When it comes to their ongoing feud, Amber Portwood has done almost all of the talking.
Kristina Shirley has mostly just minded her business and stuck to "bonus mom" duties.
It was high time that someone sang her praises from the rooftops.
That someone was Gary, and fans don’t doubt that Amber is going to flip out.
Fueled by a desire to "give her a much needed break," Gary took his wife to a drive-in movie date on Friday.
Friday of course was the premiere of Mortal Kombat, an enjoyable and beautiful film despite a few awkward moments.
But it looks like neither the action nor the excessively attractive actors were enough for Kristina … in an adorable way.
At the drive-in movie, Kristina was snuggled comfortably in her seat with blankets.
She was a little too comfortable, in fact.
Kristina fell fast asleep in the car, and it was such a sweet moment that Gary had to share it.
“She will prolly kill me for this JK, but my Date is passed out Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!" Gary wrote.
“She’s been going hard with school and studying and keeping up with the kids… she gets up at 4:45AM Yikes!!!" he praised.
Gar then expressed: “My hat is off to all the parents who take care of their kids and responsibilities.”
Kristina and Gary share their five-year-old daughter, Emilee.
She is also a step-mom to 12-year-old Leah, and has a 13-year-old daughter of her own from a previous marriage.
Kristina is attending school to become a registered medical assistant, and expects to graduate this September.
Kristina manages to balance all of that.
She absolutely deserves praise, and Gary was right to give it.
But given what he was praising her for, fans couldn’t help but perceive this as shade directed at Amber.
See, Kristina works hard and still manages to strike that balance on top of appearing on reality TV.
And, well, fans have long accused Amber of not doing anything of the sort.
Amber has continued to fall short while repeatedly trying to bash Kristina.
There are genuinely bad stepmoms in the world, it’s true. People who resent their partner’s children.
But what draws Amber’s ire is the exact opposite.
Kristina is nice to Leah, she’s supportive, she’s there for her as a "bonus mom" and gives her rides to school.
In fact, fans have watched Kristina be moved to tears just thinking about the complicated emotions that Leah faces.
She feels a world of empathy for Leah.
Meanwhile, so much of what Amber thinks and talks and yells about is, well, Amber.
So instead of thanking Kristina for being so supportive of Leah, Amber has repeatedly gone on the attack.
She resents Kristina and accuses her and Gary of sabotaging her relationship with Leah by being so caring and supportive.
While that care and support makes Amber’s failings that much more obvious, that’s not really their fault, is it?
Leah is a bright preteen and much more reasonable than her mother.
It is a shame that she is caught in the middle of this one-sided feud.
But if Gary was deliberately shading Amber while he praised Kristina, well, it was well-deserved.