If it feels like judging the stars of MTV's Teen Mom and Teen Mom 2 has become a national pastime, you're right. And a particular egregious set of Twitter attacks on Leah Messer this past weekend drive home how easy a job people have of making anything these girls do seem like bad parenting.
Leah was out on the town with some of her friends when pal Amber Fitzwater tweeted a picture of the two in a car grinning at the camera. Coming so quickly on the heels of Leah's miscarriage, it was nice to see the young mom actually smiling and seeming to have a good time. No matter how old you are, a miscarriage is tough. But apparently folks don't agree that she deserves to have a good time when she's still a young mom.
Just as soon as Fitzwater tagged Leah, criticism of her parenting skills erupted, with Tweeters alleging cans seen in the car contained beer ... which apparently means she is a bad mom. Say what?
Both Leah and Fitzwater have responded that the cans contained Red Bull and Monster rather than beer, but I'm still pondering what one has to do with the other anyway.
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If she'd been pulled over for drinking and driving and there was some evidence that she'd put people in danger, sure, go ahead, bash on her all you want. But can't we actually wait for evidence of inappropriate parenting behavior before we go there with these Teen Moms? There are some who give us plenty of fodder!
Say it really was beer and not an energy drink. A picture of Leah in the presence of alcohol would be proof of nothing more than the fact that she's a human being. It could have been her pal's alcohol. Or heck, it could have been hers! Sure, she's only 19 and that's technically illegal, but the divorced mom's girls Aleeah and Aliannah weren't around (ex-husband Corey Simms' Twitter reveals the girls were with him ... so it was a true girls night out for mom), so a little beer to blow off some steam on one of the most stressful weeks a woman can deal with wouldn't exactly be untoward. Would it?
People!! These kids are making a lot of mistakes in front of us on TV. But just because they had kids too young doesn't mean they have to give up on ever having fun again. They can go out, have a good time, try to forget about the hard stuff (ahem, miscarriage), and still be good parents.
Would it really matter to you if Leah had a beer now and then? Is she a bad mom for daring to have a little fun with her friends?
Image via MTV