Teen Mom: The Next Chapter star Maci Bookout is finding out that raising a teenager is full of highs and lows.
Maci is one of the pioneers from the Teen Mom franchise, joining 16 and Pregnant in 2009 before graduating to Teen Mom OG.
Maci and her ex/first baby daddy Ryan Edwards welcomed their son, Bentley Edwards, on the show, making him the eldest of all of the kids within the Teen Mom franchise.
Now that Bentley is 13 years old, Maci shared the ups and downs of raising a teenager, along with her younger two children, Jayde, 7, and Maverick, 6.
“Teenage years are an absolute blast and they are an absolute struggle,” Maci told People. “It is difficult because it’s gotten to the stage where he wants to make his own decisions and deal with the consequences of those.”
During the October 4 episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, Maci and her husband, Taylor McKinney, struggled with whether they should allow Bentley to have his own Instagram account.
Part of their struggle was their fear of online predators and the fact that what happens on the internet is permanent. Ultimately, with their supervision, they decided to allow Bentley to have his own social media account.
Teen Mom: The Next Chapter star Maci Bookout opens up about raising a teenager
Maci admitted that she is “biting [her] tongue all the time” as she recounts her own teenage years, becoming a mother at just 16 years old.
Admittedly, Maci said that parenting a teenager can be “fun” but also “tough.”
Growing up on a reality TV show, Bentley is aware of the ins and outs of filming for TMTNC. However, Maci allows all three of her kids to set boundaries when it comes to filming.
‘If he doesn’t want to film — or Jayde or Maverick — then they don’t film,” Maci shared.
Maci ‘appreciates’ Teen Mom viewers’ input
Maci only had good things to say about MTV’s production team when it comes to her kids filming or choosing not to film, noting they’ve always been respectful of her and her kids’ choices.
For her part, filming on MTV for the last 13 years has taught Maci that sharing her storyline with viewers reminds her that she’s not alone.
Maci added, “I very much appreciate the give-and-take relationship that I have with the viewers.”
You can read Maci’s interview in its entirety here.
Teen Mom: The Next Chapter airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on MTV.
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