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Jenelle Evans Battles Mom Barbara Over Custody of Her Son Jace: Teen Mom 2 Recap

Teen Mom 2
Jenelle Evans fights with her mom on Teen Mom 2.

Tantrums, time out, and tense fights were the theme of Teen Mom 2 this week. As Chelsea Houska, Jenelle Evans, Kailyn Lowry, and Leah Messer continued to navigate the tough waters of co-parenting, whether it be with an ex or a grandma, their kids suffered in the process. 

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Here’s what happened:

chelsea houska
Chelsea Houska on Teen Mom 2.

Chelsea Houska

Though Aubree tends to be a ray of adorable (not to mention well-dressed) sunshine, the little girl was extra cranky this week after returning from a visit with her dad, Adam Lind. She acted out in class and even scratched her friend over a toy. 

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Concerned with how her daughter was being handled when she wasn’t around, Chelsea investigated the option of sending Aubree and Adam to a visitation center where their meetups would be monitored and recorded. 

“I’m envisioning [the center as] being trashy with trashy people,” Chelsea admitted to her dad. And a visit to the facility didn’t do much to calm her nerves. 

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“I never thought that I would be even considering that,” she told her dad after touring the center. “When I walked in, I got the vibe that it’s a negative place and it’s kind of sad. It’s a place where kids have to go because their parents are crappy. It makes my heart hurt, and makes me kind of emotional that I’m even here right now.”

Meanwhile, Adam felt the option of being sent to the center was ridiculous. While lifting some weights in his tiny tank top, he told his friend that he had been sober for 18 months. 

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“The sober life is the way to be. If I wasn’t sober, I’d probably be in prison or dead,” the jailbird noted, later touching on the parenting style of his exes (and baby mamas) who had been going to the same custody lawyer. “I’ve always said Chelsea and Taylor are great mothers, co-parenting, not so much.” 

Will Chelsea and Adam be able to work out a visitation agreement? The beautician ultimately decided to leave that call up to the judge.

Kailyn Lowry
Kailyn Lowry on Teen Mom 2.

Kailyn Lowry

Everyone hold your collective breath, because Kailyn and her husband, Javi, are about to implode. The on-the-rocks couple continued trying to work out their issues in this week’s episode, but it was clear that Kailyn had reached the end. 

“Javi and I got into a huge fight. I don’t know. I’m so close to just throwing the towel in,” the mother of two told her friend on the phone. “I just want to be happy. We rushed into marriage, we rushed into having another baby. We never figured out this stuff prior to getting married.”

Thankfully, the couple were still talking out their issues and trying to work through things. 

“On the weekends I want to be with my friends, and you need constant affection and attention,” Kailyn explained to Javi. “You need to be included in everything, and I’m not like that.”

“But you used to be like that,” a distraught Javi exclaimed. “When we do have free time, we don’t hang out together anymore.”

“Why would I want to hang out with someone who all we do is fight?” Kailyn questioned. “We are on the edge of staying together or getting divorced.”

But ultimately Javi remained determined to find a solution. 

“I can’t picture myself without waking up next to [my son] Lincoln and having [Kailyn’s son] Isaac coming in there,” Javi said. “So there has to be an answer. I want to find it.”

While Kail and her hubby tried to sort out their differences, her ex, Jo Rivera, and his girlfriend, Vee, had come to an agreement. After much hesitation, Vee decided to move to Delaware with Jo so he could be closer to Isaac. Uh-oh, looks like Kailyn has more trouble on the horizon.

Leah Messer
Leah Messer on Teen Mom 2.

Leah Messer

If anyone thinks having kids is easy, they need to spend 10 minutes at Leah Messer’s house. The West Virginian’s three little girls were rowdier than usual during this week’s episode. Aleeah was kicking her twin Ali and the pair were throwing fits left and right at both Leah and Corey Simms’ houses. 

Finally Leah spanked Aleeah, but felt guilty about it afterward, wanting to talk to her ex-husband, Corey, about how to properly punish their girls. 

“Ever since court we don’t communicate,” Leah confessed. So she decided to meet up with her former husband to talk things out. 

Corey wanted the girls to stay with him for half the week so he could help out with getting them to school on time. 

“That’s an extra little bit that I don’t have to worry about. I don’t have to worry about are they tardy, are they late,” he explained to a defensive Leah. “My concerns are schooling. I’ve got to see attendance records that are fairly normal.”

“I have trust issues with you, feeling like you’re a threat to me,” Leah shot back, concerned after their custody battle in court, in which he called her an incompetent mother and forced her to take a drug test. 

“I never planned on jerking them from you,” Corey said of their twins, but Leah refused to believe him. 

“At the end of the day, it’s my kids, my life,” she told him. “I have to do what I have to do.”

Jenelle Evans
Jenelle Evans on Teen Mom 2.

Jenelle Evans

After returning from vacation and working out her problems with her fiancé, Nathan Griffith, Jenelle was ready to seriously pursue getting custody of her son Jace back from her mom, Barbara Evans

Babs kept Jace away from Jenelle for almost a month out of spite, so when the North Carolina native finally got to spend time with her little boy, she took full advantage of it. Gifting him a captain’s outfit, Jenelle watched with pride as Jade strutted around the house in his aviator shades. 

She and Nathan asked him if he wanted to come live with them, and he assured them that he did. But Barbara had other plans. 

“I haven’t really talked to Jenelle in about a month,” Barbara told her friend on the phone. “Both of them have been so mean to me that this is the first time Jace has gone over there in about a month.”

She also claimed that Jace had told her he wanted to live at her house. 

“I’d be devastated [if Jenelle got custody], because I know he’d go to this house and he would be so upset,” Barbara continued, crying. “All that yelling and screaming. He’d be so unhappy. If they got Jace, I probably would never see him again. And it would kill me, and it would hurt him.”

But Jenelle remained determined to keep her little boy. When Barbara came by to pick him up, Jenelle got irritated that Jace continued to call his grandma “Mom.”

“It’s always Barbara talking or Nathan talking. Jenelle can never say a word,” Jenelle screamed when Barbara cut her off. “He wants to live here. He told me he wants to live here. He needs more time with his mother. That’s what he needs. That’s why he’s so distraught. He sits here and thinks this is his home, but then when he goes back to your house, he doesn’t understand. And you say, ‘You can call me mom.’ No he can’t. I’m the mom!”

Teen Mom 2 airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on MTV.  

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