Teen Mom star and adoption critic Tyler Baltierra is offering his advice to anyone considering the same path he and wife Catelynn Lowell took in 2009 when they placed their biological daughter Carly with her parents, Brandon and Teresa Davis.
On this week’s episode of The Southern Tea Podcast, Tyler suggested to listeners an alternative option to adoption, citing his and Cate’s own negative experience with the adoption system.
“There are other things besides adoption,” Tyler told host Lindsie Chrisley. “You could do guardianship. Adoption is not really necessary.”
According to Adoption.com, in order to adopt a child, the child’s biological parents must have their parental rights terminated– either voluntarily or involuntarily– but in a guardianship, biological parents still maintain parental rights of the child. (Guardianship does, however, give someone other than the biological parents the ability to make legal decisions for the child on a temporary basis.)
Adoption is also a permanent and legal action, whereas guardianship is temporary.
As fans of ‘Teen Mom’ know, Cate revealed in 2024 that Brandon and Teresa had cut her and Tyler off and closed Carly’s adoption. Since then, Cate and Tyler have seemingly become more critical of the concept of adoption as a whole, with Tyler reiterating on Lindsie’s podcast this week that he “absolutely” would have “done it differently.”
“Anyone thinking about adoption, you need to get an attorney ASAP,” he said. “You need to get a private, separate attorney. Adoption is a legal process.”
Tyler also encouraged those considering guardianship to “get a lawyer ASAP,” before going on to further criticize adoption.
“ … think about not having a complete termination of rights and doing a guardianship or whatever because adoption is designed for a safe external care for a child,” he said. “It’s not designed for adults who dream of being a parent, in my opinion.”
As for the reservations he and Cate had about placing Carly for adoption back in 2009, Tyler claimed it was as if he and Cate were “fighting logic versus nature.”
“Being 16, you have everyone telling you you’re doing the right thing and it’s so sacrificial,” Tyler explained. “There’s just too much stuff about these adoption agencies that have come out about how manipulative and [the] coercions involved.”
As The Ashley told you earlier this week, Tyler also opened up on the podcast about the harsh criticism he and Cate have received for choosing to speak out against adoption in recent years, arguing that he and his wife are not given the same “grace” as their fellow cast members.
“I did not sign up to be ridiculed, judged, or criticized with such visceral cruelty,” he said. “That is not what I signed up for. I signed up to be transparent with my life. I think people need to humanize more reality TV stars.”
Click here to listen to Tyler’s interview on The Southern Tea Podcast.
RELATED STORY: Tyler Baltierra Talks About the Harsh Reaction He’s Received from ‘Teen Mom’ Fans Since Changing His Stance on Adoption: “It’s Unfair”
(Photos: Instagram; MTV)
19 Responses
If Tyler is wanting to reflect on the last 16 years then I’ll join in.
I watch back the episode of Cate & Ty crying, promising they’ll make something of their lives and make Carly proud and they’ll study and become social workers. What really happened is they accepted being filmed sitting around for big, big bucks rather than keeping that promise to Carly and working their butts off to achieve.
What we see now is a guilty conscience mourning a life wasted and sold so cheap to the masses for D-list entertainment.
Such a damn shame.
Who would Tyler and Cate given guardianship to? None of their family were in a place to take care of Carly. Temporary guardianship is an insane expectation to put on strangers seeking to adopt. And are the guardians and the child just supposed to wait around until the birth parents decide to get it together? What if it takes years for the birth parents to find stability? Is Tyler suggesting a 10-year-old be taken from the guardians who have raised him his whole life and given to his birth parents? Has it even crossed Tyler’s mind that maybe he should learn basics about child development before declaring temporary guardianship to be the superior option to adoption?
ok tyler, if guardianship is such great advice why didn’t you let butch and april have guardianship of carly or at least them adopt carly like they tried to do? at the end of the day, they’re both just mad that brandon & teresa won’t let them spam text them everyday and wanna act like they’re coparenting
Here, raise this child for me. Do the hard baby stuff while I go have a fun teenager life and then when I’m ready to grow up I’ll rip this child from your arms.
Tyler’s biggest addiction is to FAME. When this extremely long, reality show ends, he is going to be lost. I feel a bit bad for Cate but she has had so many great opportunities to get better.
