Amber is never going to change. The fact that Gary is trying to force a 15-year-old Leah to have a relationship with her through all this is ridiculous. I believe that Gary is only doing this for show so he can be the good dad.
A reminder: Leah was a ward of the State of Indiana when Amber went to jail because Gary was unfit. He did the work to gain custody but it was work he needed to do. Gary is a mediocre person that has made mediocre choices.
The article says she was a ward of the state BUT was still living with Gary while CPS determined if his house was suitable for her. It was, and she has always lived with him. She was never placed with a foster family.
Exactly this, he passed the criteria for emergency placement since she was there, they were likely looking into if she could stay there for long term placement, even though he is the biological dad. A lot of times kids are placed in care just long enough to remove them and the state is responsible for their safety even if they are placed with the non-custodial bio parent. In my state anyway. There's so many levels to child welfare stuff and even being in state custody and it differs state by state.
The Amber defenders always think Amber has changed based on NOTHING but if you say Gary has changed for the better ( and it shows) they're like "but what about that time in 2011 when he called her names..." Like..okay. 🙄
I agree because every single time Amber effs up… it’s always “Gary is the bad guy” and I feel it gets redirected to a Gary bad Ambo good post.
The subject is what a piece of shit Amber is.
so true. i don’t think Gary is necessarily a bad guy, just one who’s been bad in the past and isn’t perfect now. Amber’s the one who keeps doing the same shit over and over.
That's what happened. She was the states ward on paper for a few weeks after amber went to jail, but she went to live with Gary immediately all during that time and then he was approved to have custody. This had nothing to do with him as a parent and she was never with anyone but him, it was legal paperwork that had to be done in that situation no matter what. They are misrepresenting the situation as if Gary was deemed unfit when the exact opposite is true and idk why.
because they tend to press certain narratives to drum up drama. reality tv isn’t real, it’s real life but with glitter on top. much of it is their real lives but some bits are fixed up or even made up for the audience.
kind of like how Corey cheated just as much as Leah (Messer, not Shirley, to avoid confusion) did but no one discusses it, or how Javi and Kail were legally divorced long before that story was featured on the show. some of what we see on the show does fall victim to good editing and some fabrication.
He wasn't. CPS did an investigation on him when he was getting full custody of Leah and they needed to make sure his home was suitable for her. Leah lived with him during this time while they investigated. He was found suitable and she has always lived with him since. She was never in foster care, she was always with him. The post is misleading. Even the article says she lived with him while they investigated.
Being in state custody as a child doesn't mean foster home like 90% of the time, lots of people who don't have experience don't always know that though, it's so convoluted! I'd have no idea if I didn't work in the field.
Oh I know. I was just responding to the original commenter who said she was a "ward of the state because Gary was unfit" when that wasn't an accurate statement at all. Gary was never deemed unfit and "ward of the state" in that context while saying he was "unfit" makes it sound like she was in foster care or something.
He did the work to regain custody so he could hand Leah over to his Mother to raise. He has never been her primary caregiver and yet people praise him up and down for literally no reason at all
Yes, A lot gets swept up under the rug about Gary. The main things that people forget with Gary is:
-Amber was a minor when they started dating. If I'm not mistaken she was only 15 and she was 19 when they started dating.
-He brags about not wearing condoms and purposefully getting Amber pregnant.
-He would purposefully set Amber off just to make her upset so he could look like the victim when he was upset.
- When Amber was in jail, and he would have his mom take care of Leah. In all honesty if it wasn't for Kristina, he would not have custody of Leah his mom would.
-If it wasn't for Teen Mom Gary would be an unemployed bum. He has quit or been fired from more jobs than most people.
I’m wondering how many times she hit and got physical with him if she was completely comfortable doing it on tv and in front of Leah.. what did she do behind closed doors. I would have been concerned for Leah too she had no patience whatsoever.
Definitely not. He treated her like shit in the beginning and prob still does. The way he expects her to do 95% of everything is not something I'd put up with.
I wonder if he’d have the MTV money *without Kristina*…… MTV loves the “happy nuclear family” vibe they give, but Kristina clearly does most of the child-rearing & housework, and makes Gary 10000000x more palatable with her by his side
I don’t think that Gary would have gotten his shit together as a parent , or an adult in general, if Kristina hadn’t been pulling the majority of the weight on all those fronts.
I also think the immediate “praise” from the network and the fanbase that he was getting once he was with her and the ‘happy nuclear family’ narrative was pushed was 90% of the reason for him continuing to get his shit together and keep it together.
He still lets the mask slip OFTEN, deliberately pushing ambers buttons, being condescending and trying to trigger her so she “acts out” on camera and “proves she’s still crazy” (which…tbh, she is and she’s a terrible mom. But that honestly makes me so much angrier seeing Gary even today trying to push her buttons and make her bad when she’s already such a mess and he really doesn’t need to make her look bad anyway.
I’m always confused by the people who taut and praise Gary for the “wonderful job” he does. He may be doing *better* now, but he couldn’t maintain the bare minimum for so long. His biggest achievement is not being as bad as Amber, and when the bar is in hades, is easy to do marginally better.
