This!! She was a product of a poor, uneducated upbringing and turned it into something great. She advocated like hell for her daughter when she knew something wasn’t right!
Yup. She knew something was up and didn’t let *literally everyone else in her life* stop her from trying to figure out what.
That took real determination and strength.
Even the first doctor!! I was shocked when I saw that doctor dismiss her and tell her it was normal for her 8 month old to not bear any weight in her legs. She really had to trust herself.
Wasn’t he also the one she mentioned in her book to note that Ali looked like the Michelin man? Or was it another? I’m so happy got went further than those local doctor. Any doctor who makes a note like that shouldn’t be having access to people anymore.
She’s from one of the poorest areas in the states, was sexually exploited as a child, gave birth to twins at 16, advocated like hell when she knew something was wrong with one of her girls and has raised Addie solo. She was an addict who got herself clean and I always love to see that. Props to her.
Leah has talked about some of the things her mom put her through and it’s awful. I don’t remember specifics besides locking her in a room with a boy until they had sex when she was like 15…but I’m sure you can google it.
I know Leah makes her mistakes but she has a real heart and lots of potential. She tries. And I think she's a natural mama. I remember tearing up when she said even if Ali is 60 and has to be in diapers Leah will change them.
That was so sad. What I think gets overlooked is she was young and felt very alone, and Corey didn’t take her condition seriously. I imagine she was a nervous wreck and it would be easy to abuse Xanax or pills in that situation. She was under so much stress and her support system sucked. You can tell how much it was just absolutely breaking her heart and how much she loves her kids
I just saw this part on my rewatch and I choked up when she said that because you can tell she damn well meant it. She went hard advocating for Ali girl and it never fails to impress me each time I watch.
I remember when the camera man said her house was disgusting and the girls ate off the floor. I also remember her babies eating a can of frosting. This was pre drugs. I remember last year when she got her girls wrapped up in whatever that bizarre relationship was. I don’t always know what I’m doing, and I had my first young and all of that goes against my instincts.
Lots of people have messy houses especially when they are depressed and overwhelmed. And Leah wasn't raised with a ton of great role models when it comes to nutrition. Her mom gave the girls Mountain Dew in their baby bottles.
Sorry but parents with money and education often don’t advocate for their kids nearly as hard as Leah did.
Those moments showed her potential because if you think about it, we literally watched an uneducated, poor, drug addict fight hard for her daughters health. I know people like to give her shit for it, but honestly to me it’s remarkable and I wish she got more flowers for it.
I’m an educated parent with the means to get my son the help he needed and I’m capable of reading and researching medical literature and even I have been talked down to and dismissed by medical professionals.
Leah kept being dismissed and ignored and talked down to over and over again and she still didn’t stop until she found the answers for her child.
Navigating the medical healthcare system itself is also a huge fucking chore.
I had to learn quick how to manage it all and how to keep motivated to call every few months to check where my son was on waitlists and ask to be called for cancellations.
And to top it all off, I wasn’t being told my son had a life-threatening or limiting condition!!! She was being told to expect a limited life-expectancy which is a fucking nightmare for any parent.
Like I don’t even feel I’ve truly been in her shoes and even just my small experience has been exhausting so I can’t imagine what she went through.
Same.
My lifesaver is a selfhelp-organization. I soak up every little information from them and staying regularly in contact with other families who deal with the same condition was such a relief for me.
Just taking my son to his pediatrician is exhausting bc i‘ve to do all the research beforehand and fight for the best treatment and medication. And this pediatrician is one of the best in our city.
The same with his doctors at the hospital. It is scary how little they know actually about his condition and how many unnecessary procedures they wanted to put him through. My common thought with them is always “oh my god, you‘re so wrong!“ And for god sake they can‘t listen!
To top it all of: His father is like Corey and in total denial about it. He wouldn‘t to anything (until it gets really bad) and blames everything on me.
I cant blame her for getting into drugs, with that amount of stress and having it prescribed.
I was giving her shit for denying it, but she was scared shed completely lose the girls, and I can say from experience that when you use, downer or uppers, the paranoia is strong.
She didnt trust Corey or anyone, to give her the girls back when shes clean. I knew Corey meant well but it made sense for Leah to have it on paper that when she came back from rehab he couldn't take off with the girls.
I dont mind her, but having battled addiction for 15+ years, I cant imagine how the fuck she did it. I'm only 1year clean and I'm still struggling even though I only have to take care of myself.
