December 13, 2019 | Casey Fletcher

People Reveal The Biggest Secret They've Kept From Their Parents


We've all kept secrets from our parents. Maybe you stole $20 out of your mom's wallet and never told her, or you snuck out in the middle of the night to go clubbing with your friends on a school night. Or maybe you've been keeping something from them that's a bit more serious. Whatever your secret, we've all withheld information from our parents at one point or another. These people reveal the biggest secret they've kept from their parents. Fair warning, some of these responses get very real. The rest will make you gasp, laugh or shake your head — or maybe even a combination of all three.

Don't forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!

peekaboo-861x484Libreshot

#1 Stole Pokemon Cards

When I was at Walmart with my mom, and I stole two of those big cartons full of Pokemon Cards. I took the cards and stuffed them in my back pocket. I planned the whole robbery a week before. I was the best robber at nine years old.

#2 Don't Love Them

That I don't love them. I care about them in the way I care for a hurt stranger but I won't be crying when they pass away except for over the stress of handling the funeral and finding a place for their kid and animals to live. A little background: My parents ran debts in my name and never helped me out. For example, I was homeless twice in my mid-20s but I couldn't stay with them apparently. At 18, I still didn't have a license because I couldn't borrow their car. Eventually, I saved up and paid for lessons. Not that I could afford a car until a few years later. At 20, I had a job interview at a well-paying company and asked if they could drive me or let me drive. They agreed and then never showed up.

180331-F-JW012-0109Joint Base San Antonio

#3 Location

My location for the past 25 years.

#4 Not Going to Finish School

That I’m not going to finish my degree and I’ve paid off my student loans. My degree was pointless and I don’t do well in school due to my ADHD. My dad constantly asks when I’m going to finish and stop bartending... I just say soon. I hate disappointing them because my dad gets very proud of my sister and I with our accomplishments, but truth be told, I’m quite content with the $60,000 I make bartending. My degree would have only pulled $35,000 starting.

Advertisement

#5 Recorded Over Graduation

I recorded Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz over my sister's high school graduation video. It's been about 18 years, but I still feel bad.

35264670872_45b996be34_oFlickr

#6 Dad's Secret

My parents divorced when I was eight. My dad left and I never saw much of him. Among other issues, he came out to my brother and I before they divorced. I never told my mother that he was gay. My father passed in 2011, my mother in 2017. I think she had an idea, but we never discussed it. He was born in 1945 before such a thing was accepted.

#7 Salary

I make more money than I let on. My parents have and will always be the "I take care of you all your life, time for you to pay it back" type of parent. Except there is no end to this "debt." So I hide money from them so they can't take advantage of me.

money-sale-shopping-retailPiqsels

#8 Wasn't Dad

When I was around 14, I overheard my parents arguing. My mom was yelling at my dad about some inappropriate searches on the computer. It was really me that was going on the computer in their room and watching it. He kept denying it and she kept calling him a liar. He slept in the guest bedroom for a month after that fight.

#9 University Addict

I was heavily addicted to morphine for my entire time at university.

Lonely_addict_manWikimedia Commons

WEEKLY UPDATE

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Stories that matter — delivered straight to your inbox.

Thank you!
Error, please try again.

#10 How'd You Get That Scar?

I kept the truth of how I got my big scar on my forearm secret for like 15 years. I had an old metal bed frame and one of the posts snapped off leaving a pretty good sharp point that was pretty avoidable. Anyway, I was like 16 and was tipsy with my older brother and I accidentally gashed by arm with a box cutter. I needed 21 stitches. We told my mom, grandma and pretty much any concerned party that I fell next to the bed and my arm slide across the part of the metal.

[Deleted]

768px-Self-injury_cuts_and_scars_on_forearmWikimedia Commons

Advertisement

#11 Stolen Money

I stole money for grass and regret it to this day. My lazy butt should've just gotten a job instead.

#12 Didn't Save Themselves for Marriage

I lived with my girlfriend/fiancé for one and a half years in a house that was just 45 minutes from where my parents lived. We lived together prior to us being married. They are very conservative and would have likely not attended the wedding had they known that we lived in the same house before we actually got married.

people-play-interior-indoor-couple-living-room-1223043-pxhere.comPxHere

#13 Up All Night

I used to watch Southpark when they thought I was sleeping.

#14 Quit Jobs

They had no idea I left my job with the cable company to sell cars and write up oil changes for almost a year. I was emotionally burnt out from the bull and couldn't take it anymore so I tried switching careers. It didn't really pan out, but it did get me away from that toxic trap of a company and allowed me to figure out what I actually wanted to do.