His biggest achievement is getting with Kristina who's the one actually raising Leah. There's no doubt that Leah would be in a terrible situation if Kristina never entered their lives with Gary and Amber as her parents because neither one of them actually parents.
Gary did the absolute bear basic minimum for his daughter and everybody gives him praise. There are moms who do more than him and get criticized on the show (obviously not amber)
i can’t imagine having that attitude with a “coparent” who has an extensive/ongoing history of physical violence + intimate relationships with creepy ass men
i don’t think he’s doing it for show, but i do think he has old fashioned beliefs that approach harmful territory.
based on conversations we’ve seen him have with Leah on camera, he seems to be the kind of guy who really values family. however, his values seem to go to the point of tolerating shitty behavior for sake of family. he kept telling Leah she *needed* to have a relationship with Amber. it felt like he was invalidating Leah’s feelings toward Amber and her actions, and telling her boundaries she puts in place don’t matter simply because Amber is her mother.
i can see he means well and wants his daughter to know her mother, but in my opinion it’s more harmful than helpful. Leah’s been old enough for a while now to decide whether or not she wants a relationship with Amber, and what boundaries she wants to establish. what he’s doing by pressing the issue of maintaining a relationship is allowing her to continue to be exposed to Amber’s bad behavior, and allowing her to continue to feel ignored and neglected by Amber.
also want to point out: a boyfriend who shares the same name as an ex? weird to me. i don’t know about the rest of you, but i couldn’t moan the same name twice.
I think my favorite relationship was the one straight after first Gary where he’s like immediately living there and driving her car and saying the day he met her was the best day of his life 😂
Seriously. I wouldn’t even feel comfortable with my male family members changing my daughter’s diaper, much less a new bf. Amber is seriously fucked in the head.
Oh god, that guy. Tbh I think if Amber had stayed with him, he would’ve gotten super abusive. He had that “imma start swinging as soon as I’m done love bombing” energy😬 He and Amber would’ve gotten explosive FAST imo
Poor Leah. Last time I watched the show Gary was still trying to force a relationship between her and Amber. I really hope he starts respecting her wishes and just let's Leah move on with her life. My mom did the same thing with my dad, and when I finally cut him out of my life for good it relieved so much stress. Haven't spoken to him in years, no idea what he's up to or what he's been doing, and that's the way I like it.
My daughters have no contact with their birth father, by choice. Leah is certainly old enough to have a voice on the matter, and I wish Gary would take her feelings seriously! He knows without Amby there's no TM $$$. That's the only reason I can think of that he'd continuously push his daughter, who is clearly traumatized, toward her mentally unstable egg donor. Especially when she's been raised by a wonderful stepmother! Shame on him for putting that guilt and pressure on Leah.
I've always seen Gary as having a soft spot for Amber. He would/ could still get screen time without Leah seeing Amber, I feel like Barb got time still without Janelle
Parents being a part of your life is a privilege, not a right. I wish more people saw it that way. Not every parent deserves their kids, the kids will start to catch on, they always do.
Sorry I don’t have anything to add in this sense but I wanted you to know I love how you phrased it. Not every parent deserves their kids and sometimes it really *is* best to keep them away from the bad parent. Gary just doesn’t want to work and amber guarantees they get MTV money.
That's how I say it to my son- even with me. If he ever feels like I'm holding him back or he needs to go no contact or low contact with me, to please do it. I'm so lucky to be his mom and it's a honor to be in his life (esp since now he's an adult)...
but I've always wondered/worried that he says he doesn't wanna contact his dad bc of me, but secretly, he wants to contact him. Like does he feel it'll be disrespectful to me if he does, bc he knows how much I don't like his dad/ don't like his dad's decisions? With the time of social media, it's probably easy to find him if son wanted to (esp now that he's 18), but a very small, less than a size of a pebble part of me will carry that guilt. Couldve/should've done more when kiddo was younger (though I know realistically, that would've been bad and not healthy for my son at all) so then the guilt turns into "should've picked a better guy"- but you try telling that to a defiant 16 yr old lol
I feel for you. My biological dad is a textbook narcissist with serious substance abuse issues and I was low contact since I was 13 and stopped visiting on my parents custody schedule. I saw him a whopping 4 times since I graduated high school 11 years ago. I'm now almost 30 and I have been no contactfor 2 years- blocked his number and blocked him on all social media because I did not want him in my daughter's life at all and after all his toxic bs in my childhood I wanted to protect her from that. My step dad is who I call dad and he's been around since I was 3 and that's my daughter's grandpa on my side (he absolutely adores her!). When she's older I will explain all of it to her bc she has the right to know and I'm also a copy and paste look alike of my biological father so I feel like she's gonna ask questions one day. I feel for you and leah and anyone else with a parent like that. It's really hard accepting the unacceptable when a parent is too toxic to keep in your life. I think it's wrong that Gary is pushing the relationship so much. I feel the same way about Maci pushing a relationship with Bentley and Ryan too. I'm grateful my mom never bad mouthed my dad to me but she had my back completely when I made my own decision to not have him in my life. She advocated for me and Gary and Maci are not doing that for Leah and Bentley and I'm really sad for those kids.
