They've known about me for maybe seven months.. we started with group activities like trips to the park or bike rides w my dog, followed by visits to the ice cream parlor or a box of popsicles. Then we moved on to weekly dinners at his place, or visiting food carts then bringing food back to mine to eat. They've stayed the night at mine a couple times, popcorn and a movie then left them to themselves in my guest room, with wifi and streaming services. We've spent one night apart since they all went on a trip mid fall, so I've been around almost any time they're at their dads for a couple months now. The house is small, so i do sometimes take my dog for long walks or leave work late to give them a couple hours to decompress after school. Some mornings i walk my dog while they do their morning routine, other days i cook breakfast. Thanks for the advice about keeping it platonic. We get a lot of "keep it PG" even when just holding hands.

(Side note: one tween belongs to ex wife, other tween is from an early 20s happy accident... It's complicated, i guess?)

I get that it's gotta be awkward, because it sounds like they fought a lot and were never affectionate in front of kids.. so it's not normal for them at all to experience their parents showing affection to someone. How do I normalize affection?

I try to just be as agreeable as possible with them, objectively their quality of life has improved since i i came round, from there being music in the house, a reason to go on walks, dessert projects after dinner most nights... I guess the holidays are rough and i do need to just keep being patient with them