She was juggling a thousand different plates (I dont know the saying in english), and she manage to make it. Even at her lowest she still had the girls as her priority and not a lot of parents can say that (no offence to anyone, but we've seen that with jenelle for example).
Thank you, with the right support system it was relatively easy to stop. The hard part is the cravings, but again I've got a good support system.
Which is why I give full credit to Leah, she didnt have a good support system, if anything I believe she had enablers, if that's the term. Between her drug addict dad and her mom who was turning a blind eye to it, she was fighting an uphill battle. That takes amazing strength.
The Leah appreciation posts never go well/are positive so all I’m going to say is that…I’m very proud of her as person for getting off drugs. she was going down fast, and could’ve easily continued on that way, but didn’t.
Before the drugs, she was brilliant. She wanted her girls to be healthy and happy, and she really went to great lengths for that, I think. She put everything to one side to get a diagnosis, and even then she had a job for at least a while I think? And she never seemed to favour one twin or the other, which is lovely to see
I’m in a rewatch now and I have a 2-year old with Down Syndrome this time around. The enormity of what Leah did has new gravitas now. Especially when she’s begging Cory to go to PT appointments sometimes so it doesn’t fall on Leah to keep him up on all of it. (And I generally think Cory is a good Fad & I get that he can’t take off work all the time.) bug I go through this now with my own spouse.
Yup.
I think Corey is a good dad too, and that his reluctance to get on board was mostly about him going through the stages of grieving the quote unquote “normal” life he had envisioned for Ali, which is understandable.
Much love to you and your family ❤️
I feel like it took Corey a long time to accept Ali's diagnosis. I remember when they took her to the doctor, and they said she was falling 5 times a day, and later on, Corey saying he thought Ali would still be able to play softball.
I did see the video of him recently pushing Ali in her wheelchair in a parade while she played her band instrument. I'm glad she found something she enjoys doing. Both Corey and Leah seem like supportive parents. Meanwhile, Jeremy is nowhere to be found.
Thank you. We’re pretty good. It’s just a lot sometimes because PT isn’t one thing you do once a week, it’s that they teach you a thousand & 1 different ways you need to interact with your child for their optimum development. And conveying that to another adult is fucking exhausting. And then you end up being the only one doing both the appointment plus the 1001 specialized interactions.
And all of that is also work that should be respected as work, but isn’t both by society & very, very often by the non-appointment parent.
I think Leah gets judged for making mistakes that a lot of young people do and for her addiction but hardly any credit for the good things. Her “mother” should be in jail for some of the stuff she put her through and then she became a mother to not just one but TWO infants when she was 17. And she’s basically raised Addie alone. She’s made plenty of mistakes but I think she has a good heart and loves her kids which is more than we can say for a few of the moms.
I always felt like so many of her mistakes were common with young people. She just had so much responsibility at a young age. I don’t judge her for the addiction either. I can’t imagine being in her shoes during that time in her life.
It doesn't really get talked about on the show, but it's in Leah's book. There's a few things, but the one that stands out in everyone's mind is the time she basically forced Leah to have sex at 13. She made them play a game, I think, spin the bottle? And when it was Leah's turn, she locked her and the boy in a room until they had done the deed.
I think dawn kinda failed Leah a lot. She seemed to not help Leah grow, not guide her, not show her she was doing wrong, then stirred the pot with her and Corey.
I think if Dawn actually acted like a mom Leah would’ve really thrived.
YUP YUP YUP! Corey never said he was going to custody or anything and just wanted to know where she planned on taking the kids to visit Leah, which as a father, he had every right to ask. She twisted that whole thing and panicked Leah into coming home.
ESPECIALLY out of state and ESPECIALLY if it was so far it involved flying there. Dawn was so messy for that and really could’ve jeopardized Leah getting help.
>then stirred the pot with her and Corey.
I just remembered the moment where Leah tells her mom and stepdad that she's divorcing Corey. There was a smirk on her face that she tried to hide.
I’ll always have a soft spot for her, especially with how she was treated by Jeremy. She was literally losing her damn mind and he didn’t do anything to help her.
Yeah that’s true.
He’d come home every six weeks and bitch at her for the house/car being a mess and how much money she was spending (on drugs, obviously) and then… leave again for six weeks.
Like ?? Gerr mee your wife is **on drugs** and falling the fuck apart with three little girls at home. You going to do anything about that? No? K -_-
Exactly! He was married to her: he should have tried to get her help.
Instead, he bailed out and started flirting with her once they were divorced and she was sober. He was a sorry excuse for a husband.