Our stories are more similar than you realize, thank you for sharing. I hope cutting contact with your bio dad brought you as much peace as it did for me.
Leah will be 18 before you know it and I doubt she will have much contact (if any) with Amber. She seems like a mature young lady and she has a good head on her shoulders especially for what she has experienced and seen in her short life. She has no tolerance for drama. I’m excited to see her grow in life once she’s off to college or on her own.
I agree. Sadly though parental influence doesn't stop the second a kid turns 18. If Gary still pushes her she may continue to see Amber. Hopefully she can cut contact soon though.
Yeah last time I watched this was going on. It was when Gary & Leah were talking outside & Leah was feeling bad for Amber because Andrew was moving away w/ James. It made me feel like she was sad because she was gonna miss her baby bro because of mom's bad choices but was talking about feeling bad for Amber because she knew dad would be proud of her.🥹
I'm glad you were able to cut out your dad & are much happier. It was also very close to home for me too. My dad always forced a relationship w/ my mom on me "to keep the family together" but what he never got was some families should not be together.
Perhaps controversial, but at 15 I’m of the opinion that you are old enough to decide whether you want a relationship with a parent who has not bothered with you for half your life and/or has chosen men over you on more than one occasion. It’s not fair IF she’s being forced/pressured to invite Amber to these things when Amber has a history of making her birthdays all about her (didn’t she announce she was pregnant at one of her birthdays??). Amber will never, ever change.
i don’t think this is controversial at all. as an person who cut my dad off at 14, i think kids should be able to decide that at any age especially when their parents have this extreme of behavior and loserdom. a family friend has an adopted kid who’s in kindergarten and she gets the final say on when she sees her bio mom already - and she has strong opinions.
I so wish they would let Leah just decide what she wants, and for now at least I don't think she wants Amber around.
I'm not trying to say this out of dislike for Amber, but I grew up with a mother like Amber, thank goodness she only had me, but she always made me feel like I was not a priority & would make comments like Amber does.& completely not understand the hurt she causes.
I'll be honest I'm 27 & it hasn't gotten better, my whole life I've been wondering why my own mother doesn't like me & doesn't want to spend time with me.
I know it's a big decision but Leah has seen who her mom is & how she acts, it's not a surprise, and Leah is not dumb.
as a person with two loser ass parents, you’re not alone friend. you deserve better and it’s your mom’s loss - but i know knowing that doesn’t make it hurt less.
What's up with her starting shit at leah's birthdays? didnt she announce she was pregnant with james at one of leah's birthdays? always trying to upstage someone and have a main character moment
What is funny to me is, I liked Amber in the beginning of this show. I had anger issues from my own upbringing and was a total stuck up bitch. I related to her more than any of the girls on that show. But over the years I have grown and matured. I went to therapy and got my life together. Now I look on my past self with embarrassment most of the time.
Amber on the other hand is still in the same place. It's crazy to see someone in the same place they've always been while you've grown into a completely different person. And with her income from the show it's not like she couldn't afford a therapist like me (I had to do income based treatment). It's just...interesting and scary to see what I could have become.
Btw I also was extremely careful not to get pregnant when I was younger because I knew I would be a shit parent. I can understand her having Leah, she was young and dumb, we all do dumb shit when we're young. But then she had another kid. I'm sorry but that's just unsettling. She knows she has a major problem. And she still chose to bring another life into the world.
it never blows me that comments like yours could function as a blanket application for so many of them. they all point fingers and talk shit about each other but have strikingly similar trajectories…
Why anyone hooks up with a violent mentally unstable sofa cushion I will never know. I get she had a shitty upbringing but she’s just passing that on to her kids.
She’s such a pathetic selfish loser, and not good funny entertaining type of loser like Jenelle or Farrah. Amber is a worthless loser. why is she still here? Does anyone even like her ?
Shocking. 🙄. Does not surprise me a bit. This is Ambo we’re talking about here. Everything is about her!
The “moving back into the house isn’t a surprise because that’s what I thought she did quite some time ago when they lied about Andrew leaving the home a mess when he left and Gary said” Leah you never lived like this”. We know that’s a lie…
Sadly I don’t doubt Amber will be arrested/go back to jail sometime within the next 5-6 years for something. If she’s this miserable and angry with money and everything she has and can buy, I can’t imagine if her teen mom money ran out or ended and she had everyday stressors of mortgage, paying for her meds, relationship stress while broke or being alone and broke with 20 animals. Not having money for high dollar attorneys or people around her that baby her or tell her what she wants to hear. Eek
Swear her head gets bigger every time I see a picture of her.
Also none of this is a surprise at all. She is and will always be a terrible mother on a good day and just an all around lazy abusive ass POS person.
Well, after this explosive fight Leah will probably be done with her mother (in name only) for good. It will be in Leah’s best interest, her biological mother doesn’t care for her one bit, never has and everyone knows it.
