Teen Mom’s Kailyn Lowry is keeping it real when discussing her motherhood journey with four different dads.
“Truly, who you parent with will make or break the entire experience,” Lowry, 34, shared on the Wednesday, May 27, episode of “The LadyGang” podcast. “It’s already hard enough with the most supportive partner in the world. When you have a partner or don’t have a partner and you kind of go into it blindly. …. when you’re in the trenches of parenthood and motherhood and you thought you were going to raise a child with someone, it kind of puts you into, like, a fight or flight situation.”
Speaking from experience, Lowry said special occasions or major milestones can be filled with more stress than celebration when you feel like you’re doing everything alone.
“You don’t get to enjoy the soft parts of motherhood that you should have been able to enjoy,” she explained. “Christmases or birthdays are a lot harder when it’s just you and you didn’t anticipate it being that way. Or the nights that you’re up all night and then you have to go to work in the morning. You don’t get to enjoy the cuddles or things like that because you’re probably overstimulated and that’s not fair.”
The former MTV reality star has put her motherhood journey on display since 2010, when she appeared on MTV’s 16 and Pregnant. At the time, the high school senior was expecting her first child, son Isaac, with her then-boyfriend Jo Rivera.
Lowry is now mom to Lincoln, 12, with ex-husband Javi Marroquin, plus sons Lux, 8, and Creed, 5, with ex-boyfriend Chris Lopez. Her youngest kids, Rio, 3, and twins Verse and Valley, 2, are with former fiancé Elijah Scott.
While the podcast host acknowledged that she is “privileged” and has money for help, she understands other single moms aren’t as fortunate.
“I think about mothers who went into it knowing that they would probably be by themselves and they don’t have money to finance their lifestyle with this child and they don’t get to be soft with their kids,” she told cohosts Becca Tobin and Joey Gonzalez. “We parent so differently.”
During her honest interview, Lowry also took time to share an update on where she stands with Rivera, 34.
Looking back, she gives her ex grace for not always being the best partner — especially because they were both so young when becoming parents.
“We were in high school. It was rough for a long time,” she said. “There were several years where we got along really, really well, but now that my oldest is 16, looking back, he didn’t really contribute a whole lot, which was frustrating. … But as long as he’s there for our son, we don’t have to communicate.”