Funny he didn’t want the responsibility then but now he wants to make decisions for someone else’s child. She is no longer their child. Why can’t they understand that? The adoptive parents should have closed the adoption years ago.
I’ve been largely silent on Cate and Ty’s very public opinions on Carly and adoption, but came here to say that Cate and Ty have completely forgotten where they came from if they are advising people to hire a private attorney before going the adoption route.
I work in the legal field. Attorney are billed out at an hourly rate – often $500/hour. Cate and Ty could never have afforded to hire an attorney at the place they were in when Carly was adopted. Which is a big part of the reason why they placed her to begin with. To give her a better life that they knew, at the time she was born, they couldn’t give.
They made that decision because of the circumstances, as they were, at that time. I genuinely feel that the majority of the hurt and regret they feel now is for the fact that they went on to star in Teen Mom and could have financially supported Carly. But that was luck and not something that is, in any way, the norm.
Imagine placing your baby for adoption because you had no money and knew you couldn’t support the baby – and then hitting the lottery 6 months later. I imagine that would be incredibly painful…to be young, broke, and in a living situation with a family that you KNEW wasn’t right, only to end up, no too long after, in a position where you could support yourself and the baby and get away from that unhealthy environment.
I feel for Cate and Ty in that sense. But advising to hire a lawyer is largely forgetting the major reason Carly was adopted – Cate and Ty were not in a place to be able to care for her. Tyler is giving advice that sounds great, but is entirely impractical.
You nailed it on the head 100%!
No, no. You cannot condemn the entire institution of adoption because as you’ve matured, you realize you could raise that child. Maybe now, yes. Then? No. Adoption makes beautiful families whole. This is so cringe worthy. Here’s a thought. Maybe B&T wanted to shield THEIR daughter, not yours, from the absolute sh*t show of reality TV and you not being able to keep your mouth shut.
Side note: didn’t Tyler and Caitlyn start their own podcast? Why is he bitching on someone else’s podcast?
Have either of them finished any goals they have set for themselves?
This is why society needs adaptation, so babies have alternatives to being raised by lazy tools.
So he’s admitting he just wanted some else to do all of the work while he retained parental rights? How very Tyler of him.
We did it Ty.
Sounds like you and Cate need REAL therapy. A therapist that really is able to help you accept the decision you make and help you grow. You’re still stuck in past. Carly is never going to want anything to do with y’all while you drag her parents. I’m sure she’ll watch the show if she hasn’t already, and feel sorry for y’all but also be very grateful she was able to have emotionally mature parents who knew how to care for her in peace and not raise her in chaos.
I will say he is probably reflecting a lot because the brain doesn’t finishinggrowng until mid 20s. Having FASD probably delayed that sum, plus his up bringing probably kept him from maturing, then constant living in past during their most traumatic experience that’s left them with a lot of regret and guilt is going to keep them there.
Their 3 daughters deserve to have healthy parents. They deserve to be treated with love and respect. They are the ones stuck with them. You’d think they’d get over it and just get their shit together for them since they are the daughters they do have, but they love their victim role.
He’s such a god damn selfish idiot.
He doesnt get that the needs if the kids (stability) come first.
NOT THE EFFING ADULT!
Selfish ass num-nut.
Seriously he’s turned into such a POS. He thought Brandon and Theresa were some kind of nannies that would raise Carly so him and Cate could come and go as they please and make decisions about her.
F*ck you Tyler and your pathetic wife. Thank God at least Carly has actual PARENTS. I pity the 3 girls you didn’t give up because they are stuck with you, pair of lazy losers
AMEN!!! If I could like this 400 times I would!
A) This is terrible advice
B) PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TYLER SHUT UP
Can it be outlawed for Tyler and Cate to have social media? It’s just so old. They’re like nails on a dang chalkboard.
Wow that sounds a little insensitive. It’s clear that they deeply love their 1st born and speaking online likely helps them manage with those difficult emotions. They also are showing their daughter that they still care about her and want to make sure she is reminded of that as they are both hoping she will want her own relationship with them once she turns 18.
Carly is not their daughter. Carly is Brandon and Teresa’s daughter. Tyler and Cate are just two weirdos who won’t stop talking about someone else’s child.