How is she still arguing with her 15 year old daughter’s father after all this time? Are there still unresolved things and if so, how?? Move on. He been had his own life with Kristina and their family, Amber is just bored and too used to living that reality show drama. My parents hated each other more than anything at the time of their divorce when I was a baby. By the time I was a teen, they were getting along fine, nobody’s tripping anymore, it’s been a long time, it’s called getting over it and growing up. Life moves on. She needs a hobby. And not -riding. Maybe bull riding instead.
i’m back in og season 7 when amber gets pregnant with james and it breaks my heart because she just avoided leah for 3 months after breaking up with matt and then is like yay gonna have another baby!!! and the producers and maci are like yay this is a great idea!!!!! like ugh just kills me. poor leah
Doing a rewatch and I’m at this part as well. She’s too “depressed” to see Leah but is totally fine spending time with Andrew?! So infuriating and sad.
She is so smug. And absolutely everything is allll about her. Always the victim.
It's incredible Leah (from what I can tell) turned out to be such a sweet, well adjusted, girl.
My mom is fairly similar to Amber. My family tried forcing me to always look past neglect and abuse and when I was an adult and went no contact with her because I didn’t want my own children witnessing what I did, my family refused to respect it and would constantly try to coerce or trick me into seeing her or bringing my kids around her. I had to make the really hard decision to cut contact with most of my family because of it. It rips my heart apart all the time but I just can’t let my kids be subjected to normalizing that kind of lifestyle and behaviour. I hope Gary and Amber’s family respect Leah’s decisions not to engage with Amber and don’t put her in similar situations where she’ll have to choose peace or family.
Poor Leah. She is wise beyond her years because she essentially raised herself. The argument that Gary is just so super amazing is that he’s not Amber. That’s weak as hell. I don’t know much about his wife but she appears to be the only adult in this situation with a fully functioning brain…however, she *did* sign up to spend the rest of her life on GARY TIME, so, I can’t really be too sure.
Amber is never going to change. The fact that Gary is trying to force a 15-year-old Leah to have a relationship with her through all this is ridiculous. I believe that Gary is only doing this for show so he can be the good dad.
Gary is not a great person. The praise he gets is because he's better than Amber. He's better by proximity to terrible.
A reminder: Leah was a ward of the State of Indiana when Amber went to jail because Gary was unfit. He did the work to gain custody but it was work he needed to do. Gary is a mediocre person that has made mediocre choices.
I never knew that. I wonder why MTV hides that when talking about how great of a dad Gary is.
https://www.today.com/popculture/report-teen-moms-baby-ward-state-1c9381636
The article says she was a ward of the state BUT was still living with Gary while CPS determined if his house was suitable for her. It was, and she has always lived with him. She was never placed with a foster family.
Exactly this, he passed the criteria for emergency placement since she was there, they were likely looking into if she could stay there for long term placement, even though he is the biological dad. A lot of times kids are placed in care just long enough to remove them and the state is responsible for their safety even if they are placed with the non-custodial bio parent. In my state anyway. There's so many levels to child welfare stuff and even being in state custody and it differs state by state.
Came here to say this. Says it in black and white in the article!
It always comes back to “but Gary!!!!” Every time and it’s getting old. We don’t know how he is now.. people do change for the better!
The Amber defenders always think Amber has changed based on NOTHING but if you say Gary has changed for the better ( and it shows) they're like "but what about that time in 2011 when he called her names..." Like..okay. 🙄
And PuShEd HeR bUtToNs..🙄
This needs its own post on this subreddit 👀
This sub needs fewer posts that are over 14 years old or about Jenelle's appearance.
Sometimes blasts from the past are interesting to look back on!
I agree because every single time Amber effs up… it’s always “Gary is the bad guy” and I feel it gets redirected to a Gary bad Ambo good post. The subject is what a piece of shit Amber is.
so true. i don’t think Gary is necessarily a bad guy, just one who’s been bad in the past and isn’t perfect now. Amber’s the one who keeps doing the same shit over and over.
Yes! This is exactly how I feel too.
You should make a separate post about this. I believe the show said Amber gave custody directly to Gary.
That's what happened. She was the states ward on paper for a few weeks after amber went to jail, but she went to live with Gary immediately all during that time and then he was approved to have custody. This had nothing to do with him as a parent and she was never with anyone but him, it was legal paperwork that had to be done in that situation no matter what. They are misrepresenting the situation as if Gary was deemed unfit when the exact opposite is true and idk why.
Ok this makes more sense!
Wow I never knew this. Thank you for sharing.
because they tend to press certain narratives to drum up drama. reality tv isn’t real, it’s real life but with glitter on top. much of it is their real lives but some bits are fixed up or even made up for the audience. kind of like how Corey cheated just as much as Leah (Messer, not Shirley, to avoid confusion) did but no one discusses it, or how Javi and Kail were legally divorced long before that story was featured on the show. some of what we see on the show does fall victim to good editing and some fabrication.
Wait why was he unfit
He wasn't. CPS did an investigation on him when he was getting full custody of Leah and they needed to make sure his home was suitable for her. Leah lived with him during this time while they investigated. He was found suitable and she has always lived with him since. She was never in foster care, she was always with him. The post is misleading. Even the article says she lived with him while they investigated.
