So I’m watching Jordan’s 16 and pregnant episode. It’s the girl who chose to be homeless with her boyfriend while pregnant because her parents wouldn’t let her boyfriend stay at their house. It’s so wild watching this knowing what happens next. Watching everyone talk about how Derek won’t be there for Jordan or the baby is wild knowing that it’s Jordan who wasn’t there. like people act like Derek is some lazy bum who doesn’t want to do anything to help. But it turns out to be Jordan being the one who doesn’t help out.
For those who don’t know: I think by the time that baby was a year old, Jordan was the one who wasn’t there for the baby. Jordan and Derick broke up and he was raising the baby. Jordan, I think it gave up her parental rights to Derick’s mom. Derrick and his mom raised the baby over the next several years. Meanwhile, Jordan was partying, a drug addict, stripping, and even found on an escort website. She’s supposedly got clean, met a new guy, and had a baby with him. But the guy died of a drug overdose right after the baby was born. And then maybe six months later, Jordan died of a drug overdose. I think her parents raise that baby.
**Edit**: Apparently after Jordan died, Derek said stuff online and it seemed like their daughter Genevieve didn’t know Jordan. He said stuff about how Jordan hadn’t been around their daughter in years, so it really wasn’t a loss for their daughter.
I hope Derrick and his daughter are doing well these days. That's a lot to deal with.
Apparently, the reason he was kicked out was because he lost his job at McDonalds and didn't really put a priority on getting another one, so they kicked him out. If he'd actively been trying to find a new job, her parents would have let him stay. "Derek needs to get a job" was basically the theme of the entire episode. In 2013-2014, especially in an area like Baltimore, a job would not have been very hard to come by if he was looking. Would he have been making enough to get them an apartment and pay all of the bills? No. But they just wanted him to find something and help contribute, and he wasn't. So I understand why they asked him to leave.
I also understand why Jordan went with him. She was 18 and pregnant. 18 year olds aren't known for being incredibly rational. She had it in her head that she needed and wanted to stick by Derek and be a family. Choosing to be homeless over a boyfriend is, unfortunately, such a "you can't tell me what to do, I'm 18 and I'm an adult!" thing to do.
I also think it could have been different if they weren’t couch surfing and the boy told her to just go home. Couldn’t imagine loving someone and encouraging them to be homeless with me smh
That too. The fact he didn't seem too concerned about the situation drove me up a wall. I noticed that her aunts didn't point out that she could just go home as well. So it could have been editing, but who knows.
Yes it was literally insane watching him not really care about his pregnant homeless girlfriend. It seemed they both just assumed things would work out.
Rewatched the episode just now due to this post. She tried her best as a mom to a newborn, Derick really was a drop kick when she needed him. Sitting around on his phone, playing video games, not getting a job or doing anything to help, telling Jordan not to touch the baby and to let her cry it out. She had a great motherly instinct at that time. I wonder what happened to change that?
I think drugs. I have a feeling she was a hard partier before getting pregnant. Once she was able to, I wouldn’t be shocked if she went back into partying. She also talked about being diagnosed bipolar but refused to take medication. And probably couldn’t or wouldn’t work a job, needed money for drugs so she turned to stripping.
What season is this?
S05E09
Lord, she was a hot mess. Luckily the kid was shielded from her dysfunction.
This kind of story absolutely terrifies me as a parent. What if letting him stay in the house had made the difference in her life that kept her from going down the road she did?
I realize that is overly simplistic and there were many other factors going on, but as a parent, I would be tortured always wondering.
It’s easy to tell OTHERS to practice tough love but if it’s your kid, it’s a new ball game
Likely not. The kind of person that chooses someONE to sleep next to rather than someWHERE to sleep, especially while pregnant, does not think clearly
I mean you can’t be letting teenagers strong arm you into have their boyfriends/girlfriends move in…
She was always offered to stay in the house herself, they just didn’t want her bf there. She was 18 at the time of the episode, she sadly brought the homelessness onto herself
Looking back, I feel like we didn’t get an accurate depiction of these girls on 16 and pregnant. I feel like we got the version that NTV wanted to show.
It seems like Jordan was probably a big party or before getting pregnant. And they made it seem like she got kicked out of her parents house and they were letting her be homeless while pregnant. But really she chose to leave when they kicked Derek out.
The same with Farrah. She seemed like this sweet small town cheerleader who was bullied by her friends after getting pregnant. But in her book, Farrah talks about partying as much as she could, and being messed up on drugs and alcohol as often as she could before getting pregnant.
From the ages of about 17-19 I was doing allllll sorts from drinking to taking Coke and not one single person knows about it other than the handful of people I hung around with then... Why? Because we were all such quiet, well behaved, responsible people who never missed any school, were never in trouble, did really well in everything and just generally weren't the group who were the obvious and out there known partiers. If you weren't IN our very small circle then you didn't know from Friday until Sunday we were all absolutely bouncing off the walls. And still to this day NO ONE has any idea about my little drug taking phase that I went through almost 20 years ago because that's all it was. About a year and a half to 2 years of me having fun as a teenager and then being like ok I've tried everything and that was a great experience, cool, the end. And then just continued on being the very quiet, responsible, incredibly BORING person that I am.
So tbf to MTV I don't think they themselves had ANY idea Farrah was this hard partier, drinker and drug taker prior to and leading up to getting pregnant either. Unlike when the girls actually get onto Teen Mom and the MTV cameras are now a very consistent and more permanent fixture in their lives, when filming for 16 and Pregnant they're just yet another random girl of the maaaaany that MTV is only filming for around 6 months for this one off short episode. And they're already pregnant when they arrive on the scene.
A total loose cannon like Jenelle who is so stupid that she's happy to admit and share on camera that she's out of control and into drugs isn't going to be the norm. Most teenagers will be doing anything and everything to hide from their parents, teachers and all adults if they've ever tried alcohol or drugs so there's no way they're going to freely offer up that information on camera. And the only reason Farrah ever went onto then offer it up in her book later on in life is because it BENEFITED her. She'll sell more books if there's a "juicy" story in it.
So as much as MTV definitely picked their favourites when it came to Teen Mom and deliberately hid things and gave a good edit to some whilst amplifying the issues and mistakes of others, I think when it came down to 16 and pregnant they legitimately were clueless about who and what a teen girl's lifestyle was prior to her pregnancy unless that's something that was explicitly told to them... And there's no way girls and families like Farrah's, Chelsea's, Maci's, etc were ever going to be showing them their "perfect little girl" was a raging drug taker, IF the parents actually even knew themselves at that stage.
MTV will hardly ever tell the full story
It's not always dramatic enough
Yep, people always assume it'll be the dad that can't keep it together for the baby, but the moms are also guilty of putting the partying and fun times and boyfriends before their own children... cough chinelle cough amber cough..
Was just doing an OG rewatch and I was fucking appalled at how many boyfriends Amber went through before going steady with Matt.
Whitney was an absolute brat but I did not see things unfolding the way they did with her.
That makes me wonder what they didn’t tell us about Whitney back in those days.
Yeah we know there are plenty of deadbeat moms out there. We have seen Amber be a train wreck and prioritize literally anything else over her children. Jenelle too.