Woman baffled by partner's strange 'custody' arrangement with his ex

A woman has taken to Mumsnet to ask if she should be concerned that her partner and his ex still meet up to hand over a teddy bear. [Photo: Getty Images]
A woman has taken to Mumsnet to ask if she should be concerned that her partner and his ex still meet up to hand over a teddy bear. [Photo: Getty Images]

It’s no secret that break-ups take ages to get over and if there’s children or pets involved, it can take even longer to finalise who gets custody.

But one woman has been left baffled after her boyfriend made an agreement with his ex-girlfriend, which sees them sharing time with a furry teddy bear.

The woman took to Mumsnet to ask if she should be concerned that the former couple still meet up to hand over ‘Bear’ and wondered if it’s strange they’re now deciding who should get to spend Christmas with the toy.

“When DP (Darling Partner) moved in, over a year ago, his ex came to my house to collect Bear who was going “on holiday” with her,” the woman started her post.

“DP hadn’t warned me this was happening, and I was just expecting her to drop some of DP’s stuff off.

“DP did the handing over but it was all unbearably awkward.

“DP hadn’t told her that he was moving in with me (we have known each other vaguely for years) so she couldn’t have been expecting the new girlfriend to be a witness to this nonsense.”

The former couple still share custody of a stuffed teddy bear toy. [Photo: Getty]
The former couple still share custody of a stuffed teddy bear toy. [Photo: Getty]

The woman hoped the ex-girlfriend would be ‘too embarrassed’ and not ask to see Bear again, however, a few weeks later her partner told her he was taking Bear on his ‘Christmas holidays’ to his ex’s house and he would be gone a couple of hours.

“I am 100% certain there is nothing going on with DP and his ex (or anyone else for that matter) but this has made me feel incredibly weird and uncomfortable and actually a bit insecure,” she wrote.

“I know full well the reason he didn’t tell me was because he was embarrassed about it (and rightly so!) but still, it seems disloyal to arrange things with an ex and not tell me.”

She then went on to call her partner a ‘coward who hates conflict’ and slammed him for not refusing to hand Bear over to his ex for the holidays.

“I had been planning to get Bear a Christmas stocking – lucky I’m not sufficiently organised to have done anything about it yet,” she wrote.

“I think this sort of stupid infantilism about DP’s bear is fine within the confines of a romantic relationship but outside of one, it’s just a bit creepy.”

People were quick to comment saying ‘this has to be a joke’, as they couldn’t get over the man’s attachment to the bear.

“He needs to just give her the bear and end the madness,” one person said.

“Get a replica and give her ‘bear’. To keep. Issue over,” another person said.

Others just couldn’t get over the fact that the ex’s were still meeting up to hand over a stuffed toy and told the woman to buy her partner a similar bear they could have together.

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