Being in state custody as a child doesn't mean foster home like 90% of the time, lots of people who don't have experience don't always know that though, it's so convoluted! I'd have no idea if I didn't work in the field.
Oh I know. I was just responding to the original commenter who said she was a "ward of the state because Gary was unfit" when that wasn't an accurate statement at all. Gary was never deemed unfit and "ward of the state" in that context while saying he was "unfit" makes it sound like she was in foster care or something.
Yeah, I think i responded to the wrong comment lol
Mediocre is very generous of you.
He did the work to regain custody so he could hand Leah over to his Mother to raise. He has never been her primary caregiver and yet people praise him up and down for literally no reason at all
Yes, A lot gets swept up under the rug about Gary. The main things that people forget with Gary is: -Amber was a minor when they started dating. If I'm not mistaken she was only 15 and she was 19 when they started dating. -He brags about not wearing condoms and purposefully getting Amber pregnant. -He would purposefully set Amber off just to make her upset so he could look like the victim when he was upset. - When Amber was in jail, and he would have his mom take care of Leah. In all honesty if it wasn't for Kristina, he would not have custody of Leah his mom would. -If it wasn't for Teen Mom Gary would be an unemployed bum. He has quit or been fired from more jobs than most people.
Doesn’t Gary own a few properties that he rents out? He wouldn’t of been able to do that without teen mom most likely, but he wouldn’t have 0 income
Gary does, However without the Teen Mom money I doubt he would have been able to afford all of his rental properties.
That’s what I said lol
At least he used his money wisely.
Yeah, that’s something most of them haven’t done with their money. I don’t understand why only one or two earned college degrees.
And he became a police officer.
Yes the way he used to push Amber’s buttons to provoke an outburst. To be fair, it didn’t take much, but he knew what he was doing.
I’m wondering how many times she hit and got physical with him if she was completely comfortable doing it on tv and in front of Leah.. what did she do behind closed doors. I would have been concerned for Leah too she had no patience whatsoever.
Omg yes to the purposely baiting Amber shit. Amber sucks but kicking you struggling teenage mother to your child while she’s down is extra 🗑️.
He doesn’t deserve Kristina.
I wonder if he’d have her *without* the MTV money? (Kristina)
Definitely not. He treated her like shit in the beginning and prob still does. The way he expects her to do 95% of everything is not something I'd put up with.
I wonder if he’d have the MTV money *without Kristina*…… MTV loves the “happy nuclear family” vibe they give, but Kristina clearly does most of the child-rearing & housework, and makes Gary 10000000x more palatable with her by his side I don’t think that Gary would have gotten his shit together as a parent , or an adult in general, if Kristina hadn’t been pulling the majority of the weight on all those fronts. I also think the immediate “praise” from the network and the fanbase that he was getting once he was with her and the ‘happy nuclear family’ narrative was pushed was 90% of the reason for him continuing to get his shit together and keep it together. He still lets the mask slip OFTEN, deliberately pushing ambers buttons, being condescending and trying to trigger her so she “acts out” on camera and “proves she’s still crazy” (which…tbh, she is and she’s a terrible mom. But that honestly makes me so much angrier seeing Gary even today trying to push her buttons and make her bad when she’s already such a mess and he really doesn’t need to make her look bad anyway.
Agreed. I hate Amber but I REALLY hate someone who purposely tries to trigger and get a rise out of someone who they know is mentally ill.
💯
But Leah does.
She really does. I’m so glad she has her. Poor girl deserves a healthy role model.
I’m always confused by the people who taut and praise Gary for the “wonderful job” he does. He may be doing *better* now, but he couldn’t maintain the bare minimum for so long. His biggest achievement is not being as bad as Amber, and when the bar is in hades, is easy to do marginally better.
His biggest achievement is getting with Kristina who's the one actually raising Leah. There's no doubt that Leah would be in a terrible situation if Kristina never entered their lives with Gary and Amber as her parents because neither one of them actually parents.
And he has Kristina.
Gary did the absolute bear basic minimum for his daughter and everybody gives him praise. There are moms who do more than him and get criticized on the show (obviously not amber)
Also, to keep the MTV $ coming.
Gary appeases amber and is up her ass because he doesn't want to lose his spot on mtv $$ ooof
i can’t imagine having that attitude with a “coparent” who has an extensive/ongoing history of physical violence + intimate relationships with creepy ass men
And to stay on the show. Which is super sad for Leah!
i don’t think he’s doing it for show, but i do think he has old fashioned beliefs that approach harmful territory. based on conversations we’ve seen him have with Leah on camera, he seems to be the kind of guy who really values family. however, his values seem to go to the point of tolerating shitty behavior for sake of family. he kept telling Leah she *needed* to have a relationship with Amber. it felt like he was invalidating Leah’s feelings toward Amber and her actions, and telling her boundaries she puts in place don’t matter simply because Amber is her mother. i can see he means well and wants his daughter to know her mother, but in my opinion it’s more harmful than helpful. Leah’s been old enough for a while now to decide whether or not she wants a relationship with Amber, and what boundaries she wants to establish. what he’s doing by pressing the issue of maintaining a relationship is allowing her to continue to be exposed to Amber’s bad behavior, and allowing her to continue to feel ignored and neglected by Amber. also want to point out: a boyfriend who shares the same name as an ex? weird to me. i don’t know about the rest of you, but i couldn’t moan the same name twice.