#15 Mental Health

My depression and the fact I nearly failed out of first year because I couldn't handle university.

#16 Work Out

The fact that I work out, hard and heavy. My mom thinks that muscles on girls are gross, and for the years that she knew I worked out she treated me like I'm gross too. It was heartbreaking for me. So now I pretend that I lost interest in lifting weights and I'm much happier this way. The true fact is that I gave it up for two months and couldn't stand life without it. It's sad that I can't keep my mom in the loop of my most loved passion, but I've accepted it.

gym-human-sport-training-exercise-yogaPxfuel

Advertisement

#17 Baby News

I got someone pregnant and I'm pretty sure she kept the baby and didn't tell me.

#18 Eating Disorder

I have an eating disorder. I’ve had one since I was 11 and I even went to the hospital for it. They still don’t know.

#19 Pizza for Dinner

I sometimes grab lunch or dinner on the way home from class and I don't tell them. If I did, I'd probably get yelled at for "wasting money when we have perfectly good food at home." My mom's cooking is great but... sometimes I just want to grab some pizza. Recently she's been on a some obscure health diet plan that she's forcing everyone through, but it's a bit ridiculous.

woman-pizza-food-restuarantPxfuel

#20 Sister's Sexuality

That my sister is gay. She openly admits it to everyone, except for my family. She opened up to me, eventually but both my parents and older brother don't know about it. Since then we've become a lot closer than when we were kids.

1280px-Two_Friends_In_The_WoodsWikimedia Commons

#21 No High School Friends

My mom always wondered why I didn't have friends in high school and it is because we were broke and I knew she was struggling, so I refused any time people wanted to do things so I wouldn't have to ask for money. Then, in my last year of high school, I worked full time so I had no time to make friends.

broke-empty-hands-money-436806Pexels

#22 Social Worker Took Advantage

That my old social worker, who they credit with saving my life back in high school, blackmailed me.

4487893706_f7be48b6cb_kFlickr

Advertisement

#23 Bipolar Disorder

That I’m diagnosed bipolar.

#24 Mom Steals Money

My mom steals money from my dad and from me and my brother and bad mouths my dad a lot of time knowing I’m not good with confrontation and I’m very sensitive. At night I can hear them arguing and in the morning they act like everything is great. They bad mouth me and my brothers and talk about wanting a divorce, not wanting me and my brother and hating each other. They don't know I can hear them.

Money in the hands of a woman on a white backgroundFlickr

#25 Not Mormon

Parents are (and raised me to be) staunch Mormon. For those unfamiliar, Mormons believe their church is the only true church on Earth. I don't believe it's true. They think I still go, but it's infrequent at best.

mormon-chapel-in-salt-lake-city_800Good Free Photos

#26 True Passion

I want to be a dental surgeon, but my parents want me to go to school for anti-vaxxers; they want me to be a "holistic" naturopathic doctor because they don't trust modern medicine. I'm afraid that if I tell them I want to be a dental surgeon, they will refuse to pay for my college and dental school expenses. Or worse, they'll disown me.

#27 College Secrets

I was a high functioning depressed alcoholic for my whole college life.

#28 Don't Want a Relationship With Them

That I genuinely have no desire to have a relationship with my parents whatsoever. If it wasn’t for my wife, who often plans dinners to get together with my mother, I would have no relationship with her at all. My father left in my teenage years and is also a pathological liar, so I’m better off without him too.

#29 Rated R Movies

When I was 17 I rented Not Another Teen Movie, watched it and returned it without them finding out. They wouldn’t have approved.

150723-F-YO405-003Malmstorm Air Force Base

#30 Dental Health

My mom does not really know she's the reason my dental health is messed up. I have stress-induced teeth grinding, which she knew about and did nothing about it. She doesn't know she's a major reason as to why I have notable social anxiety and other psychological problems. She's going to find out sooner or later I am sure. I do not live with her anymore for a reason.

sadness-1344994_1280Needpix

#31 Snuck Out

That I used to sneak out of the house from our second story bathroom window to go nightclubbing with my friends after my parents went to bed.

#32 A Different Identity

That I'm trans and bi. My mother passed away before I could come out to her and I really don't know if my father will care about me more then his political beliefs.

1280px-2018.10.22_We_Won't_Be_Erased_-_Rally_for_Trans_Rights,_Washington,_DC_USA_06828_(31629621118)Wikimedia Commons

#33 Bad Grades

My dad doesn't know that I was suspended due to grades for a semester in college.

