Maci Bookout is loving the stage of motherhood that she’s in. Speaking with PEOPLE approximately her lifestyles and what fans can assume from Teen Mom: Next Chapter, the mother of 3, 31, celebrated that her children are “all in a certainly amusing degree right now.”

“Jade is 7 and Maverick is 6, 2d grade and primary grade, so they’re simply entering into the groove of who they’re in college, in sports and with their friends,” she says.

“They’re turning into older and growing into the actual humans and personalities that they’ve.”

Fans of the MTV franchise who have watched Bookout’s story from the start at the moment are getting to see her dynamics with her oldest son Bentley, who turns 14 in late October.

“Teenage years are an absolute blast and they’re an absolute battle,” Bookout says.

“It is tough because it’s gotten to the degree wherein he wants to make his own decisions and cope with the consequences of those.”

As a mother who recalls her own teenager years without a doubt, Bookout says she reveals herself “biting my tongue all the time.”
“I’m like ‘Maci, you just have to permit him like just permit him do it,’ ” she says. “Even even though you know it’s definitely not going to workout, you simply gotta allow him learn.”

Admitting that “it’s a struggle,” Bookout is studying that “parenting is difficult in general however teenage years are fun but they’re hard.”

Maci says that capturing the MTV collection comes as second nature to Bentley, but that every one of her children know their barriers are respected all through the method.

“Bentley, he is the oldest Teen Mom Kid. He became born on TV, so it is sort of everyday for him,” she explains.

“As he’s gotten older, obviously sharing matters that are personal to him, is continually been under the equal set of boundaries.

If he doesn’t want to film — or Jade or Maverick — then they don’t film. If they do not need even to place a microphone on, they don’t put a microphone on.”

“There’s constantly a verbal exchange that I have with them before we movie it to look if they’re okay with it,” she maintains. “And however, with a producer too, to discover ‘What’s off limits? What are you true with in case you’re excellent with, if something in any respect?'” Bookout praises MTV’s manufacturing team for always being respectful of what her children decide.

“So they recognize they kind of run the show,” she jokes, including, “however they do not want to, they do not have to.”

As for her own developing up on TV, Bookout believes that “despite the fact that I’ve changed lots, I assume in case you watch it, I’m honestly nevertheless just Maci,” simply, “a bit bit older, a little bit wiser, and a bit more knowledgeable.” Making it to wherein she is today, married and navigating existence with her three youngsters, has “taken lots,” in keeping with the MTV big name.

“I suppose, first and major, it took the good to get right here and took the struggles to get here,” she says, noting that it additionally “took a variety of the visitors to get here.”

Bookout explains that fan comments all through her time on 16 & Pregnant and Teen Mom has meant a lot to her.

“Hearing visitors’ feedback and them sharing their stories and experiences, it would not go disregarded,” she says. “Sometimes, if I’m sharing something that is raw and real and making me sense very vulnerable, knowing that they’re looking and they are able to relate — and that they percentage their tales with me — I additionally then sense like, ‘Oh man, I’m no longer alone,’ ” she says.

“I very an awful lot respect the provide-and-take courting that I have with the visitors.”

Teen Mom: The Next Chapter airs Tuesdays at eight p.M. ET on MTV.