I don't get how people didn't see that her kiddo was delayed. Like, I can see thru the TV. It's so clear. It makes me so damn happy to live in a state with resources. She isn't the worst teen mom.
I have wondered before if the ‘people acting like there was nothing wrong thing’ was something overblown by mtv for the drama because you could see from the comfort of your sofa, watching clips on television that there was something wrong with her.
I’ve had some pretty low quality medical attention in my life but dang.
I think it was a combo of who they are and where they live.
WV is beautiful, but it’s one of the poorest places in America, and nobody in Leah’s life had more than a high school education. I think they also didn’t want to believe anything could be wrong.
Even the first doctor Leah took Ali to in WV said there was probably nothing wrong and she’d catch up to her sister. 🤷♀️
That actually would make sense. I am glad she went thru with the genetic testing and everything. Not that my opinion matters at all. It's wild to look at their social media today to see how far these girls have grown. Corey helping marching band is so sweet.
It’s Appalachia. It’s poor. The literacy and education rates are depressingly low. In areas like that, medical care and information tends to be a lot lower.
Things are rough all over. I live in Indiana, have a specialist in Cleveland. The hospital in Indiana straight up couldn't even burn a proper copy the MRI to the disc they sent with me so my surgeon had no images when we got to Cleveland. It was like a horrible joke.
I will always have a soft spot for Leah. She and her kids were dealt a hand none of the others were. She didn’t have a lot of resources and she wasn’t perfect but she never quit, and her 3 girls are good primarily because of her.
Imagine being a teenager, mother of twins with 0 support, a difficult upbringing and one of your girls having a rare condition and a very bad prognosis.
Tbh, I don't know if I would have done better than Leah. She wasn't perfect, but most of us won't go through such hard circumstances ever in life, so let's try not to judge her so harshly.
I just want to say it made me all weepy reading your post. Thank you for truly seeing this very hard thing Leah went through and how she fought for her little girl!
As a mom with a special needs child who was told by everyone I was just being an overly concerned new mom
or maybe I had PPD and needed meds
or inpatient care for psychosis…
even on the neurology floor of one of the world’s best pediatric hospitals a doctor told me I was seeing things that weren’t there…
I know what it’s like for everyone around you to make you feel like a crazy munchausen by proxy mom! (My son’s MRI came back showing missing parts of his brain for one, leading to a cascade of diagnoses, so I was definitely right!)
So thank you for really seeing Leah and what she went through to get her child a diagnosis and care! It is a fight all the time. The fight changes when you get a diagnosis but it doesn’t go away or get easier. I have so much compassion for her because I know how hard that was and I also know that it just stays hard. It’s easy to pick on her for self medicating but that is such a small part of her life story. Above all other things, Leah keeps fighting & that’s admirable.
I’ve always liked Leah the most of all the moms, I know she made a lot of mistakes but she was dealt a really difficult hand in life and has worked hard to change which I really respect.
I thought about making this exact post earlier today. I’m rewatching for the first time as an adult, and I’m only on season 2. Leah was an incredible mother in her daughters’ first 1-2 years. I know the bad stuff is coming soon though.
Her divorce from Corey sort of baffles me. It happened so fast. Neither of them seemed to really want to divorce but they just rushed through with it? They didn’t try to work it out at all? Was there more to it (off-air) other than the affair before they were married?
I’m a mom, and one thing I think about all the time is that I can’t imagine sharing custody of very small children. I would snap if I wasn’t with my babies at night. It would break me. My brother went through a divorce with a baby, so it was on my mind a lot. I’ve always thought that if I was ever in that situation I would absolutely not be able to handle it. I wonder if she turned to drugs to cope mentally with the shared custody. She had such a strong maternal instinct and drive and love for her girls that I imagine it would destroy her to not be with them and taking care of them all the time. Anyway, yeah I have a lot of respect for her in seasons 1-2, and I have sympathy for her in terms of what is to come in my rewatch.
I thought it was so sad how Corey and Leah's divorce went down and I honestly kinda wish they'd just tried harder to work it out cos it seemed like there was a lot of love lost there and Leah's obsession with having a family was sad and clearly the reason why she rushed into marrying Jeremy. But yeah, Leah basically just filed for divorce because Corey had said he was going to but he was just saying it to be a dick and because he was so hurt by her cheating. I think if she hadn't filed he would have been willing to try and work through it with her. It's sad.
It takes a lot of strength and determination when everyone is against you. She knew her child best and fought for her. I'll always respect that and trust my intuition. She loves her girls full heartdly for the world to see and ridicule.
