Amber Portwood has not always been the best mother.
After all, there are only so many times that you can assault your child's father in front of them while keeping yourself in the running for "Mother of the Year."
Judging by what we've learned from "Teen Mom" and various police reports over the years, Amber has, at times, been neglectful of her children, she's placed them in questionable situations, and of course there's the previously mentioned verbal and physical abuse that she's thrown at her boyfriends in front of them.
She shares 13-year-old Leah with Gary Shirley and three-year-old James with Andrew Glennon, and she hasn't had custody of either of them for a long time.
She has supervised visits with James that Andrew has said she often blows off, and while she and Gary have a much more amicable relationship and she could see Leah way more often, she kind of just doesn't.
Amber has been accused in the past of choosing relationships over her children, with of course her most serious committed relationship being with her couch.
But according to a new interview she did with The Ashley's Reality Roundup, that's all changing!
She began by giving an update on how things are going with Leah, saying "We are now at a point that it is a fun relationship. We're not what people think anymore."
If that's what's actually happening -- we all know Amber has a bit of a penchant for fibbing -- that's wonderful news.
In the last season of Teen Mom OG, Leah really didn't want much to do with Amber, so if she feels comfortable enough to have even just a "fun relationship" with her, then maybe she really has been working on herself.
"She needed her time," Amber continued. "She needed to understand and cope with my past."
Since we last saw them, she said that Leah "ended up coming to me and saying, 'I will never judge you.'"
"I said, 'I'm glad you said that because I don't want you to judge anyone. I want you to have an open mind.'"
She took a moment to brag on Leah there, saying "My daughter is so amazingly smart and a beautiful person."
That is, of course, thanks to the parenting of Gary and his wife, Kristina, but Amber still tried to point out her own special contribution to her upbringing.
"Even through my mistakes I can show to my own kids, that this is what not to do," she explained. "I think Leah took a while to understand."
"She told me she could see the change [in me]. I thought that was beautiful of her to say. What I did, I was going to stay present and not stay away from her."
The Ashley reports that Amber said that she's really been doing a lot of work in therapy, and that even claimed "I'm just a different person when it comes to understanding what a codependent relationship is, and real love and that is with my family."
Speaking of her family, she said "Gary is great, we're friends. He has a great wife, it's kind of amazing when we're all together. James thinks of them as an uncle and aunt. Emilee [Gary and Kristina's daughter] treats [James] like a brother. It's amazing to see."
This is good to hear too, considering that she had a bit of a falling out with Gary and Kristina last year.
But now it seems like that they're all so close that she said "Whenever I get into a relationship, they'll have to be ok with the blended family."
Finally, Amber touched on her new book, "So, You're Crazy Too?", which contains plenty of scandalous stories, including how she spent much of her early Teen Mom earnings on strippers and drugs and random boyfriends.
Thankfully, she doesn't think Leah has read the book, but she did say that "Leah knows a couple of things" that were discussed in it.
"She's aware of what my mental illnesses are and that is a big step," she said.
Amber has done many, many terrible things, too many to count, really.
But if she's genuinely trying to do better for her children, then that's truly amazing news, and we hope she's able to stick with it.