Dr. Phil: Teen Mama Drama Mini-Review

Teen Mama Drama aired 5/30 (Original Air Date 02/07/12). Dr. Phil’s guests were two teen moms, and the boy who knocked them up. For several reasons this episode got under my skin. I hadn’t planned to blog about it, or Dr. Phil, at all, but after watching the show I decided to make a quick post about it. I didn’t take notes, so some of the ordering of things may be off.

So, the show opens up with a little background on the guests. I am just going to cut and paste the synopsis from the Dr. Phil website:

Parents, pay attention: In the United States, one in six girls will become a teen mom, and oftentimes, the baby’s father gets a free pass and is not held to the same responsibilities in raising the child. Eighteen-year-old Taten has no job, no phone, no car and no permanent place to live. What he does have is a 3-month old daughter with one teenage girl and a second child on the way, according to another. Autumn, 16, gave birth to Taten’s daughter, Emma, in August and although Taten has cheated on her numerous times, and possibly fathered another child with her former best friend while pregnant with his baby, Autumn still wants Taten in her life. Autumn’s mom, Michelle, couldn’t feel more differently and says, “I wish Taten would drop off the face of the Earth.” Caitlyn, 16, says she is currently five months pregnant with Taten’s second child. Taten has his doubts. Caitlyn’s mother, Dana, says, “The thought of Taten makes me physically sick.” Taten says he wants to be with Autumn because he doesn’t want to “tear their family apart,” but admits that if their relationship doesn’t work out, he might want to be wiling to give it a shot with Caitlyn. What will the results of Taten’s paternity test reveal? Is he the father of Caitlyn’s baby, and will he man-up and be a better dad to one — or both — babies? How will the teens and their mothers deal with the outcome? Dr. Phil reveals the hard facts about teen pregnancy: Find out what the future may have in store for these young moms. And, can he convince them that they’re better off as friends than enemies? If you suspect your teen may be sexually active, you can’t afford to miss this show!

Dr. Phil first speaks with Autumn, the mother of Taten’s 3 month old child. The conversation consists of what all these conversations consists of – How did you get pregnant? What were you thinking? Why didn’t you use condoms? Do you value yourself so little that you are so easily taken by any boy that will give you attention? Mom, where are you in the picture? What about dad? It costs X amount to raise a child today. How do you plan to support your baby? Etc etc. The typical answers flooded in. It was a mistake being the overall theme. We hear teen mother stats rattled off here and there.

Next we hear from Caitlyn and her background is given. She’s 5 months pregnant. Much of the same type of questioning goes on.

Finally the prize of a male they have both been knocked up by comes out. Of course, he can’t really say much for himself. He has no real plans on how he will support either of his children. I will say that I find it interesting that their was so much foul language being thrown around on national TV. I swear like a fucking sailor, I really do, but when I am out in public, around other people, I know how to filter myself. There is a time and place. At some point Taten went off on, I believe it was, Caitlyn’s mother, which sparked Caitlyn to speak up for her. I do believe the mom swore ate him first, however, and I guess he figures that respect won’t be one-sided.

Taten had the typical deadbeat teen father response to everything. He doesn’t work, he isn’t with his parents. I think it was Autumn’s mother who allowed him to actually move in with them and sleep in her daughters room. She claims she bought them condoms and such and that the only reason she allowed him to move in is because he had no place to go. Really? She actually tried to defend herself and her actions and I just found that completely indefensible.

The Dr. Phil show went Maury Povich on us for a moment and revealed the results of the paternity test. Taten had insisted that Caitlyn was somewhat of a ho and that there is no way for him to know if the baby is actually is. Of course, both babies are, so that put an end to that ridiculousness.

In the end, what really got me about this episode is how easy it was for Dr. Phil to kind of absolve Taten of any responsibility, or dismiss him. I felt like his attitude was, “Well he’s not going to take care of these babies, most of them (teen fathers) don’t, so I am not even going to waste my time trying to talk to him about that,” and it just really rubbed me the wrong way.

First of all, I am a big believer in self-fulfilling prophecy. If you tell someone that they ain’t shit enough, they are going to start to believe it. If you tell a teen father, “hey, I know you aren’t going to be around,” they start to believe that that is what is expected of them, and furthermore, it’s OK that they aren’t around to take care of their kids. Where was the advice to have him locked up for nonpayment of child support? To have his wages garnished? Why didn’t he take the time to try to, essentially, scare him straight?