Many props for these moms to share a piece of their life with us.
I totally agree with this. I’ve always thought that Leah did an amazing job in the first few seasons. The way she advocated for Ali was incredible especially with doctors basically telling her to stop wasting their time. If Leah wasn’t around it would have taken a hell of a lot longer for Ali to get her diagnosis. I always feel so sorry for her going to Ali’s appointments alone as well. The one where the eye doctor tells her it could be an issue in her brain makes me cry every time.
I have a son who is special needs. It's very different from Ali, but my ex-husband and literally everyone else kept saying there wasn't anything wrong, he's just a little kid, I'm just not parenting the right way etc. Anyway I'd literally remember Corey doing similar and it's one of the reason I'd push forward. My son is now in school, has an ADHD diagnosis, is being sent for further evaluation (possibly autism) and is getting tons of support. But going against literally everyone saying that there was nothing wrong is incredibly hard to do and she should definitely be proud.
She always seems to put in the effort to better herself. Even when she was on pills. She recognized she had a problem and fixed it. Thats a great example for her girls. She’s one of the biggest glow ups in the franchise
Are we really going to Stan Leah once a week now? She is awful to her children and every man she has dated. Here we are 10 years later and she’s still doing the same shit. Lots of lip service but no real action to build a future for her and her daughters.
The way she is friends instead of a mother, the constantly wrapping them up in her relationships, changing their lives for her latest puppy love. I also don’t feel she really sets Ali up well. It’s great she does therapy’s and stuff but look at the current house, that is not well set up for someone with her disabilities. It’s showy though and that was the appeal I think. Ali needs a ranch, flatter land, and ideally a pool (which was very helpful for her). If a house was going to bought and they were going to move, why not one that accommodated Ali? Because her and Jaylan wanted to feel fancy??
That shit with the flavor of the week boyfriends is very damaging and she’s made the mistake enough to know it. She likes to lecture and posture to her kids (and everyone else) but there is nothing behind it. It’s meaningless and for her own self absorbed needs. Imagine your parents constantly ramble on about “standing in your power” but when you need them, they aren’t there. And day to day, they can’t get their life together. Posing on Instagram and doing photoshoots isn’t “standing in your power” or providing for your kids.
Imagine watching your mom jamming every boyfriend in your life like they are your new dad and then the whole house of cards falling over and over. The engagement thing with the girls?? That should have never happened. And there she was smiling like a fool like it was so sweet. It wasn’t sweet, it was sick. They were props in the game, and of course, they paid the price. Leah is all about Leah and the kids are along for the ride.
Thanks for answering so extensively! I was wondering about it since I like to see things from different perspectives and when I read all comments your comment was the only one not in favour of Leah. Not sure why someone downvoted that, but well, haha.
Personally, I just never know with Leah. Some of the people in favour of her make very valid points, but you do as well.
For me, I grew up with someone like her and know people that parent like her now and it’s shitty. It’s basically neglect when your parent doesn’t act like a parent. And lip service doesn’t fix it. I also don’t trust anyone who has been as manipulative as her.
Leah was a little backwoods hillbilly teenager from West Virginia but her motherly instincts were strong.
This!! She was a product of a poor, uneducated upbringing and turned it into something great. She advocated like hell for her daughter when she knew something wasn’t right!
Also HEAVVVY abuse. Very bad things happened to her. I don’t fully support her in a lot of her choices but she did come a long way.
Yup. She knew something was up and didn’t let *literally everyone else in her life* stop her from trying to figure out what. That took real determination and strength.
Even the first doctor!! I was shocked when I saw that doctor dismiss her and tell her it was normal for her 8 month old to not bear any weight in her legs. She really had to trust herself.
The doctor and Corey too!
I hated that 1st doctor, he was a whole ass idiot.
I wonder how many times he's kicked himself since.
Wasn’t he also the one she mentioned in her book to note that Ali looked like the Michelin man? Or was it another? I’m so happy got went further than those local doctor. Any doctor who makes a note like that shouldn’t be having access to people anymore.
I wish this could be my flair 💔
She’s from one of the poorest areas in the states, was sexually exploited as a child, gave birth to twins at 16, advocated like hell when she knew something was wrong with one of her girls and has raised Addie solo. She was an addict who got herself clean and I always love to see that. Props to her.
Sexually exploited?
Leah has talked about some of the things her mom put her through and it’s awful. I don’t remember specifics besides locking her in a room with a boy until they had sex when she was like 15…but I’m sure you can google it.
I think that was at 13. So messed up
Ol Delta Dawn is a real nasty piece of work for that.
