Spending Time With Kids Who Aren't Yours... Is It Weird???

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My best friend had a baby when she was 17 years old. When we were 19, I was homeless and she had an apartment, and I ended up moving in with her while her son was nearly two years old. My friend had a LOT of problems back then, and she relied on me a lot to take care of her son. I grew very close to him... he was like my baby! I called him my nephew. Even after I moved out, I was still best friends with her, and I was still very involved in her son's life. He is 10 now and can't remember a time when I wasn't his "auntie." My best friend also has a 4-year-old daughter who I have helped take care of since she was born. There are also two little girls I know whose mother used to leave them with me because she had a drug problem. They eventually moved in with their dad, but their dad wanted me to stay in their lives. They are 10 and 7 now. I try to spend a lot of time with the two girls plus my "nephew" and "niece". At least twice a month I take them all someplace fun... We have gone to Children's Museums, Enchanted Castle, the Nature Museum, and wherever. The kids all really look forward to it. My best friend says she has noticed that sometimes when she tells people that her kids are with me, and that I take them and the other girls out regularly, people look at her strangely and think maybe she shouldn't leave them with me. She says one of the best things she likes about her newest boyfriend is that when she told him I was with her kids, he just said, "Thats so nice of her to spend time with them!" My friend says that because of the society we live in, people are suspicious of anyone who wants to spend time with someone else's kids. Other people have also made remarks like that... Obviously if they know me, they know I'm not some sort of freak, and because I also am studying special education, I've had to go through DCFS background checks to do that... but people tell me to be careful of what others may think. They say people might think I'm like Michael Jackson or something, spending all my time with kids. What do you think? If you knew someone who took some friends' kids out twice a month, would you think that was sick????