I get tired of women letting men off the hook for child support because they are so concerned about how they will feel. We saw that attitude with Sheree Whitfield on The Real Housewives of Atlanta when she refused to take steps to have her deadbeat ex, Bob Whitfield, locked up for nonpayment of child support. It’s ridiculous how our society is so quick to let men/boys off the hook from their responsibilities, yet people are trying to figure out why men are no longer living up to their responsibilities like they once did. Geez, I do wonder.

Hey, I know it’s Dr. Phil, so I should curb my expectations just a bit, but come now!

The End.

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The Wendy William’s Show: Tami Roman Interview Review

Tami Roman visited the Wendy Williams Show a couple of days ago in another attempt to rehabilitate her toxic image.

The interview starts off light enough with Wendy Williams mentioning that she had been invited to Tami’s wedding to Kenny Anderson years before. Tami jokes that the only way she knew what was going on with Anderson was by listening to WW’s show on the radio, so of course she invited her to the wedding! Aw. So cute.  Tami draws sympathy from the crowd when she states that Anderson has little to nothing to do with their kids. Oh, and did you know that Tami is an actress who has appeared on Married with Children? Apparently, she is going to be a series regular on some show that she cannot speak of. Taking jobs from real actresses. SMH.

Sidebar: I am not at all a fan of Wendy Williams. I am watching this clip specifically to see for myself what Tami had to say and witness her crocodile tears. I find it hilarious that Williams has the nerve to state that she is embarrassed by Basketball Wives. I also find it amusing that Nicki Minaj has come out as boycotting Basketball Wives stating that it is an embarrassment to black women. It’s like being on another planet. Neither of those women are women that I would want any child to aspire to be. 

Wendy wants to know what Tami’s daughters think about the show. Tami, first, takes the time to thank Wendy for inviting her on the show because people are so quick to point the finger and organize boycotts, but no one is stepping up to “help them out.” Help them out? Why is it anyone’s responsibility to help them out?

Wendy asks how or why these women, who are relatively attractive, are so violent. Two people clap when Tami said that if you focus the camera on the lives of anyone, it will capture behavior that they would be ashamed of. I don’t know not one person that I could focus the camera on and find them acting the way that she did this season, but I digress.

Tami tries to squeeze out a few tears as she mentions that, “for the first time,” her daughters were embarrassed by her behavior. She never fully recognized the platform that VH1 had given her and now that she recognizes it, she will use her powers for good. Or something. She also mentions her children taking abuse via social networking.

Sidebar: I will say that I am 100% against people going after the kids of any celebrity on any of these shows for any reason. They are not the ones who signed up for this spotlight and they aren’t responsible for the actions of their parents. I find it hypocritical to go off on Tami for being a bully while bullying her children about things that they didn’t do.

Tami still insists that things were going on behind the scenes that drove her to respond the way that she did to Kesha. Even though these things happened, Tami acknowledges that she has to take responsibility for her own actions and not allow others dictate how she behaves. She “openly admits” that she was acting a “pure fool” and that she has since apologized to Kesha. She is trying to take responsibility for her actions. To this Wendy responds, “Aww, that’s nice!” And quickly keeps it moving. Yea, Wendy, after all these years, you should be able to fake sincerity a tad better than that.

Sidebar: I will pay a solid nickel, a 5 whole cents, to anyone who can point me in the direction of what it is that Kesha did that was so horrible that Tami’s only recourse was to go in on her. From what I have seen and read, Tami has yet to shed any light on that. I can only think that it is because she didn’t actually do anything more than what we’ve already seen – talk behind Tami’s back.

Wendy wants to know which Tami the viewers can look forward to in Season 5. Tami vows that she will never, ever see “that look” on her children’s faces again, which means she will have to behave herself. I foresee more therapy sessions in our future.

The rest of the interview is just fluff with WW asking Tami about drinking beer after liposuction, her heart scare (not “mini” heart attack) and showing off her suspect boyfriend. Tami says that he doesn’t watch the show, but when things get back to him, he just asks her, “What did you do?” in that playful sitcom kind of way where the wife/mom spends too much on a shopping spree and the husband/dad shakes his head and raises his arms in amused exasperation. Awww, shucks.

The end.

I can’t wait for the reunion show and will definitely do a review/recap Tuesday!

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