A woman has revealed that her 40-year-old boyfriend shares custody of a cuddly toy with an ex-girlfriend.
The confused woman explained that she had been with her partner for two and a half years, and they have a child together. The bear had come from a completely different ex-girlfriend, when he was 18.
"A few months before we got together, DP [dear partner] had split with his ex, who he'd been with for over a decade," the woman explained in a viral Mumsnet thread.
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"Their split was amicable but they've hardly had any contact since. She seems to be a perfectly nice person."
However, the poster explained that she first came to realise the unusual arrangement when the ex-girlfriend came to collect their teddy, which they call Bear.
She continued: "When DP moved in, over a year ago, his ex came to my house to collect Bear who was going "on holiday" with her.
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"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 woman explained that she'd hoped the ex would be 'too embarrassed' to ever ask for the cuddly toy again.
However, a few months on and her partner revealed that he was dropping Bear off on his Christmas holidays with the ex-girlfriend.
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"He mentioned, very awkwardly, that he was going out this evening... taking Bear, who is off on his Christmas holidays. He will drop Bear off with ex before meeting friends to play darts. He'll be gone a couple of hours in all."
While the woman was almost certain nothing was going on between the two of them, the teddy bear has made her 'feel incredibly weird and uncomfortable and actually a bit insecure'.
She continued: "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.
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"And then there's the fact that it's so f*cking weird! I can see, when she asked if she could have Bear for Christmas, he felt he couldn't object without seeming mean and petty or making me out to be some suspicious psycho (he knows I wasn't totally happy about the last time).
"He's a bit of a coward who hates conflict but also a kind man who doesn't want to hurt anyone unnecessarily."
Looking for advice from other social media users, the woman declared: "I don't know what bothers me about it so much. I had been planning to get Bear a Christmas stocking.
"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."
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The woman also explained that her boyfriend couldn't give his ex a cuddly toy of her own for Christmas, as she would 'miss Bear's personality'.
The post has been inundated with replies from other Mumsnet users struggling to get their head around the idea.
"This is really weird. He needs to just give her the bear and end the madness!" advised one.
With somebody else adding: "If the bear isn't valuable could you not buy a replacement for him. It's bloody odd, a grown man having a teddy bear share like this."
"I bearly believe this," mocked one person. "She needs to keep her paws off his bear."
Topics: Real, Sex & Relationships