After some persuasion from his mom, Ty agrees to go to Butch’s arraignment with April and his mom. Against the advice of the judge, Butch decides to represent himself, and is promptly sent back to jail. April thinks Butch feels it is her fault that he’s back in jail even though he was the one who was violating his parole. Catelynn is glad that Butch can no longer enable her mom and the two of them go to an alcoholic’s recovery group. Ty decides that Butch is a lost cause and that he doesn’t want anything else to do with his dad. Do you think Ty will come around or is his relationship with Butch ruined forever? 

Maci and Kyle prepare to move into their new house while Bentley spends some time with Ryan and Dalis. Ryan and Maci seem to be in a good place. He’s even happy for Maci and Kyle when she tells him about their new house. Do you think they will stay civil towards each other when Ryan reveals that he’s trying to get joint custody of Bentley?

Amber seemed to have made a lot of progress in rehab but after coming home she begins reverting back to her old ways. Amber tells her caseworker she’s going to start going to the outpatient facility and not let Gary distract her anymore, but that doesn’t last for long. She gets mad that Gary keeps going away and leaving Leah with his mother. She wants to be able to see Leah whenever she wants but the communication between Amber, Gary, and Leah is not working out. Amber has a breakdown after she goes to Gary’s mom’s house and Leah is not there. Parents who have a birth resulting from an unplanned pregnancy are more likely to experience high levels of relationship conflict, are less likely to report relationship happiness, and are more likely to report symptoms of depression compared to parents who have a child as the result of a planned pregnancy. This is also linked to decreased child well-being. This tension certainly isn’t creating a good environment for Leah to be in.

Farrah can’t study or focus on anything while Sophia is awake and running around but Sophia refuses to go to bed. Farrah decides to ask her mom if she can take Sophia back to Omaha with her so Farrah can concentrate on her schoolwork and because babysitting is getting expensive. College is expensive enough but it’s hard to also afford a babysitter as a single mom. Nearly 80% of fathers of children born to teen mothers don’t end up marrying the mother. These fathers also pay less than $800 a year in child support which is not even close to enough for a mother to support her child. Right now, Farrah also needs emotional support. Even though Daniel is trying to be helpful, he’s only a temporary stress reliever. Now that Sophia is in her terrible twos, Farrah is getting overwhelmed with having to watch her and trying to get her schoolwork done. Being a teen mom only gets harder as the kids get older and there’s a new set of problems to deal with.

Everyone seems so overwhelmed! It’s true that babies are little bundles of love and joy but they also bring a lot of stress, both emotional and financial. School, work, friends, parents, boy drama, planning for the future; I already have enough stress in my life. Think of all the places that stress comes from in your life. Now imagine that you had to take care of a child on top of that. Yikes! How do you think Farrah, Catelynn, Maci, and Amber’s stressful situations would be different if they didn’t also have children? How do you think your stress would be different if you found out you were pregnant and then had to raise a child? 

Bisi is an intern for The National Campaign. She is an undergrad at Georgetown University studying Economics and is an avid reader who loves experimenting with different fashion trends. One day she hopes to be considered a decent cook.