If you watched Teen Mom 2 this week, then there’s a good chance you’re not too happy with Jenelle Evans and David Eason.
Well, that’s probably the case if you watch Teen Mom 2 any week — Jenelle and David are always pretty awful — but stick with us here.
This week, the Easons took the kids on vacation, and things didn’t go exactly as planned.
Lots of people thought that Jenelle and David mistreated their children, and there’s just a whole lot of outrage right now about the whole thing.
Here, let’s get into the details …
A Birthday Trip
In the episode, Jenelle and David took the kids on a nice family vacation for Jenelle’s birthday. They stayed in a cabin, did some outdoor activities, and for a while, it looked like everyone was having fun.
Not for Long …
But then things started falling apart. Jenelle and David both became very short with the kids, and honestly it looked like they were overwhelmed to be caring for them all by themselves for an extended period of time.
Poor Kaiser
Like, in one particularly sad scene, the family sat down for breakfast, but Kaiser said that he had to go to the bathroom. David refused to let him go, but he also told him that he’d be in big trouble if he had an accident. It was weird and uncomfortable, and poor little Kaiser just couldn’t win either way.
… But Why?
When it was time for everyone to leave, Jenelle and David were both angry for no real reason. The kids weren’t really acting out, but they kept scolding them anyway, and they canceled their last activity because of their behavior, which again, wasn’t bad at all.
Easy, Killer
When they all got in the car, David tried to turn the cameras off — not a great sign. When he couldn’t figure it out, he settled for lashing out once again at the kids, telling them “We’re going home because you don’t know how to f—king act right.”
Come On, Easons
Obviously it wasn’t the most disturbing scene we’ve ever seen on the show, but it’s really seemed to rub a lot of people the wrong way.
Anxiety
“The producers of Teen Mom 2 deserve to be punched in the dicks for standing by as they abuse their kids,” one person tweeted. “I had an anxiety attack when he was trying to turn off the cameras. Why would he do that if he had nothing to hide. Those poor kids. #mtv needs to stop allowing this sh-t.”
So. Much. Complaining.
Another person wrote “I love watching teen mom 2. Jenelle & David crack me up. All they do is complain. If you can’t handle lack of sleep don’t keep making babies. They get the worse parents of the yr award lol. Nice foul language David towards the kids.”
Come Through, CPS
A few people even felt that CPS needed to get involved because of what we saw in the episode, with one of those people claiming “David is an abusive psychopath & CPS needs to remove all the children from that home. All of those children will need intensive therapy to deal with his abuse.”
This Buffoon
“David Eason is the biggest piece of sh-t,” yet another disturbed Teen Mom fan tweeted. “I’m horrified by the short scenes I’ve seen on my timeline tonight. Screaming & blaming the kids for being kids on a ‘family fun vacation’ then mocking them & encouraging them to feel bad about it. Get this buffoon off my timeline now.”
Shame, Shame
“I’ve had it, officially,” one particularly outraged viewer tweeted to MTV. “Jenelle Evans and David Eason are mistreating these children and you put them on tv for profit. Shame on you. I can’t bear to watch this show anymore because it scares me. I’m done with this show and this network. DONE.”
What Now?
But even though so many viewers are upset with Jenelle and David over what happened, production sources tell The Ashley’s Reality Roundup that there’s really not much they can do to change things.
Tough Luck
“It’s not illegal to yell or scream at your kids,” one of those sources explains, “so, even if we don’t agree with how [a cast member] is parenting, we can not call the cops for something like that. We can’t step in if that’s how someone parents.”
No Authority
“I think fans sometimes have unrealistic expectations. Just because we are present for whatever is happening, we have no legal authority to do anything in terms of taking the kids away or having the parent arrested. We have no more authority to do anything legally than someone passing by the scene on the street and witnessing it.”
A Difficult Situation
And that makes sense, of course, but the issue is less about illegal things the crew may witness and more about how hard it must be for the crew to watch some cast members make perfectly legal but still super questionable parenting choices.
The Struggle
And on that front, another source says that “Teen Mom franchise producers and crew do have procedures in place to follow if something happens in front of them that is illegal, dangerous or abusive.”
SECURITY!
“There’s nothing that the crew themselves can do. There is an assigned security guard on-set at all times while filming. Producers and crew can’t step in, because it is a liability and it could jeopardize the crew members’ safety. If we tried to jump into something, we could get hurt, punched or even killed, depending on the situation. The security team is trained to handle this.”
Hmmm …
Still, crew members “are required to report anything we see to the higher-ups who will tells us what to do and handle it from there. This would include anything we see that is illegal happening—drug use, for instance, or assault, child abuse, etc.”
The Unsung Heroes
“We’ve called the police on cast members over the years, and let the cops handle the situation. We have also called CPS on cast members plenty of times when we see things in regard to the children that don’t seem right. Viewers don’t see everything. They would probably never know that’s happening behind the scenes. The cast member may not even know it was us, to be honest.”
Well, Obviously
The source does say that “Once CPS is involved, though, it’s out of our hands. We’ve done our job to report it, and they have to take it from there to investigate.”
It’s a Documentary Though
At the end of the day, these sources stand by MTV’s old explanation when this issue comes up — and it does come up a lot — which is that “We are a docu-reality series. We document things as they happen no matter how bad.”
REAL Reality
That’s why we’ve seen Jenelle and Ryan Edwards on heroin, why we’ve seen Amber Portwood assault Gary Shirley, and so on and so forth — because the crew isn’t there to help the cast, they’re there to document them.
Thank Goodness for This
“Even still,” one of the insiders says, “most of the producers would probably have security step in if a parent began physically abusing a child in front of them. The producer wouldn’t physically do it, but they would have the trained security team take action.”
What a Relief
“We, of course, aren’t just going to let someone die.”
Oh, Teen Mom …
So if you ever get worried about the cast members and their drug use and their sketchy parenting and their generally bad choices, just remember — it’s not like the crew members “are just going to let someone die.” And we can all rest easy knowing that.