Wow, this episode was full of drama and I am really interested to hear about what you all thought about it. 

Jordan is a 17-year-old girl from Pennsylvania who is pregnant and spends lots of her time with her boyfriend, Tyler. Jordan starts off by saying how different they are. Tyler is kind of a loner and likes to play video games, while Jordan has lots of friends and would rather spend time at the skating rink. But I guess opposites attract, right? The other difference is he’s white and she’s black. Although this doesn’t matter to Tyler or Jordan, it’s a major issue for Jordan’s mom.

Jordan’s mom won’t let Tyler step foot into her house and she thinks that as soon as the baby comes, Tyler will be out of the picture entirely. Throughout the episode we see Jordan’s mom constantly making fun of Tyler and referring to his race as being a problem. Do you think that Jordan’s mom is justified? Unlike Jordan’s mom, Tyler’s family is a lot more supportive of the couple; they let Jordan come and go as she pleases and they do whatever they can to support her. Jordan is so grateful for their help that she decides she is going to raise her son, Chase, at Tyler’s house. It was hard for me to understand why Jordan’s mom would be pushing away a supportive father—most of the teen moms we have seen throughout the seasons would love to have a more supportive father figure in their child’s life.

Tyler has already supported Jordan and the baby a lot by buying clothes and a crib. The problem is that all of this stuff is at Jordan’s house. Jordan and Tyler decide to sneak into her home while her mom is at work to take all the baby supplies to Tyler’s house. Should Jordan have spoken with her mom before taking everything to Tyler’s house? As a result of the sneaking around, Jordan’s mom leaves Jordan a really nasty voicemail and Jordan refuses to call her back. After some cooling off, Jordan receives a friendly e-mail from her mom apologizing for the voicemail and asking to meet and talk.

Jordan and her mom actually have a really good conversation and I was surprised to see her mom change her entire view on Tyler. She now says that after the baby is born, there is an open door policy for Tyler to come over whenever he wants to visit. Under these new rules Jordan changes her mind and decides she wants to be at home with her mom once Chase is born.  Tyler and his family are suspicious of her change of heart and are not happy with the situation. Do Tyler and his family have a right to be mad? Should Jordan have stayed with Tyler’s family?

Once Chase is born everything changes. Jordan does go home to live with her mom, but Tyler has basically disappeared. He doesn’t even spend the first night with her after planning on it. He rarely comes over to visit his son and ignores Jordan. Tyler’s parents say he is just really upset about the situation and needs time to get over it, but is that a legitimate excuse? He might not be happy with Jordan living with her mom, but he does have the ability to come over whenever he wants. Tyler and Jordan are really frustrated with each other and are no longer the happy couple we see early on in the episode. Tyler and Jordan get into a huge fight when he comes over to her house to visit Chase. After some heated words between Tyler and Jordan, Jordan’s family becomes involved.  Jordan’s mom says something regarding their differing races and Tyler responds with more heated words. It even looked like it was about to get physical between Tyler and Jordan’s brothers.

Were you all surprised at how Tyler’s role changed so much after the baby came? How could this have been handled better? We see at the end that Tyler is still not really part of Chase’s life and although she said she wouldn’t, Jordan drops out of high school. Jordan may not have wanted to drop out, but in reality fewer than four in ten mothers who have a child before age 18 earn a high school diploma.

I am really interested to hear what you all thought about this episode! Can’t wait until next week!   

This post was written by Roxanne, an intern for The National Campaign. Roxanne recently graduated from George Washington University where she studied human services and public health. She loves sports and traveling. She hopes to travel the world someday. Want to ask Roxanne a question? Send us an email!