The Rob’s Teen Mom Recap

If you're a friend of mine on facebook [add me] you know I love almost anything MTV. ESPECIALLY the teen pregnancy shows. To much fanfare and discussion, "Teen Mom 2" premiered last night. As usual, I am full of thoughts on the show:

Obviously Jenelle comes to mind first as she stood out as as the debut episode's "star," and probably will continue to for a long time. My thoughts maybe slightly controversial though:

Jenelle and her family are most-obviously suffering from what is happening to their lives since being television characters, and I feel as if that is more responsible for her fued with her mom than any actual parenting issues.

I feel "Teen Mom" generally does a good job of preserving the integrity of the 'documentary.' That being strictly to DOCUMENT the experience as opposed to IMPACTING it. However, when you introduce cameras and stardom into peoples' lives the way this show has, people are going to change whether they mean to or not. It STOPS being reality then because, in reality, people don't have camera crews following them and people watching and judging their every move.

What I took from Jenelle's story with her mom and son was the story of people who are consumed with the fact that they're being watched. There were about eight months between when they stopped filming Jenelle's "16 & Pregnant" and when they started filming "Teen Mom 2," as Jayce was 9 months old in thi's episode. I can pretty much guarantee that over the eight-month absence, Jenelle's mom did a majority of the parenting of Jayce. When the cameras moved in, Jenelle decided she wanted to look good and start parenting, and her mother took offense to it since she knew it was insincere. That's probably why she came off as over-possessive about Jayce, because she's been the "mom" the whole time. And let's be real, that "onesie" was WAY too big for Jayce, but ultimately it should be Jenelle's decision to make, which led to the huge encounter in which Jenelle struck her mother, finally culminating in the court-order scene, which may have been one of the best scenes in the history of the entire series.

In a lot of ways I respect Jenelle's mom for doing that, and in some ways I don't. There were probably better ways to handle the situation, but I think she does have Jayce's best interests at heart by fighting for custody since Jenelle is clearly unfit to be a parent (however, the ironic part of this is that she has not been TAUGHT how to parent by her own mother, whose methods are clearly flawed as well). Additionally, I feel that there would not be a court order if this were not being filmed for MTV, as I think they all would have started beating each other up and rolling around in the yard like the trash they are. I'm anxious to see where baby Jayce lands, as he has two options, one crazier and less-fit than the other.

Also I'm curious to see if Chelsea's little girl will ever stop pooping on everything. She will probably be getting made fun of for that when she herself is on her own episode of "16 & Pregnant." I wish Chelsea knew how big of a mistake she was about to make getting back with that doucher that knocked her up. Oh, and that loser Chris who took her out on a date was only interested in being on television, another not-real-reality moment. But in reality, 17 year old girls are terrible at finding guys that will treat them right. I know girls in their 20s who suffer from the same immaturity. It's a shame too because Chelsea deserves the best. She's sweet, charming, lovely, beautiful, and funny. Given, she's not very smart, but she oozes personality and charisma. She has the potential to be a real winner, and the sad thing is she really doesn't see it. The whole concept of "being treated right" is completely lost on her because she doesn't know what that means. I've learned from doing my "Dr. Rob" segments for over five years that 16-23 year old girls have NO IDEA how they're supposed to be treated... And THAT will be the major reason why they will never get treated that way.

At the end of the day, I still feel bad for all five babies as they're all about to have it tough. I predict Leah, the mother of the twins, will probably shine through as this season's "Maci" and be the clear-cut best mother and provider. Although I think marriage is silly so young, I do think it's a good idea for her to get back with the father, he's not such a bad dude.

It's tough not to feel bad for Kailyn, too. I hope that this series paints Kailyn's biological mother (remember, she lives with her boyfriend's family) to be as evil as April, Caitlynn from last season's mother. With all of the awful things you could say about April, at least she always provided her daughter with the most BASIC of needs... A place to stay. Kailyn's mother APPEARS successful and classy, at least when compared to April, but inside she disgusts me. She doesn't even allow her 16 year old daughter to live with her, even BEFORE she got pregnant. Shame on her. Don't forget that when you see that witch throughout the series. She may be well-spoken and articulate, but they say the same thing about the devil, and I urge you to not be fooled.