You may think you know your parents, but in reality there’s a lot you don’t know about them.
Do you ever wonder what deep, dark secrets dear old mom and dad are keeping from you?
These AskReddit users who also happen to be parents revealed the most messed up secrets they’re keeping from their kids.
1. That’s intense
“That she can’t have a relationship with her grandfather because he’s a pedophile and I would never trust him. The rest of my family maintains a relationship with him and leans on me hard to open up communication because “family comes first.” They are absolutely right, my family does come first, which is why my daughter won’t ever have to have a relationship with him.
Edit: he has molested/raped multiple members of my family and I only found out when I was pregnant with my daughter. Without going into too much detail, he also has a mental illness and I’ve been told that I need to let him have a relationship with my daughter because he’s sick and couldn’t help it.”
2. A romantic story
“My daughter was conceived at work, on airport property, in the back of a f*cking Ford Focus, while we were waiting for a medflight to land.
She knows nothing about this but tells me she wants to be a pilot when she grows up.”
3. Awful
“Adoptive parent of three kids two of which are biological siblings and cousins. Found out a year after the adoption that the biological parents were half siblings who shared the same dad. The bio parents found out after they had the first child and proceeded to have another.
The kids are now 16 and 13 respectively and have zero clue that they are a product of incest. Unfortunately their biological grandpa just passed away, so there very well could be a big reveal coming in the near future.”
4. Tragic
“My mom kept it a secret that the woman I was named after (her mom, my grandma) was stabbed to death by my uncle when my mom was 18. I always suspected my grandma had a tragic death because of how my mom would avoid talking about it, but I didn’t know it was that tragic.”
5. Two things
“I don’t know if it’s the most f*cked up, but my kids don’t know that my grandfather was a child molester. He died before they were born, so I don’t see any reason to ever bring it up.
Also that before we got together and got married, my husband was briefly married to my sister. No kids, and no real drama when it ended and we started dating later, so it’s not really a thing that gets brought up often. They do know that she’s had multiple husbands, but they don’t know who the first one was.”
6. A lot of things
“I’m hiding alot of things- I used to be a stripper for 10 years, growing up in an abusive house, I partied hard and used to be part of NYC & Montreal club scene, that I was kidnapped and taken to another country. There’s alot of things… Now I’m just a boring accountant mom to everyone. No one has any clue what I’ve been through. Crazy what your kids don’t know about you.”
7. Sad
“That we weren’t actually visiting daddy at ‘his work’, its a secure psychiatric ward where he’s been since she was 3 months old.”
8. A different story
“My son was a product of rape. He just thinks I had really low standards in men at one point.”
9. Smile and nod
“My wife and I each have a child from a previous marriage. Both of our ex-spouses were abusive cheaters. Both children still adore and idolize their other parent and we just keep smiling and nodding.
This probably isn’t the type of thing OP was asking, but it is a secret that we will maintain for years.”
10. Not going to tell him
“My son is still very young, but I’m not planning to tell him his dad left us for meth and another woman (hes clean now and they actually split). He’s at least involved again.”
11. Guilty feelings
“Before I found out I was pregnant with my first child, I took a shit ton of pills. I think it’s the closest I’ve ever come to suicide. I had always dealt with anxiety and depression. I feel like the extra hormones put me over the edge. I found out about a week later that I was pregnant (surprise).
I was terrified the entire pregnancy that something would be wrong with him. Luckily, he was completely healthy and is an incredibly smart child. I’ve never told anyone. I feel so guilty.”
12. That’ll be a nice surprise
“My whole family thinks I’m awful with money because I’m super broke despite having a good job but I’m actually stocking away every spare penny to put my niece through college and to take care of my parents when they can’t work anymore.”
13. Grandpa
“My daughter knows that her grandparents are getting a divorce. She doesn’t know that it’s because grandpa (72) decided to knock up a 23 year old. We will talk about it once she’s older, but I don’t want to normalize that relationship for a preadolescent.”
14. Dark days
“My son was planned, but after separating from his father when my son was 8 months old and having basically nowhere to go/no way to actually take care of us on our own, many many times I thought about the possibility of dropping him off at the hospital and skipping town. I never did, and he is eight now and we are very happy.”
15. That sounds like a really bad idea
“Not ours but some friends of ours. The husband died late last year of kidney failure. The mother told her 4 year old son that his father went overseas to work until he is 18. There is no outcome that is good for this kid.”
Well, I’m never looking at my parents the same way again… but then again, I know WAY too much about them anyway.
How about you? Any particularly traumatic things you know about the people that raised you?
Let us know in the comments! Or don’t. It’s a free country. 😉
