Hey, this is Sam.

This is John.

Your OG, OK Storytime podcast host. And we got some great stories coming up. Before that, we have a quick two-minute break from the sponsors that keep the show alive. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. My ex-wife tried to befriend me, but I want nothing to do with her. So complicated of a love trying. Yeah. I, 36 female, dated my ex-boyfriend, Dwayne, 37 male, for a year and a half. He has a daughter, Millie, 11, from a previous marriage. Dwayne and I met in elementary school, and we were childhood friends who grew up in the same town. While we grew apart, we bumped into each other all the time in town

and had a lot of mutual friends. By the way, this comes from Dingoes 8 Miami. And if you want to submit your own stories, go to OK Storytime, subreddit. At the beginning of a relationship, Dwayne did not have visitation rights to his daughter due to a custody battle going on with his ex at the time. This was a red flag for me, but I knew it was a contentious divorce, and they were in and out of court,

frequently for years over custody, so I noted the red flag, but the custody battle was not unusual.

When he got approved for supervised visits, Dwayne invited me to attend.

I felt a little awkward about it at first.

I didn't want to intrude on Dwayne's limited time with his daughter or make things more complicated for her. When Dwayne explained, he'd be more comfortable with another adult present. I agreed to accompany him on the visits. The first few visits were awkward. Having a social worker present, of course, took getting used to. Dwayne and Millie both enjoy being

outdoors, so when the weather was nice, we'd all hang out in the yard while Millie played with

the neighborhood kits. One of her friends, Leanne, always stared daggers at me. And eventually

Millie told the supervisor, Lisa, that she didn't know how to explain my presence to her friends.

I offered to stop coming if it made her uncomfortable, but Millie quickly said it wasn't me. It was their friends and their questions. It was decided she'd introduced me to her friends as a friend of her dad's. Once she did this and they started including me in their games, we all had a great time. Right. Nice. This became routine and Millie and I got along really well. Her friends also asked me to play games with them. The trouble started when Dwayne's ex-wife, Amber, started talking to me at drop-offs and pick-ups. Dwayne and Amber don't speak directly to each other outside the presence of lawyers or through a co-parenting app. So Amber would give Dwayne a rundown of what he needed to know at drop-off. She has a cold, so she's taking the medicine, needs a dose in two hours. He has this thing to go to at one, and here's the stuff she needs for it, etc. Dwayne would ignore her and act like she wasn't speaking and ask me later what Amber had said because he wasn't listening. Red flag number two. That's a blazing

red flag. He's not listening to stuff about his daughter. As a result, when Amber gave us the

rundown at switchoffs, I would ask questions and jot things down. So eventually, these conversations

happened between Amber and me while Dwayne sulked beside me. Millie was involved in sports and some of the

games fell during Dwayne's parenting time. He was excited about this because he's very athletic

and genuinely had fun preparing for the games, talking to the other parents and cheering on the team.

Amber and Dwayne both attended all the games. The two parents would compete with one another,

each trying to out-chere the other.

Dwayne would try to win over the parents sitting with his ex. If Millie needed a water break, she struggled with which parent is sick. I was always kind to Amber. I'd say to hide her when I saw her. If it was Amber's parenting time and Millie needed a water break, I'd waver toward her mom and calm down her dad.

If it was Duane's parenting time,

I'd waver over to Dwayne

...