My SO has a friend that lives alone with his 3 kids so he’s a single dad. I go over to their house with him sometimes because he invites us over and makes extravagant dinners and the kids just talk to me about everything without any prompting. I just figured that they wanted an outlet and that I seemed nice enough for that so I just let them talk. They’ll bring it up out of nowhere. I’ll go into the living room and eat dinner with them while their dad and my so go play video games. I’ll just be eating and they tell me about their mom, about how shes in rehab and how they miss her. They told me how she was supposed to show up for their last birthday (youngest are twins) but never came. Of course that broke my heart, but I know their dad is taking care of them just fine. I never said anything about it. I brought it up to my so later just to filter it out because it was bothering me and he “wtf how do you know all of that!” “the kids told me.” Him: “what do you mean they ‘told’ you? Did you ask them? That’s private information.”

Me: “no, how would I even know what to ask? They just tell me. Maybe they need someone to talk to.”

Him: “it’s not right you should say something.”

Me:” like what? And make them feel like talking about it is wrong? They see something in me that makes them feel like they can trust me and I don’t want to betray that. It’s not hurting anything for them to vent.”

Him: “he doesn’t want just anyone knowing that.”

Me: “and I haven’t told anyone but you. They’ve been talking to me about it for weeks now.”

Did I do something wrong???? Am I doing something wrong? And I don’t try to tell them how to feel or what to do, I just listen and validate it.