Jenelle Evans is dropping some major hints about what’s caused her 14-year-old son, Jace, to run away from home twice in the last two weeks.
The “Teen Mom 2” alum, 31, took to TikTok Wednesday to address Jace’s actions “being pinned against” her, saying she’s been “getting a lot of hate” and “a lot of comments.”
Evans kept things vague but alluded to finding inappropriate content on her eldest child’s Snapchat, which she referred to as a “bad” app.
“I will say one thing: Monitor your kids’ phones,” the former MTV personality urged fellow parents. “Because, you know, I monitor my kid’s phone, and sometimes they get in trouble. Sometimes they get it taken away for consequences to their actions, right?”
“But sometimes they don’t take that too lightly,” she went on, “and sometimes kids get really mad about their phones if you take them away.”
Evans likened the attachment some teens have with their phones to “an addiction.”
She went on to tell her followers that “there was a big reason why” her mother, Barbara Evans, gave her back full custody of Jace in March following years of personal — and legal — issues.
“My son has been having a hard time for the past two, three years,” the mother of three explained. “None of this has gone public because we’re trying to keep his privacy — me and my mom.”
Though she did not want to divulge details about her “son’s mental health,” Jenelle assured her fans that he “is fine, he’s healthy and he’s safe.”
The “16 and Pregnant” alum first reported Jace — whose father is Andrew Lewis — as missing to police in Brunswick County, N.C., on Aug. 15 after he did not come home from school.
He was located safe a few hours later, with Jenelle blaming his brief disappearance on typical teenage angst.
“As a boy mom, kids can act up and rebel, as I’m sure the majority of us all once did as kids, too,” she told Us Weekly at the time, insisting that she was “not dealing with anything that most families don’t deal with while raising children.”
“Jace got in trouble at school, we decided to take his phone away and that’s when he decided to run off,” she explained, calling her teenager an otherwise “good kid.”
She made sure to note that his decision had “absolutely nothing to do” with her ongoing marital issues with her husband, David Eason, whom she wed in September 2017.
Earlier this week, Jenelle called the cops again after not hearing from Jace for several hours.
He was eventually located at a gas station near the family’s home.
Jenelle’s manager, August Keen, later said the teen ventured out on his own “without telling Jenelle,” whom he described as “a momma bear.”
Keen insisted there was “nothing to be alarmed about,” calling Jace “a teenager finding his independence, wanting a bit more freedom.”
Jenelle shares son Kaiser, 9, with ex-boyfriend Nathan Griffith and daughter Ensley, 6, with Eason.
She was married to Courtland Rogers from December 2012 to June 2014.
