"Teen Mom": Life After 16 and Stupid

I'll admit it. I tend to watch a little bit too much television. It's my guilty pleasure and, as a consequence, my rear-end has spent many hours on, well, the floor because frankly, the furniture in Tuscany is harder than a rock and sometimes the floor is just more comfortable. But that's beside the point.

I have my weekly shows that I tune into religiously, whether I'd like to admit it or not, and, of course, I have my own thoughts on them that I'd like to share. After deciding to create a blog that would provide my insights on today's (sometimes trashy) television, I then had to determine which of my regular shows I would begin with. I figured, what better way to start off my ramblings than with some talk about MTV's hit show, "Teen Mom."

For those of you who don't know, "Teen Mom" is a spin off the show, "16 and Pregnant," or as I like to call it, "16 and Stupid." This reality show documents the lives of four teen mothers and the various struggles that they face. We watch them fight with their baby daddy, if he is, in fact, still in the picture. We see them battle to finish high school and move on to college as they try to raise a baby, when really, they are still babies themselves. And we watch as their families attempt to make it work.

Although my dad, and possibly many others believe this show to be "garbage," I actually think the opposite. "Teen Mom" doesn't make teen pregnancy look like rainbows and sunshine. They show the viewer how hard it really is, something that other teen girls could really benefit from. These girls are forced to make life changing decisions at the age of 16 because of something that could have easily been avoided. They don't always make the right choices (clearly), and some of them simply cannot parent well. I feel bad for the babies living in awful environments. For instance, one girl on this season named Jenelle is the mother of a baby boy named Jase. Jenelle still lives with her own mom, and the two of them have a very hostile relationship. Jase hears them scream and watches them hit each other and I can only imagine how he will develop because of it. As far as I can tell, the show features something real. It may be embellished a little (it is MTV), but my hope is that it is helping to prevent teen pregnancy. I know I don't envy their situations.