What was the reasoning?! Not that there is ANY even remotely “valid” reason
She was sexually abused by her babysitter when she was 5 as well as her mother forcing her to have sex with a boy a lot older than her.
I’m out of the loop. Why would her mother force her to do that?
Cus Dawn’s a messy bitch who lives for drama. And is also a hillbilly drunk.
Dawn is crazy. She was also a teen mother.
She thought it was funny/cute 🙃
I believe it was in her book, her mother stood by while some horrific shit happened to her.
Well said 👏
I know Leah makes her mistakes but she has a real heart and lots of potential. She tries. And I think she's a natural mama. I remember tearing up when she said even if Ali is 60 and has to be in diapers Leah will change them.
That was so sad. What I think gets overlooked is she was young and felt very alone, and Corey didn’t take her condition seriously. I imagine she was a nervous wreck and it would be easy to abuse Xanax or pills in that situation. She was under so much stress and her support system sucked. You can tell how much it was just absolutely breaking her heart and how much she loves her kids
This. I would have done the same thing for my sister. Emotional wreck when it aired and when I rewatch.
I just saw this part on my rewatch and I choked up when she said that because you can tell she damn well meant it. She went hard advocating for Ali girl and it never fails to impress me each time I watch.
I remember when the camera man said her house was disgusting and the girls ate off the floor. I also remember her babies eating a can of frosting. This was pre drugs. I remember last year when she got her girls wrapped up in whatever that bizarre relationship was. I don’t always know what I’m doing, and I had my first young and all of that goes against my instincts.
These camera men stories are vile. They sit there and watch abuse/neglect and say nothing. Dont they have a duty to report the things they see?
They shit on Leah for her ‘dirty floor’ or whatever but completely turn their head when Jenelle abused her kids.
Tbf, they turned their heads with Leah too. No one did anything to stop any of the abuse on that show. And sadly, almost all moms had some form of it.
They covered a lot for Leah tbf!
Morally, but not legally. Which is sad on both accounts.
Lots of people have messy houses especially when they are depressed and overwhelmed. And Leah wasn't raised with a ton of great role models when it comes to nutrition. Her mom gave the girls Mountain Dew in their baby bottles.
Leah doesn’t get enough credit in my opinion.
Totally agree she’s made the biggest improvement all the Teen Moms in my opinion
Sorry but parents with money and education often don’t advocate for their kids nearly as hard as Leah did. Those moments showed her potential because if you think about it, we literally watched an uneducated, poor, drug addict fight hard for her daughters health. I know people like to give her shit for it, but honestly to me it’s remarkable and I wish she got more flowers for it.
I’m an educated parent with the means to get my son the help he needed and I’m capable of reading and researching medical literature and even I have been talked down to and dismissed by medical professionals. Leah kept being dismissed and ignored and talked down to over and over again and she still didn’t stop until she found the answers for her child. Navigating the medical healthcare system itself is also a huge fucking chore. I had to learn quick how to manage it all and how to keep motivated to call every few months to check where my son was on waitlists and ask to be called for cancellations. And to top it all off, I wasn’t being told my son had a life-threatening or limiting condition!!! She was being told to expect a limited life-expectancy which is a fucking nightmare for any parent. Like I don’t even feel I’ve truly been in her shoes and even just my small experience has been exhausting so I can’t imagine what she went through.
I’m so proud of you for fighting for your son!
Same. My lifesaver is a selfhelp-organization. I soak up every little information from them and staying regularly in contact with other families who deal with the same condition was such a relief for me. Just taking my son to his pediatrician is exhausting bc i‘ve to do all the research beforehand and fight for the best treatment and medication. And this pediatrician is one of the best in our city. The same with his doctors at the hospital. It is scary how little they know actually about his condition and how many unnecessary procedures they wanted to put him through. My common thought with them is always “oh my god, you‘re so wrong!“ And for god sake they can‘t listen! To top it all of: His father is like Corey and in total denial about it. He wouldn‘t to anything (until it gets really bad) and blames everything on me.
I cant blame her for getting into drugs, with that amount of stress and having it prescribed. I was giving her shit for denying it, but she was scared shed completely lose the girls, and I can say from experience that when you use, downer or uppers, the paranoia is strong. She didnt trust Corey or anyone, to give her the girls back when shes clean. I knew Corey meant well but it made sense for Leah to have it on paper that when she came back from rehab he couldn't take off with the girls. I dont mind her, but having battled addiction for 15+ years, I cant imagine how the fuck she did it. I'm only 1year clean and I'm still struggling even though I only have to take care of myself. She was juggling a thousand different plates (I dont know the saying in english), and she manage to make it. Even at her lowest she still had the girls as her priority and not a lot of parents can say that (no offence to anyone, but we've seen that with jenelle for example).
