What’s your family secret ?
Okay, okay, I take that back. There’s no need to reveal it to strangers online. You also may not know it yet, because it’s a secret.
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That’s okay, because we can live vicariously through the r/AskReddit thread, “Did your parents reveal a secret to you once you reached adulthood?”
New car fund.
“My dad used to take all of my Christmas and birthday money—my brother’s too—for our ‘college fund.’
“We didn’t have access to the account till we turned 18. Day before my older brother’s birthday, old man drains the account and buys a new car… for himself. Told us that was always the plan and that if we wanted to go pay for school we’d better go get jobs.”
It’s a surprise.
“When I was in college and my parents got divorced, my dad gave me all the information on what to do if he passes. Told me where things are, and had me go to his bank to sign a document for access to his account after he dies. When we were leaving the bank, he told me, ‘your mother is not who you think she is. Everything you need to know is in my deposit box.
“I have no clue what he could be talking about—he never elaborated, and my mom laughed it off when I told her about it.
“Guess I’ll find out one day.”
Meet your sister.
“That I had a much older half-sister. Apparently my father had got some girl knocked up in high school, her parents didn’t like him and thought they were too young to raise a kid, so they just packed up and moved. He knew she existed, but never tried to locate her and just moved on with his life. After I was in college, the sister had contacted him and they got together. Well nobody bothered to mention this fact to me until I come home from college for Thanksgiving and this strange women is sitting at the table and my dad says, ‘Meet your sister.'”
I’m not crying, you’re crying.
“That secret was revealed to me not when I reached adulthood but when my father passed away. When I was a baby, I had a baby doll which I loved. I still have that doll now that I am 28 y.o. One day, a month about after my fathers death, my mother told me that he had bought me 3 same baby dolls and when the one I was using had gotten damaged, he secretly replaced her with a new one. He kept that secret as a present for the day of my wedding, along with all the baby dolls I had used all those years. He didn’t make it to reveal it to me himself.”
– u/Nsymeo
I have so many questions.
“There was story growing up about how a local prince wanted to marry me and offered things like cows for my hand in marriage.
“When my father passed away I went to my home country and met cousins I had not met before.
“Turned out the prince was the president’s son and it wasn’t an offer, it was a demand. We snuck out of the country because he was going to make me his wife – bear in mind, I was a toddler.”
Keeping things quasi-legal.
“My grandma owned a bar when we were growing up but also ran a huge bookie/betting service from the bar. I didn’t know until she passed away. It all made sense, the random police showing up, the robberies.”
Nice nest egg.
“My great-uncle (dad’s uncle) left me a large sum of money in trust that I was to receive at either age 25, graduated from college, or was honorably discharged from military service (he retired from military), whichever came first. I had no idea and I’m glad I didn’t. I joined the military right out of high school and when I had my DD-214 in hand, my parents took me to a lawyer who laid it all out. Wow. Because of the enhanced GI Bill, I didn’t have to touch a cent of it for tuition. I did use it to buy a house though.”
A wholesome family secret.
“My grandfather was a small business owner who everyone always thought of as extremely frugal due to growing up poor. Later we found out he spent a significant amount of money on charitable causes and helped a lot of his employees with financial and in one case legal trouble. Positive secret, but it was definitely a secret.”
That got dark.
“My dad and his cousin were both raised by my Grandmother. I always thought that was odd but never questioned it. Later learned that this was due to the fact that the cousin’s mom murdered her husband (Grandmother’s brother).”
Bonus marriage.
“When I was in my 20’s my mom revealed that my uncle (who was an ordained minister and my dad’s older brother) helped arrange for my dad to get a sham marriage with another woman so he could get his green card prior to his relationship with my mom. It was a mildly mind blowing revelation for me at the time.”
Also dark, but sort of a happy ending.
“I am 43 and recently found out that my grandfather, he had passed away before I was born, was in prison when he was 16 for killing his father. There were reports of child and spouse abuse and alcoholism. My family looks at is as he was protecting his siblings. When he got out of prison he met my grandmother and they had 11 children that he protected until his death!”
At least they cleaned up.
“When we went to go spend the weekend with Aunt and Uncle, Mom and Dad would do a little meth and clean the entire house from top to bottom in about two hours and spend the rest of the weekend ‘being mom and dad.'”
Married, unmarried, remarried.
“My parents got divorced a few years before I was born, got back together but never remarried. They had no plans to ever tell us (my younger sister and I), but it came out when I was looking at my citizenship options. It’s likely we never would have found out otherwise.”
Bad argument to be having outside.
“Yes. I heard my mum and dad arguing outside. When they came back in , I asked them what they were arguing about. She said that she finally told my dad that she cheated on him twice in the past with a family friend.”
Thanks, dad.
“Several years ago my dad dropped the truth bomb that he didn’t think I was his kid when I was born. My mum had an affair and he thought I was an illicit lovechild.
“As soon as I started growing, he could see a lot of himself in my features so eventually brushed it off. But like… gee thanks dad. Not sure I needed to know that.”
Dad’s excellent adventure.
“My aunty casually brought up one Christmas after my dad had died that he went missing for TWO YEARS when he was twenty and nobody ever knew where he went! He just reappeared one day ‘looking like Jesus’ and never explained where he went or what happened and then continued on living his life and literally no-one ever mentioned it again so I never got to ask him about it. So wild.”
That smuggler life.
“When I turned 18 I got a letter from a distant Aunt and Uncle wishing me a happy birthday.
“I hadn’t seen them since I was a a baby, but there’s hundreds of pictures of them and me together when I was a baby. They used to babysit me a lot and take me on vacations with them.
“My Mom told me they used me to smuggle things. I guess they said it was super easy to smuggle just about anything with a baby.”
Secret families are always fun.
“My mom has a secret that I feel like I should’ve been told about when I became an adult, but that conversation hasn’t happened yet. A long time ago, I learned that she had a family that she up and left. No warning given to them from my understanding. Some point thereafter, she met my dad and started a family again. I figure she had to have been divorced to marry my dad, based on state laws, but I don’t know.”
DNA don’t lie.
“After my dad died, my mom sat me and my brother down and told us we were both conceived by IVF with sperm from anonymous donors. I was 30 at the time. A subsequent DNA test confirmed we were only half siblings. The revelation explained a lot, but I’m still processing even now and don’t know how to feel about it.”
Another bad dad.
“My dad cheated on my mom while she was recovering from a surgery that nearly killed her. The mistress told her when she realized who his wife was and what she was going through at the time. I just thought my mom was a man hater and left my dad out of spite- she never told me because she didn’t want to taint my image of my father. She’s a saint.”
