TV Recap & Review: “16 and Pregnant”
I wasn’t feeling very well last night, so it was out of sheer curiosity that I tuned into the premiere of “16 and Pregnant” on MTV. I’m a mom, I like various reality tv shows, and there sure are a lot about moms these days. (Did anyone catch the premiere of “Raising Sextuplets“, also on last night? I thought about it, but decided it was already being done by, oh, I don’t know, another family in America. Plus twins!)
As a mother who had her first child at age 29, “16 and Pregnant” was pretty tough to take. The first episode focused on Maci and Ryan, high school students who like motorbikes, tattoos, and multiple piercings. They also like each other, or did, enough to get pregnant and engaged. The episode took us on their journey from 32 weeks pregnant to their baby being about 4 months old. Since the birth occurred just 25 minutes into the show, it focused a little more on the reality of parenting a newborn than it did the pregnancy.
Their story is told through the eyes of Maci, who narrates throughout (sounding like a girl reading a school assignment in front of the class). During the pregnancy, she seems optimistic and excited about the direction her life has taken, bragging to her peers about her apartment and new couch. She and Ryan are evidently taken care of very well (financially) by their generous and enabling parents. The baby’s room was filled with rock & roll onesies and personalized pacifiers. Maci’s parents even bought the baby a little motorbike for him to grow into in the future. (Not exactly a helpful baby shower gift for any new mother, but whatever.) It was clear that Maci thought she and Ryan and their baby would be a happy little family.
Meanwhile, Ryan is nearly speechless all the time and flummoxed about his impending responsibilities as a husband and father. The more Maci presses him for enthusiasm, the more he shuts down. “Ryan’s attitude sucks,” Maci complained. Indeed. But he’s also acting his age. She seems to think that because she saved her pennies to buy a couch, she’s ready to be an adult.
While transferring to an accelerated high school so she could graduate sooner (she is, after all, a self-described “overachiever”), she becomes a little celebrity for her baby bump. I cringed at this part; the students crowded around her like she was Ellen Page in the flesh, and Maci loved the attention. It was in this brief scene that there was any discussion at all about why she decided to have the baby. Her reason: “May as well make the best of it.” I half-expected her to say, “It’s what that girl did in ‘The Secret Life of the American Teenager’, that’s why!”
At 38 weeks, Maci, Ryan, and their parents inexplicably go four-wheeling in the woods. I just couldn’t believe my eyes. It could have just been the editing, but right after that, Maci went into labor for 30 hours.
My heart melted for the baby boy. They named him Bentley. And he was precious. Maci & Ryan would squabble about who would change him or feed him or comfort him, and for the rest of the episode, I kept thinking, “Give me that baby, I’ll hold him!!” Maci stepped up and took her mom responsibilities seriously, even though she’d pepper her conversations with complaints like, “Bentley! You’re ruining [my graduation robe]!” or “He’s cranky in the mornings, and it gets on my nerves.” (At least she’s honest.) For awhile, she deluded herself into thinking she could raise the child, care for an inattentive teenage fiance, take classes in college, and go to dance classes twice a week. Later, she dropped dance. As far as I can tell, she is still taking university courses and making the most of her mom’s free babysitting. Ryan, meanwhile, does nothing other than work, work out, and hang out with his buddies at the bowling alley.
In the end, Ryan admitted he hated coming home to Maci, and didn’t want to be together. She cried, and I didn’t blame her; she has the weight of the world on her young shoulders. And as I watched their tale come to a close, Ryan ignoring his worries by getting another tattoo the size of his right ribcage, all I could think was, “THIS is why you don’t have sex when you’re an unmarried teenager.” They’ll grow up, Maci & Ryan, but I worry for their son, an innocent little life who needs a lot of love. I am glad this show did not romanticize teenage pregnancy but emphasize the magnitude of its responsibility.
Did you see “16 and Pregnant”? Would you show this to your pre-teen and teenage children as a cautionary tale?
Photo courtesy paulbence
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Wow! We actually stumbled upon this show last night and were just in shock. It was like a train-wreck… we just had to watch. The reality is that I was in tears thinking of what poor little Bentley’s life was going to entail and I even told my husband that we need to go get that baby so he’ll grow up in a loving and healthy home environment. I do have to give the girl her props though for graduating early despite having a baby at such a young age and for taking college classes. In the long run, she is doing what is best for her baby by ensuring she gets and education to help support them when she finally realizes the loser boyfriend isn’t going to do anything. Really, it’s just sad… But kuddos to MTV for not glamorizing teen pregnancy.
This makes me sad. We have a fair number of teen moms here and I’ve run into some situations I wish I could forget. Seeing a little baby hand getting smacked at the store – nerves frazzled to the max – babies needing snuggles and moms needing better support. We always used to say that we wish you had to take a pill to GET pregnant.
Hi
Well I didn’t see the show but your narration definitely made everything vivid in front of my eyes and I really felt sad for the couple and specially for the baby. Normally reality tv shows are all gossip and tv channels blowing things out of proportion but MTV did a good job by not making it look all rosy.
Even being a mother at 28 gave me jitters, what would have happened to that little girl!
What a great site with tons of great knowledge for moms! I’ll certainly be adding you to my “Envy Worthy Sites” list.
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Melissa
So, is “16 and Pregnant” going to be a series, or was it just a one-time deal? Because honestly, I don’t know if I could handle watching that show again and again and again.
I’m not sure if I would show it to a teen or pre-teen though. “Scare tactics” is not one of my favorite parenting styles, and this doesn’t get the message across “abstain from sex until marriage.” It just shows the difficulties of having a baby at a young age. There are ways to get out of it (hormonal birth control, condoms, abortions, etc), and MTV has shown in the past that it’s quite willing to promote these things over abstinence.
I am not into scare tactics either. For some families, this show could be a springboard into good discussion – it leaves the viewer the opportunity to draw their own conclusions. For some teens, they may very well have gotten a message to abstain, and for others, the msg may have flown right over their determined little hormones. Same with Juno – the movie was sweet and it all worked out for Juno, but it never said, “Hey, don’t have sex before marriage.” It’s still something that kids see that serves as a good conversation starter. Frankly, no show or movie really sends a message to abstain from sex. We all know this. I went with a 7th grader last summer to see the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants sequel, and one of the characters has sex with her boyfriend, and they have a pregnancy scare afterwards. I said to Lily, “Hon, this is exactly why you wait till marriage. Outside of that safe relationship, these kinds of problems are WAYYYYYYY too much to handle.” She got the message loud & clear.
From what I have read, this is a 6-episode series, focusing on 6 different mothers. I will not be watching again; once was enough.
I did not watch this show, but I’m going to look it up and watch it online.
Funnily enough, I was pregnant with my first child at 16. From the sounds of things, it couldn’t have been more different for me than it was for this pair. I am still with the same guy (and happily married for 9 years now). I’m of two minds about this – it’s nice that to show teens the consequences of having sex etc (especially if it’s not all fluffy and happy – parents helping them out with money? How often does THAT happen in REAL reality?) but at the same time, I cringe at the message it’s sending about teen parents being irresponsible. I guess I’ll have to actually watch the show to make a proper judgment.. but I just wanted to put it out there that not all teenage mama’s are bad apples… some of us turn out better than great.