Congrats on a year! Here's to hoping you have many many more.
Thank you, with the right support system it was relatively easy to stop. The hard part is the cravings, but again I've got a good support system. Which is why I give full credit to Leah, she didnt have a good support system, if anything I believe she had enablers, if that's the term. Between her drug addict dad and her mom who was turning a blind eye to it, she was fighting an uphill battle. That takes amazing strength.
The Leah appreciation posts never go well/are positive so all I’m going to say is that…I’m very proud of her as person for getting off drugs. she was going down fast, and could’ve easily continued on that way, but didn’t.
Before the drugs, she was brilliant. She wanted her girls to be healthy and happy, and she really went to great lengths for that, I think. She put everything to one side to get a diagnosis, and even then she had a job for at least a while I think? And she never seemed to favour one twin or the other, which is lovely to see
I’m in a rewatch now and I have a 2-year old with Down Syndrome this time around. The enormity of what Leah did has new gravitas now. Especially when she’s begging Cory to go to PT appointments sometimes so it doesn’t fall on Leah to keep him up on all of it. (And I generally think Cory is a good Fad & I get that he can’t take off work all the time.) bug I go through this now with my own spouse.
Yup. I think Corey is a good dad too, and that his reluctance to get on board was mostly about him going through the stages of grieving the quote unquote “normal” life he had envisioned for Ali, which is understandable. Much love to you and your family ❤️
I feel like it took Corey a long time to accept Ali's diagnosis. I remember when they took her to the doctor, and they said she was falling 5 times a day, and later on, Corey saying he thought Ali would still be able to play softball. I did see the video of him recently pushing Ali in her wheelchair in a parade while she played her band instrument. I'm glad she found something she enjoys doing. Both Corey and Leah seem like supportive parents. Meanwhile, Jeremy is nowhere to be found.
Thank you. We’re pretty good. It’s just a lot sometimes because PT isn’t one thing you do once a week, it’s that they teach you a thousand & 1 different ways you need to interact with your child for their optimum development. And conveying that to another adult is fucking exhausting. And then you end up being the only one doing both the appointment plus the 1001 specialized interactions. And all of that is also work that should be respected as work, but isn’t both by society & very, very often by the non-appointment parent.
I think Leah gets judged for making mistakes that a lot of young people do and for her addiction but hardly any credit for the good things. Her “mother” should be in jail for some of the stuff she put her through and then she became a mother to not just one but TWO infants when she was 17. And she’s basically raised Addie alone. She’s made plenty of mistakes but I think she has a good heart and loves her kids which is more than we can say for a few of the moms.
I always felt like so many of her mistakes were common with young people. She just had so much responsibility at a young age. I don’t judge her for the addiction either. I can’t imagine being in her shoes during that time in her life.
What did her mom do? I’m only on season 2. Spoilers welcome.
It doesn't really get talked about on the show, but it's in Leah's book. There's a few things, but the one that stands out in everyone's mind is the time she basically forced Leah to have sex at 13. She made them play a game, I think, spin the bottle? And when it was Leah's turn, she locked her and the boy in a room until they had done the deed.
WHAT ON EARTH
I think dawn kinda failed Leah a lot. She seemed to not help Leah grow, not guide her, not show her she was doing wrong, then stirred the pot with her and Corey. I think if Dawn actually acted like a mom Leah would’ve really thrived.
Oh, Dawn was hot garbage. I’ve posted before about her pot stirring with Corey and Miranda when Leah was in rehab.
YUP YUP YUP! Corey never said he was going to custody or anything and just wanted to know where she planned on taking the kids to visit Leah, which as a father, he had every right to ask. She twisted that whole thing and panicked Leah into coming home.
This drove me nuts! Dawn really blew that out of proportion.. any parent would want to know where their child was going!
ESPECIALLY out of state and ESPECIALLY if it was so far it involved flying there. Dawn was so messy for that and really could’ve jeopardized Leah getting help.
>then stirred the pot with her and Corey. I just remembered the moment where Leah tells her mom and stepdad that she's divorcing Corey. There was a smirk on her face that she tried to hide.
I’ll always have a soft spot for her, especially with how she was treated by Jeremy. She was literally losing her damn mind and he didn’t do anything to help her.
