As much as Gary Shirley wishes that Amber Portwood were out of his life forever, they have a child together.
Leah Shirley is a bright young tween who is old enough to realize the many ways in which Amber has failed as a parent.
On this week’s Teen Mom OG, Amber confirmed that she’s come to accept that Leah just plain doesn’t like her.
But she’s still hoping to change her daughter’s mind … by any means necessary.
Early in Tuesday night’s episode, Amber nudged Gary and Kristina to meet up with her for a “positive” discussion over dinner.
“He has this notion that I’m a dick,” Amber admitted after he expressed reluctance over the phone.
“And I kind of am sometimes,” she confessed to her producer, “but not always.”
“I think Gary thinks of me exactly how I was years ago,” Amber complained.
“He can’t comprehend changes,” she characterized, even though her recent social media tantrums are no secret.
“You’re just gonna have to see it,” Amber continued, “and you will.”
“We wanna move forward, where we can all get along,” Gary assured her when they met for lunch.
“I know that you apologized and we appreciate that,” he said. “We apologized for our part as well.”
“We were at odds, people say things they don’t mean, we want to move forward with all of us getting along,” Gary continued.
“I completely want Leah and James to have a relationship,” Gary affirmed.
However, he did push back against Amber’s demands for there to be a strict, fixed visitation schedule to force Leah to spend time with her.
“The groundwork is in for you and Leah,” Garry told her. “That is definitely completely separate from what we’re doing right here.”
“We want your relationship with her to be there, we’re not rooting against you,” Gary told her.
Talking to Amber, we have observed, at times sounds like a hostage negotiator.
“We have always been on your side … that’s what we want,” Gary emphasized.
Amber admitted to having made mistakes with her “mouth,” at which point she was reminded that her “thumbs” do plenty too.
That was a reference to her numerous social media tantrums.
However, afterwards, Gary and Kristina felt that it worked well and went “great.”
“He is the father of my daughter and I need him to understand some things,” Amber reflected after the meet-up.
“I hope that we’re able to move forward and do this, I think we can,” she continued.
“This is just a bump in the road,” Amber insisted.
“To me, that was just us getting over something in the past that wasn’t even a hill for me,” Amber characterized.
“Yeah, I f–ked up,” she admitted.
“What the hill and the mountain right now for me is Leah,” Amber expressed.
“It’s going to take some time, but eventually, she’ll come to me,” Amber insisted.
“It’s a waiting game of her to accept a few things,” she claimed.
“And,” Amber added, “I’ve accepted that she doesn’t necessarily like me right now.”
“She just is hurting and is trying to understand why,” Amber opined.
We think that Leah understands why pretty well.
“I didn’t choose one f–king man over my daughter and anybody that says that, they don’t know s–t,” Amber announced.
“I care about Leah, I care about James,” Amber insisted.
She added: “They’re the only thing I care about.”
Amber sounds awfully convinced that Leah will one day be wrapped around her little finger again one day.
