the nature of his crime — but the silver lining here is that it wasn’t child molestation. Yay? Amber likes that he picks up around her filthy apartment, and helps out with the baby, although he dresses her in dirty clothing. Gary was fit-to-be-tied when he discovered that Wal-Mart guy was changing the baby’s diapers. Maybe Gary hadn’t heard that this guy isn’t a child molester, and just a regular criminal.
Really, Catelynn is the only one whose relationship with her daughter is a picnic and a walk in the park—literally. That’s because she and her boyfriend Tyler opted for open adoption, with yearly, pleasant visitations.
This entire season, Maci was in a bitter custody dispute with her ex, and actually said on last night’s episode, “I wish I could have a baby with no baby daddy.” However, the couple recently resolved the custody issue by getting back together. Farrah—who we saw get swindled out of thousands of dollars in a run-of-the-mill internet money order scam—just got herself a new set of tits. How this will help in her dream of opening a fusion restaurant remains to be seen.
But tabloid fame aside, anyone who is watching this show—which includes impressionable and fertile teenage girls—can see that none of these situations are ideal or fun. So we shouldn’t worry about the glamorization of these Teen Moms, because anyone who is stupid enough to think that teen pregnancy is anything but a can of worms will probably be prone to bad ideas in general. Perhaps we should stop undermining the intelligence of teenage girls, and instead start speaking to it. I actually think that reality shows like this one—which merely holds up a mirror to a specific social issue, rather than endorsing it—is a pretty good way to do so.