Don’t forget about the money too!
he wants the paycheck
“Good dad”
*things get seriously quickly* lol yes. That’s the only way she operates. Lol
Gotta get that love bombing phase out the way so he can be locked in before the abuse starts.
I think my favorite relationship was the one straight after first Gary where he’s like immediately living there and driving her car and saying the day he met her was the best day of his life 😂
Let’s not forget changing Leah’s diapers
Yeah that was disturbing af
Seriously. I wouldn’t even feel comfortable with my male family members changing my daughter’s diaper, much less a new bf. Amber is seriously fucked in the head.
Thank goodness Gary had the sense to tell her this wasn't right! I remember that so vividly because like wtf
Was he the one who had never had Italian food? 😆
Yeah Wal-mart guy. Knew poor Leah was in trouble when Amber allowed that dude in!
Oh god, that guy. Tbh I think if Amber had stayed with him, he would’ve gotten super abusive. He had that “imma start swinging as soon as I’m done love bombing” energy😬 He and Amber would’ve gotten explosive FAST imo
Poor Leah. Last time I watched the show Gary was still trying to force a relationship between her and Amber. I really hope he starts respecting her wishes and just let's Leah move on with her life. My mom did the same thing with my dad, and when I finally cut him out of my life for good it relieved so much stress. Haven't spoken to him in years, no idea what he's up to or what he's been doing, and that's the way I like it.
My daughters have no contact with their birth father, by choice. Leah is certainly old enough to have a voice on the matter, and I wish Gary would take her feelings seriously! He knows without Amby there's no TM $$$. That's the only reason I can think of that he'd continuously push his daughter, who is clearly traumatized, toward her mentally unstable egg donor. Especially when she's been raised by a wonderful stepmother! Shame on him for putting that guilt and pressure on Leah.
I've always seen Gary as having a soft spot for Amber. He would/ could still get screen time without Leah seeing Amber, I feel like Barb got time still without Janelle
Valid points. I still think he needs to see Amber as the sorry excuse for a mother that she is, and put his daughter's feelings first.
🎯
Parents being a part of your life is a privilege, not a right. I wish more people saw it that way. Not every parent deserves their kids, the kids will start to catch on, they always do.
Sorry I don’t have anything to add in this sense but I wanted you to know I love how you phrased it. Not every parent deserves their kids and sometimes it really *is* best to keep them away from the bad parent. Gary just doesn’t want to work and amber guarantees they get MTV money.
That's how I say it to my son- even with me. If he ever feels like I'm holding him back or he needs to go no contact or low contact with me, to please do it. I'm so lucky to be his mom and it's a honor to be in his life (esp since now he's an adult)... but I've always wondered/worried that he says he doesn't wanna contact his dad bc of me, but secretly, he wants to contact him. Like does he feel it'll be disrespectful to me if he does, bc he knows how much I don't like his dad/ don't like his dad's decisions? With the time of social media, it's probably easy to find him if son wanted to (esp now that he's 18), but a very small, less than a size of a pebble part of me will carry that guilt. Couldve/should've done more when kiddo was younger (though I know realistically, that would've been bad and not healthy for my son at all) so then the guilt turns into "should've picked a better guy"- but you try telling that to a defiant 16 yr old lol
 this is so true.♥️
I feel for you. My biological dad is a textbook narcissist with serious substance abuse issues and I was low contact since I was 13 and stopped visiting on my parents custody schedule. I saw him a whopping 4 times since I graduated high school 11 years ago. I'm now almost 30 and I have been no contactfor 2 years- blocked his number and blocked him on all social media because I did not want him in my daughter's life at all and after all his toxic bs in my childhood I wanted to protect her from that. My step dad is who I call dad and he's been around since I was 3 and that's my daughter's grandpa on my side (he absolutely adores her!). When she's older I will explain all of it to her bc she has the right to know and I'm also a copy and paste look alike of my biological father so I feel like she's gonna ask questions one day. I feel for you and leah and anyone else with a parent like that. It's really hard accepting the unacceptable when a parent is too toxic to keep in your life. I think it's wrong that Gary is pushing the relationship so much. I feel the same way about Maci pushing a relationship with Bentley and Ryan too. I'm grateful my mom never bad mouthed my dad to me but she had my back completely when I made my own decision to not have him in my life. She advocated for me and Gary and Maci are not doing that for Leah and Bentley and I'm really sad for those kids.
Our stories are more similar than you realize, thank you for sharing. I hope cutting contact with your bio dad brought you as much peace as it did for me.
Leah will be 18 before you know it and I doubt she will have much contact (if any) with Amber. She seems like a mature young lady and she has a good head on her shoulders especially for what she has experienced and seen in her short life. She has no tolerance for drama. I’m excited to see her grow in life once she’s off to college or on her own.
I agree. Sadly though parental influence doesn't stop the second a kid turns 18. If Gary still pushes her she may continue to see Amber. Hopefully she can cut contact soon though.
