Dr. Phil Episode Notes: Fight Over Teens’ Baby
04:00 PM; I watched today’s Dr. Phil rerun episode: Fight Over Teens’ Baby. Below, I’ve included the notes I took from the show.
Segment 1
Summary: Teen-aged mother and father, taking heat from the mother’s family over their choice to bare a child at seventeen and eighteen years of age. Complaints of unprotected sex, inability to support a family, an overly controlling nature, and blatant immaturity swirl around the young dad. The father’s father appears on the young couple’s side; allowing them to live with him and providing lots of financial support. Question: Who could best parent this child? The couple? The maternal grandparents?
The stepmother, Nikki believes that her stepdaughter Paige’s boyfriend Jordan is lording over her too much and “brainwashing” Paige. Nikki wrote to the Dr. Phil show for help, fearing that since Paige’s involvement with Jordan began, Paige performs less well in school and engages in more partying and drug abuse. Nikki says that Jordan won’t allow them to visit with Paige when he’s not there, and denies talking badly of Jordan to Paige whenever she sees her. She says that the couple never picks up their phone whenever she rings them, and she feels that they’re keeping her and her husband from their granddaughter. She worries about the baby living in the same quarters as a python snake.
Jordan is the barely-adult father, at eighteen years old. He says that Nikki, Chris, and Marcie try to turn Paige against him every chance they get.
Paige is the young mother, at seventeen years of age, and denies that Jordan rules her with an iron fist, claiming that he doesn’t prevent her from doing anything she wishes to do.
Miley is Jordan and Paige’s daughter, and is approximately one year old.
Marcie is Paige’s biological mother.
Chris is Jordan’s natural father, and provides housing for Paige, his son, and their baby. He believes that the young couple is “moving in the right direction.”
Ross is Paige’s natural father. Indeed, lots of players on this show. He offered to raise the baby, but the young couple refused.
Ross and Nikki attempted to adopt the baby, believing that the young parents were not fit to take on the endeavor of raising the child. This angered Jordan.
Dr. Phil says that his primary concern is the welfare of the baby, and he’s worried that Jordan, with no job, is unable to adequately provide for his family, and so must rely primarily on Chris for funds and lodging. Dr. Phil disagrees with Chris. With the couple moving around five times and without much money or solid career ambitions, he feels that they’re moving in quite the wrong direction.
Next: Dr. Phil wants to dig further into this situation and answer the question of why Paige’s parents want to get Paige off alone, away from Jordan. What is it that they wish to discuss privately with her?
Segment 2
Marcie favors Ross and Nikki adopting the baby, and would not want to prevent Jordan from seeing his daughter if this was to happen. She felt secure when Paige lived at home because she kept her well disciplined and monitored. But since Paige took up with Jordan, Marcie thinks she’s become a partier, has gotten tattoos, and has declined in academic performance. So, she wants page to return to her dwelling. It seems that the presence of Paige’s daughter is really taking a toll on Paige’s successful progress into adulthood.
Ross says that Paige and Jordan spend much time alone, without adult guidance, even though they live with Jordan’s dad.
Paige says that her Mom did not have as much control over her as she thought, and that she snuck out and partied even while living with Marcie. So Paige does not see the rationale of her living with her parents once again. They didn’t control her well when she was there, she seems to think. So why would it be any better the second time around?
Jordan argues with Ross, telling him that he never listens. Tempers are flaring. Jordan used the F word.
Dr. Phil admonished Jordan for his profanity. He also scolded Nikki for right-fighting about incidents that happened long ago and that don’t seem to have much bearing on the child’s welfare today. Dr. Phil suggested that the parents of the young couple are behaving so badly that they’re making Paige actually want to be with Jordan, though they do not want that themselves.
Next: Nikki points out that these teens are basically broke. Yet Jordan purchased a pet.
Segment 3
Ross believes that Jordan is unsuitable as a father since he cannot retain a job for long. Neither Jordan nor Paige work in fact. Ross continues to argue with Jordan such that Dr. Phil had to break it up.
Marcie says that the young couple does not even try to make ends meet for their daughter. She believes Paige to be mentally wobbly, as Paige has changed her mind often on key parenting issues.
Dr. Phil says that the young couple did not attend parenting classes, so he’s concerned that they don’t know what they’re doing when it comes to raising kids. Due to their not taking parenting classes, Dr. Phil suggested that they might unknowingly put the baby in danger. To make his point, he then showed a tape of the little girl, sleeping on her stomach, which apparently, is a no no. He ends this segment trying to get Ross and Jordan to calm down.
Segment 4
Jordan aspires to attend college.
Paige wishes to attend cosmetology school.
The young couple want to better themselves by going to secondary school. But they don’t seem to get it done. Of course, they’re barely eighteen. They bought a puppy that will cost money to feed and keep well.
Dr. Phil pointed out to Chris that the well-intended financial net he’s providing the young couple is not helping much in that it appears to isolate them from the true ways of the world. He also admonished Paige’s parents for making such a fuss about Jordan. Finally, he dressed down the young couple for their poor decision-making powers. He seems to doubt Jordan’s credibility as a father, since he had Paige out drinking and got her pregnant in the first place.
Paige’s parents and the young couple are arguing about whether or not the couple has been partying and otherwise acting irresponsibly since their baby was born.
Next: Dr. Phil is going to ask Jordan why he impregnated Paige. Did it just happen in a drunken stupor or what?
Segment 5
Dr. Phil asks the young couple why the didn’t use condoms, pills, or some other contraceptive devices.
The young couple admits to not thinking things through fully the night Paige became pregnant.
Marcie wants Paige to return home.
Nikki is fine with Paige going home to live with her natural mother.
At first, Paige says that she thought she’d want to give the baby up for adoption. But now that she’s had her daughter for nearly a year, she no longer considers adoption a good option.
Chris is fighting with Ross about whether Ross had to settle Chris down at some parent class they all attending some months back. Seems to me like this is the wrong stuff to be arguing about in this national television forum.
Marcie accuses Chris of allowing the young couple to exist without much encouragement to them to advance themselves.
Dr. Phil scolds all of them for not being more interested in the baby than in their own issues about which they bicker relentlessly.
Segment 6
All the parties agree that what they’ve been doing thus far is not working, with all the arguing, withholding, back-stabbing, and such.
Paige misses her parents. In fact, she broke down and cried when asked if she misses them.
Marcie cried also when asked the same question. She misses Paige living with her.
Dr. Phil says that 75 percent of teen moms start receiving welfare payments within five years of having their babies. Shocking. But, as per usual, Dr. Phil offers them all help in getting this painful situation onto the right track. He advises the kids to attend parenting classes, the funds for which he’ll gladly provide.
Segment 7
Dr. Phil, addressing all the guests, instructs them to relax and stop trying to one-up each other so much. They should add appropriate boundaries and view them as sacred so that the sorts of intrusions that fuel this conflict might be reduced. He’s posted information for parents on his web site and tips on how to discuss the facts of life with teens to discourage teen pregnancy. He thanks them all for participating and hopes that they’ll be in a better state when next he speaks with them.
That’s the end of my notes for this episode.
March 23rd, 2011 at 1:36 pm
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