#34 Struggling With Depression

I've been struggling with depression, crippling loneliness, abandonment issues and social pressure since I was six years old. I feel that my explanations might not be the best for telling my story, so I won't, but I've been handling my case better now. I still crave for connection and love but still no luck yet.

#35 The Reason Why

I actually DID know why my laptop wasn't working. I spilt a fair bit of alcohol on it.

#36 Feel Like a Tourist

I have divorced parents who each got remarried and each had three kids with their new spouse, and I split time between the two houses. I have six siblings that are all half-siblings. I’ve never told them that the reason I never go home is because I hate feeling like a tourist with my own family. I’m the only one who was there 50% of the time. I don’t feel like I belong to either family, honestly.

#37 Not Real Girlfriends

I just pay escorts to show up as my 'girlfriend' so that my parents would stop telling their friends to hook me up with their daughters. Every gathering, the escorts I would hire would show up, meet everyone and always have to leave early. I pay by the hour.

young-blonde-beauty-model-girl-wallpaper-previewPeakpx

#38 Health Issues

Due to severe health problems, I ended up dropping out of college five years ago on tuition they had paid for. They were so angry and upset with me that they cut all contact and stopped sending me money of any kind, which would have been fine if my health wasn't so poor and I was unable to work. After starving for about a month, I ended up having to sell my body in order to eat for a number of months. Eventually, they forgave me and let me move back in with them until my health was better but they never asked me how I fared up until that point and I never told them. The guilt, shame and self loathing I feel from that time is overwhelming.

woman-wearing-blue-printed-romper-standing-beside-car-1001816Pexels

#39 Mental Health Issues

That I think I have mental problems but I keep pushing it down. I try to fix it myself because I believe people will think its for the attention and it makes me question myself, but I try to be normal.

#40 Took $20 from Mom

Small secret: Back in high school days, I stole $20 out of my mom's wallet, and then concocted a complicated but realistic lie to keep it. Big secret: I'm an atheist. I'm glad they have a big community of people who love them at their church, and it's nice that some of those people knew me when I was small, but I have no love for their shared belief system. I'm angry that they wanted me to believe in it, too, and when I said I didn't, they lashed out at me in very cruel ways.

6355360253_84387dc29f_kFlickr

#41 Depression is Real

They don't know how depressed I actually am.

#42 Transgender

I am transgender. I haven't told literally anyone I know. I live in the bible belt in the south, and my grandfather is the pastor and owner of a fairly large church. I don't have any plans on telling anyone or transitioning until I move from the town I'm living in right now.

background-bright-casual-close-up-colorful-colors-1531365-pxhere.comPxHere

#43 Not Straight

That I'm a lesbian. And that that "friend" who I don't invite home anymore is actually my ex...

#44 Real Dad

I met the guy my mom told me was my real father. We did a DNA test and there is a 0% chance. He even took me on a white water rafting trip with his wife and son. I’ve never told her.

#45 Secret Grandchild

They have a grandchild.


READ MORE

divorceinternal

Divorce Lawyers Share The Most Outrageous Reason A Client Filed For Divorce

From crazy husbands and wives to petty disputes over the most ridiculous things, divorce lawyers are never short of an interesting divorce tale.
October 6, 2023 Jess Silverberg
Layer 3

Police Officers Share Laws They’re Uncomfortable Enforcing

Citizens are aware that some laws are a bit bogus. Well, these police officers feel the same way and here are a few they actually disagree with.
September 15, 2023 Maria Cruz
Compliment Internal

These Words Of Kindness Changed Lives

Paying someone a compliment can not only lift their spirits but sometimes can even change their life.
December 5, 2023 Violet Newbury
Unsettling Experiences

These Unsettling Experiences Sent Us Running The Other Way

Grab a blanket, turn off the lights, and get ready. These unsettling, unexplainable stories will send goosebumps going up your arm.
October 26, 2023 Rebecca Wong
Messed Up Family Behemoth

These Messed Up Families Put the Lannisters to Shame

From insane dads to manipulative moms to shocking secrets that were never meant to come to light, there’s just no drama like family drama.
November 7, 2023 Jeff Myers
Hr Internal

The Most Ridiculous HR Complaints

It started pouring one day, so I grabbed one of the loaner umbrellas from the front desk on my way out. I had no idea what kind of chaos it would cause.
December 5, 2023 Sarah-May Oldfield


Want to learn something new every day?

Stories that matter — delivered straight to your inbox.

Thank you!

Error, please try again.