Longtime fans of Teen Mom will know that Tyler Baltierra never had the most stable of families.
And that was, in large part, thanks to his father, Butch.
See, Butch struggles with some pretty severe addiction issues, issues that are so bad that, at one point, Butch straight up told Tyler that he loved cocaine more than he loved him.
Butch was in and out of prison for Tyler’s entire life, but during one stretch on the outside, he married Catelynn Lowell’s mother, April, making for a strange family dynamic.
To say the least.
Tyler has said that he’s struggled so much with his relationship with his father that he tried to hang himself when he was just 12 years old.
It’s an absolutely heartbreaking story, and it’s not over yet.
In 2015, Butch was released from prison after serving four years for larceny and breaking and entering charges. He managed to make it to Tyler and Catelynn’s wedding, and everything was looking up.
But after a year of sobriety, he went back to jail after violating his parole.
He violated his parole because he relapsed.
Butch is a free man again these days, and he and Tyler are trying to rebuild whatever’s left of their father-son bond.
And, well, at least Tyler is trying to be positive about this mess of a situation.
On Twitter, someone wrote a message to him, saying “It’s so amazing to see the kind of father you are even though yours was so in and out of your life.”
Tyler responded with “I always said he taught me what NOT to do as a father, so he still taught me something lol.”
And isn’t that sweet?
Kind of, but it’s also ridiculously depressing.
Tyler, of course, is father to two-year-old Nova, the daughter he shares with Catelynn. And remember, Catelynn didn’t exactly have a stable upbringing either.
So these are two people with two not-so-great families, just trying their best to raise a happy, healthy kid.
And unfortunately, they’ve already gotten some pretty harsh criticism on their parenting choices.
In last week’s episode of Teen Mom OG, we saw them leave little Nova alone with Butch while they went on their vacation to Puerto Rico.
Butch had just relapsed, he was fresh out a prison, and they left their daughter alone with him for a week.
If you’ll remember, the first (and only) thing Butch asked them before they left was how much cash they’d left him. Not a super encouraging thing to hear from the drug addict you’re leaving your kid with.
But still, Tyler seems to be an infinitely better father than Butch was to him, and we’re hoping that he just keeps moving forward from his tragic childhood.
You got this, Tyler.