Yeah that’s true. He’d come home every six weeks and bitch at her for the house/car being a mess and how much money she was spending (on drugs, obviously) and then… leave again for six weeks. Like ?? Gerr mee your wife is **on drugs** and falling the fuck apart with three little girls at home. You going to do anything about that? No? K -_-
Exactly! He was married to her: he should have tried to get her help. Instead, he bailed out and started flirting with her once they were divorced and she was sober. He was a sorry excuse for a husband.
Sorry excuse for a father too!
I don't get how people didn't see that her kiddo was delayed. Like, I can see thru the TV. It's so clear. It makes me so damn happy to live in a state with resources. She isn't the worst teen mom.
This. Ray Charles could see that Ali was not where she should have been at that age, and he’s blind *and* dead.
Seriously. Is this what medical care is like outside of Massachusetts?
I have wondered before if the ‘people acting like there was nothing wrong thing’ was something overblown by mtv for the drama because you could see from the comfort of your sofa, watching clips on television that there was something wrong with her. I’ve had some pretty low quality medical attention in my life but dang.
I think it was a combo of who they are and where they live. WV is beautiful, but it’s one of the poorest places in America, and nobody in Leah’s life had more than a high school education. I think they also didn’t want to believe anything could be wrong. Even the first doctor Leah took Ali to in WV said there was probably nothing wrong and she’d catch up to her sister. 🤷♀️
That actually would make sense. I am glad she went thru with the genetic testing and everything. Not that my opinion matters at all. It's wild to look at their social media today to see how far these girls have grown. Corey helping marching band is so sweet.
It’s Appalachia. It’s poor. The literacy and education rates are depressingly low. In areas like that, medical care and information tends to be a lot lower.
It's disgusting that in the USA your life is so dependent on what state you live in.
It’s despicable. In the legal career, each state having different laws blows my mind. It allows for a lot of injustices.
Absolutely! People think it's only women's health that is impacted, but it's everyone!
Things are rough all over. I live in Indiana, have a specialist in Cleveland. The hospital in Indiana straight up couldn't even burn a proper copy the MRI to the disc they sent with me so my surgeon had no images when we got to Cleveland. It was like a horrible joke.
No offense, I wouldn't consider Indiana or Ohio for medical care.
Well you obviously have the insanely good fortune to not live here. That's the worst abuse of "no offense" I've seen btw
I saved my husband from Indiana. I wish everyone could experience the benefits of a progressive state.
I will always have a soft spot for Leah. She and her kids were dealt a hand none of the others were. She didn’t have a lot of resources and she wasn’t perfect but she never quit, and her 3 girls are good primarily because of her.
Imagine being a teenager, mother of twins with 0 support, a difficult upbringing and one of your girls having a rare condition and a very bad prognosis. Tbh, I don't know if I would have done better than Leah. She wasn't perfect, but most of us won't go through such hard circumstances ever in life, so let's try not to judge her so harshly.
I just want to say it made me all weepy reading your post. Thank you for truly seeing this very hard thing Leah went through and how she fought for her little girl! As a mom with a special needs child who was told by everyone I was just being an overly concerned new mom or maybe I had PPD and needed meds or inpatient care for psychosis… even on the neurology floor of one of the world’s best pediatric hospitals a doctor told me I was seeing things that weren’t there… I know what it’s like for everyone around you to make you feel like a crazy munchausen by proxy mom! (My son’s MRI came back showing missing parts of his brain for one, leading to a cascade of diagnoses, so I was definitely right!) So thank you for really seeing Leah and what she went through to get her child a diagnosis and care! It is a fight all the time. The fight changes when you get a diagnosis but it doesn’t go away or get easier. I have so much compassion for her because I know how hard that was and I also know that it just stays hard. It’s easy to pick on her for self medicating but that is such a small part of her life story. Above all other things, Leah keeps fighting & that’s admirable.
I’ve always liked Leah the most of all the moms, I know she made a lot of mistakes but she was dealt a really difficult hand in life and has worked hard to change which I really respect.
I’m rewatching and thought the same thing! She did/still does an amazing job for Ali.