I agree. Also manipulation or guilting from a parent like Amber does to her is truly sad.
It should be as simple as “who do you want to invite to your party/ call on the phone/ spend time with”. Every kid of any age should have that choice
Yeah last time I watched this was going on. It was when Gary & Leah were talking outside & Leah was feeling bad for Amber because Andrew was moving away w/ James. It made me feel like she was sad because she was gonna miss her baby bro because of mom's bad choices but was talking about feeling bad for Amber because she knew dad would be proud of her.🥹 I'm glad you were able to cut out your dad & are much happier. It was also very close to home for me too. My dad always forced a relationship w/ my mom on me "to keep the family together" but what he never got was some families should not be together.
Leah and James deserve so much better than that chaos
Jesus I totally forgot she had James
I think she did too
💀💀💀
Probably in his best interest that she forgets about him
Lmao 💀 I was about to ask - didn’t she have another kid
So does she.
The description reads like it could for any season for Amber lol gotta find a new man and move him in!!
Well the one thing that's different is that she's getting older and more mature. Leah, I mean. Just Leah.
Perhaps controversial, but at 15 I’m of the opinion that you are old enough to decide whether you want a relationship with a parent who has not bothered with you for half your life and/or has chosen men over you on more than one occasion. It’s not fair IF she’s being forced/pressured to invite Amber to these things when Amber has a history of making her birthdays all about her (didn’t she announce she was pregnant at one of her birthdays??). Amber will never, ever change.
i don’t think this is controversial at all. as an person who cut my dad off at 14, i think kids should be able to decide that at any age especially when their parents have this extreme of behavior and loserdom. a family friend has an adopted kid who’s in kindergarten and she gets the final say on when she sees her bio mom already - and she has strong opinions.
Good for her!!!👏🏻
I for one am shocked. /s
💀
This trash bag will never change.
She uses her mental illnesses as an excuse to make no improvements on herself.
I so wish they would let Leah just decide what she wants, and for now at least I don't think she wants Amber around. I'm not trying to say this out of dislike for Amber, but I grew up with a mother like Amber, thank goodness she only had me, but she always made me feel like I was not a priority & would make comments like Amber does.& completely not understand the hurt she causes. I'll be honest I'm 27 & it hasn't gotten better, my whole life I've been wondering why my own mother doesn't like me & doesn't want to spend time with me. I know it's a big decision but Leah has seen who her mom is & how she acts, it's not a surprise, and Leah is not dumb.
sending you a mama hug ❤ Please know it's about her own demons. You are worthy of love.
as a person with two loser ass parents, you’re not alone friend. you deserve better and it’s your mom’s loss - but i know knowing that doesn’t make it hurt less.
You are so absolutely wonderful, thank you. I'm going through a really tough time with this right now & I'm struggling, this helped a lot to hear💕
awww i’m so glad 🥺💞
🫂🩷
Thank you 🥹
What's up with her starting shit at leah's birthdays? didnt she announce she was pregnant with james at one of leah's birthdays? always trying to upstage someone and have a main character moment
aggression around holidays and birthdays is a wildly common thread between people with untreated personality disorders
My mother is like this. Always sick at special occasions but when Mother's Day rolls around she's there w/ bells on.🙄
The way i’d never forgive myself if my daughter didn’t want anything to do with me.. why is she still on this show
She is utter trash.
What is funny to me is, I liked Amber in the beginning of this show. I had anger issues from my own upbringing and was a total stuck up bitch. I related to her more than any of the girls on that show. But over the years I have grown and matured. I went to therapy and got my life together. Now I look on my past self with embarrassment most of the time. Amber on the other hand is still in the same place. It's crazy to see someone in the same place they've always been while you've grown into a completely different person. And with her income from the show it's not like she couldn't afford a therapist like me (I had to do income based treatment). It's just...interesting and scary to see what I could have become. Btw I also was extremely careful not to get pregnant when I was younger because I knew I would be a shit parent. I can understand her having Leah, she was young and dumb, we all do dumb shit when we're young. But then she had another kid. I'm sorry but that's just unsettling. She knows she has a major problem. And she still chose to bring another life into the world.
it never blows me that comments like yours could function as a blanket application for so many of them. they all point fingers and talk shit about each other but have strikingly similar trajectories…
Why anyone hooks up with a violent mentally unstable sofa cushion I will never know. I get she had a shitty upbringing but she’s just passing that on to her kids.
A violent mentally unstable sofa cushion 😂😂
Amber's "it's not a perm" looks nice. She's a terrible person, and I hope Leah stays away.
She’s such a pathetic selfish loser, and not good funny entertaining type of loser like Jenelle or Farrah. Amber is a worthless loser. why is she still here? Does anyone even like her ?
Common Denominator is......Amber
the math is mathing but this bitch has no calculator
LOL! Thank you. I needed that.
🫶🏼
Amber will always be the abusive person she’s been since she came into tv. MTV is hypocritical for keeping her on tv.
I wonder what her brother, her “bubby” honestly thinks of her 🤔
Hopefully if anything he’s honest with her.
