“I’m still new to being a mom. I’m not perfect,” says Tanyadawn who, at 17, says things are hard because her baby boy’s father isn’t around to help. “I hate it,” she says, admitting that she thinks she’s missing out by being a single parent. “But it was my choice to have a kid so I can’t even – I can’t take it back.”

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Before the birth of her son, the teenager served several months in a juvenile detention center after she was convicted of assaulting another girl. Now out on probation, Tanyadawn and her infant currently live with her mother, Denise, her aunt, Dorothy, and her elderly grandfather.

“Sometimes I need a break, and they won’t give me that,” says Tanyadawn. “All I do is just sit here and take care of my baby. I can’t even go to the park, and that makes me feel trapped.”

On Monday’s Dr. Phil, Dorothy asserts Tanyadawn does take breaks from parenting her child, claiming her niece sometimes disappears for two or three days at a time to be with her friends. Dorothy says that leaves her, Denise, and their 79-year-old father to take care of the baby.

Tanyadawn says she knows “it’s bad for him and dysfunctional.” So how does she justify leaving her son?