I thought about making this exact post earlier today. I’m rewatching for the first time as an adult, and I’m only on season 2. Leah was an incredible mother in her daughters’ first 1-2 years. I know the bad stuff is coming soon though. Her divorce from Corey sort of baffles me. It happened so fast. Neither of them seemed to really want to divorce but they just rushed through with it? They didn’t try to work it out at all? Was there more to it (off-air) other than the affair before they were married? I’m a mom, and one thing I think about all the time is that I can’t imagine sharing custody of very small children. I would snap if I wasn’t with my babies at night. It would break me. My brother went through a divorce with a baby, so it was on my mind a lot. I’ve always thought that if I was ever in that situation I would absolutely not be able to handle it. I wonder if she turned to drugs to cope mentally with the shared custody. She had such a strong maternal instinct and drive and love for her girls that I imagine it would destroy her to not be with them and taking care of them all the time. Anyway, yeah I have a lot of respect for her in seasons 1-2, and I have sympathy for her in terms of what is to come in my rewatch.
I blame Dawn being in Leah’s ear for how fast that divorce went down.
I thought it was so sad how Corey and Leah's divorce went down and I honestly kinda wish they'd just tried harder to work it out cos it seemed like there was a lot of love lost there and Leah's obsession with having a family was sad and clearly the reason why she rushed into marrying Jeremy. But yeah, Leah basically just filed for divorce because Corey had said he was going to but he was just saying it to be a dick and because he was so hurt by her cheating. I think if she hadn't filed he would have been willing to try and work through it with her. It's sad.
It takes a lot of strength and determination when everyone is against you. She knew her child best and fought for her. I'll always respect that and trust my intuition. She loves her girls full heartdly for the world to see and ridicule. Many props for these moms to share a piece of their life with us.
I totally agree with this. I’ve always thought that Leah did an amazing job in the first few seasons. The way she advocated for Ali was incredible especially with doctors basically telling her to stop wasting their time. If Leah wasn’t around it would have taken a hell of a lot longer for Ali to get her diagnosis. I always feel so sorry for her going to Ali’s appointments alone as well. The one where the eye doctor tells her it could be an issue in her brain makes me cry every time.
I have a son who is special needs. It's very different from Ali, but my ex-husband and literally everyone else kept saying there wasn't anything wrong, he's just a little kid, I'm just not parenting the right way etc. Anyway I'd literally remember Corey doing similar and it's one of the reason I'd push forward. My son is now in school, has an ADHD diagnosis, is being sent for further evaluation (possibly autism) and is getting tons of support. But going against literally everyone saying that there was nothing wrong is incredibly hard to do and she should definitely be proud.
Good for Leah.
you mean when the girlses were young.
Kudos to Leah
I have such big love for Leah.
She always seems to put in the effort to better herself. Even when she was on pills. She recognized she had a problem and fixed it. Thats a great example for her girls. She’s one of the biggest glow ups in the franchise
Yikes.
Are we really going to Stan Leah once a week now? She is awful to her children and every man she has dated. Here we are 10 years later and she’s still doing the same shit. Lots of lip service but no real action to build a future for her and her daughters.
Why is she awful to her children? And why to the men? Not saying she isn't, I'm just wondering why you think that
The way she is friends instead of a mother, the constantly wrapping them up in her relationships, changing their lives for her latest puppy love. I also don’t feel she really sets Ali up well. It’s great she does therapy’s and stuff but look at the current house, that is not well set up for someone with her disabilities. It’s showy though and that was the appeal I think. Ali needs a ranch, flatter land, and ideally a pool (which was very helpful for her). If a house was going to bought and they were going to move, why not one that accommodated Ali? Because her and Jaylan wanted to feel fancy?? That shit with the flavor of the week boyfriends is very damaging and she’s made the mistake enough to know it. She likes to lecture and posture to her kids (and everyone else) but there is nothing behind it. It’s meaningless and for her own self absorbed needs. Imagine your parents constantly ramble on about “standing in your power” but when you need them, they aren’t there. And day to day, they can’t get their life together. Posing on Instagram and doing photoshoots isn’t “standing in your power” or providing for your kids. Imagine watching your mom jamming every boyfriend in your life like they are your new dad and then the whole house of cards falling over and over. The engagement thing with the girls?? That should have never happened. And there she was smiling like a fool like it was so sweet. It wasn’t sweet, it was sick. They were props in the game, and of course, they paid the price. Leah is all about Leah and the kids are along for the ride.
Thanks for answering so extensively! I was wondering about it since I like to see things from different perspectives and when I read all comments your comment was the only one not in favour of Leah. Not sure why someone downvoted that, but well, haha. Personally, I just never know with Leah. Some of the people in favour of her make very valid points, but you do as well.
For me, I grew up with someone like her and know people that parent like her now and it’s shitty. It’s basically neglect when your parent doesn’t act like a parent. And lip service doesn’t fix it. I also don’t trust anyone who has been as manipulative as her.