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This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. I refuse to adopt my stepdaughter. She's going to have to find new parents now.

I'm 30 female and my husband is 34 male and my stepdaughter is 12. My stepdaughter's mom passed away when she was two and I came into her life when she was eight. We have a close relationship that I feel is normal for a step-parent. She doesn't call me mom and that's okay. I want her to do whatever she's comfortable with. By the way, this comes from Rare Ranger 4056, and if you want to submit your own stories, go to the R slash OK Storytime sub-riddit. I'm Sophia. I'm Riley. And O.P. says, these past few weeks, she's been asking if I would adopt her. Apparently, she had talked with my husband, and he told her it would be a good idea to ask me.

I told her to let me think about it.

When I asked my husband why he thought adoption was a good idea, he said it would make her feel like family and prevent her from feeling different from our kids when the baby comes.

Real quick, PowerPoint.

PowerPoint?

I'm going to need a PowerPoint, 12-year-old. Yeah, you have to give me good reasons why I should adopt you. I'm going to need a pros and cons list. And I need you to think about the cons here. What can you do for me? Sharks, I'm here today to ask you to adopt me. Got to do a shark pitch. I told him, the kid's not even here yet, so if that's the case, then let her therapist talk to her about it first. He asked why I didn't want to adopt her. I told him that we aren't on that level yet. She doesn't call me mom and has never really treated me like a real mom, more like a bonus adult when she needs one. And I said that's fine. But if I adopt her, that means I'm her mom. And if she doesn't see me as mom, then why would I adopt her? I told her, I wouldn't adopt her right now. And she was sad and started crying. It feels like she wants, like this is kind of the way that she's transitioning into seeing you as mom. Yes. Legally on paper. Yeah,

she's like, you're not my mom until it's legal. Oh, but what if the school calls? They're going to

call for my mom. And if it's not on paper, she can't call you. Can't come. You just can't come. It's the

rules. I see it in... To be real, I've met 12-year-old girls. Sometimes they can be evil. So you think that she's got another plot going on? I don't know why. That is in the back of my head. Or that could be, you know, from 12-year-old Riley getting rejected by the girls that were mean to me. Yeah. That could also be in my head.

Maybe she just wants to be adopted and that's it. No ulterior motives. I explain that she doesn't

really see me as mom and that if we got closer in the future I would consider it. But I think

she needs to understand what she's asking first. How long has O.P?

Four years.

So it's not like that long, but it definitely would be, you know, fairly long for, you know,

a kid who's eight years old and is now 12.

Like, those are pretty.

Yeah.

It's a third.

Fundamental years.

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