Amber Portwood was back in court this week.

In the past, the abusive Teen Mom star has had some tough experiences in front of judges, and things didn't exactly work out in her favor this time.

On the bright side, she didn't get sent back to jail -- but she's probably not too happy about what the judge had to say.

As you probably recall, Amber assaulted Andrew Glennon with a machete, and that pretty much put an end to their relationship.

Knife attacks tend to have that effect.

Anyway, in the years since, Glennon has maintained sole custody of James, his son with Amber.

Amber seemed to have accepted the arrangement, but now, it appears that she wants to play a larger role in the toddler's life.

She put in a request for overnight visits with James, and since she usually doesn't seem very interested in parenting, we assume she did it just to piss off Glennon.

Petty feuds with her exes are the sort of thing that Amber is always interested in.

And so, it was back to court, where Amber probably assumed the judge would be like, "The Amber Portwood? From Teen Mom! Do whatever you want with the kid!"

Fortunately, things didn't turn out that way.

Instead, the judge threw Amber a curveball she likely wasn't expecting,

Rather than deciding the matter himself right there, he gave Amber and Andrew two months to settle it on their own,

"Parties are ordered to mediation and shall be completed within 60 days of this order,” he ruled, in court documents obtained by The Sun.

That doesn't bode well for Amber, who hasn't exactly made the strongest argument for herself as a mother in recent months.

According to Andrew,  Amber "never" sees her son, and she delivers ridiculous excuses for missing visits, such as the time she claimed it was raining too hard for her to leave the house.

To make matters worse, Portwood is currently feuding with her other baby daddy, Gary Shirley, and while that situation has nothing to do with this one from a legal standpoint, it probably won't help Amber during mediation sessions.

Most recently, Amber claimed that Gary cheated on his wife with her, which led the Shirleys to allege that they've been feeding Portwood and cleaning her house for months.

Needless to say, it doesn't really sound like she's ready to take on more responsibility as a mom.

But Amber says she and Andrew always agreed that she would start taking James overnight once he reached a certain age.

"The Guidelines anticipate that overnight parenting time could begin as early as 28 months of age, but would automatically increase to overnights upon the child attaining three years of age," reads a filing by Portwood's attorneys.

Clearly, Andrew's not complying with the part of the agreement -- for obvious reasons -- and so, he and Amber will have to hash it out in mediation.

We don't know what kind of rules are in place for this process, but we think both parties should be forced to follow a strict "no knives" guideline.

It's for the best.