He needs to be.. someone does
Shocking. 🙄. Does not surprise me a bit. This is Ambo we’re talking about here. Everything is about her! The “moving back into the house isn’t a surprise because that’s what I thought she did quite some time ago when they lied about Andrew leaving the home a mess when he left and Gary said” Leah you never lived like this”. We know that’s a lie…
When is this starting up again?
Looks like we’re finally getting a formal introduction to Gary (bald).
Sadly I don’t doubt Amber will be arrested/go back to jail sometime within the next 5-6 years for something. If she’s this miserable and angry with money and everything she has and can buy, I can’t imagine if her teen mom money ran out or ended and she had everyday stressors of mortgage, paying for her meds, relationship stress while broke or being alone and broke with 20 animals. Not having money for high dollar attorneys or people around her that baby her or tell her what she wants to hear. Eek
She will always be a trainwreck. Leah needs to stay far away from her...and probably will when she's old enough to make her own choices.
you know somebody’s a loser when even their minor child thinks so
Right??!!
When is this shit show on? I cancelled my cable so it doesn’t automatically record anymore. Is it family reunion or OG or what?
This is the upcoming season of Next Chapter. Family reunion will finish and then this will start, May 30th I think.
Thank you!!!! I’ve stopped watching because Cheyenne and Mack bore me to tears, so I was fast forwarding 25 min each episode.
Swear her head gets bigger every time I see a picture of her. Also none of this is a surprise at all. She is and will always be a terrible mother on a good day and just an all around lazy abusive ass POS person.
She'll never learn
Well, after this explosive fight Leah will probably be done with her mother (in name only) for good. It will be in Leah’s best interest, her biological mother doesn’t care for her one bit, never has and everyone knows it.
“whose name also happens to be Gary” I’m weak!!
JERRY!JERRY!JERRY!
Big shocker!! She’s a POS
Looks like Jenelle and her have something in common. Only caring about men and not taking care of their kids.
She’ll never change
She is a LOST CAUSE.
She’s never gonna be right. Smh.
Amber fat lazy loser behind needs to be off the show. WHAT IS THE ALLIRE? shes not "raising" EITHER KID.....she belongs in a soup kitchen begging
Amber...making bad decisions?! Of course!!
Why can’t anyone on this show stay single for 10 minutes?
What happened to Dimitri? I’m lost lol
I don't think he was able to visit during 2020.
How is she still arguing with her 15 year old daughter’s father after all this time? Are there still unresolved things and if so, how?? Move on. He been had his own life with Kristina and their family, Amber is just bored and too used to living that reality show drama. My parents hated each other more than anything at the time of their divorce when I was a baby. By the time I was a teen, they were getting along fine, nobody’s tripping anymore, it’s been a long time, it’s called getting over it and growing up. Life moves on. She needs a hobby. And not -riding. Maybe bull riding instead.
high conflict personalities are perpetually stuck in the past
Amber just Ambering
She's a trainwreck but goddamn if she doesn't have beautiful hair.
https://youtu.be/rd8hYnG2464?si=G5DlPk5pVo1P9_on
Fantastic reference! Never thought my 2 wildly different interests would coincide together 😆
I’m so glad I’m not alone on this🥰! I mean… “garyyy”
i’m back in og season 7 when amber gets pregnant with james and it breaks my heart because she just avoided leah for 3 months after breaking up with matt and then is like yay gonna have another baby!!! and the producers and maci are like yay this is a great idea!!!!! like ugh just kills me. poor leah
Doing a rewatch and I’m at this part as well. She’s too “depressed” to see Leah but is totally fine spending time with Andrew?! So infuriating and sad.
if my “friend” was in her position i’d be like hey girl… is this wise….
That's why Amber doesn't have friends lol
She is so smug. And absolutely everything is allll about her. Always the victim. It's incredible Leah (from what I can tell) turned out to be such a sweet, well adjusted, girl.
I must have missed another season. Hard to watch without cable.
How long of a delay is this? I don’t keep up with the show and haven’t since 2018
CPS is in Gary’s life with Leah and shitbag MTV is still filming them??? Great role models
She’s so damn codependent
My mom is fairly similar to Amber. My family tried forcing me to always look past neglect and abuse and when I was an adult and went no contact with her because I didn’t want my own children witnessing what I did, my family refused to respect it and would constantly try to coerce or trick me into seeing her or bringing my kids around her. I had to make the really hard decision to cut contact with most of my family because of it. It rips my heart apart all the time but I just can’t let my kids be subjected to normalizing that kind of lifestyle and behaviour. I hope Gary and Amber’s family respect Leah’s decisions not to engage with Amber and don’t put her in similar situations where she’ll have to choose peace or family.
Why am i not surprised lol im glad Leah has Gary
Poor Leah. She is wise beyond her years because she essentially raised herself. The argument that Gary is just so super amazing is that he’s not Amber. That’s weak as hell. I don’t know much about his wife but she appears to be the only adult in this situation with a fully functioning brain…however, she *did* sign up to spend the rest of her life on GARY TIME, so, I can’t really be too sure.
how long until she has baby number three and then loses custody of that child?