Parents will often think they are doing their children a favor by withholding the truth or the full story from their children, but those decisions can often force their sons and daughters to go down an irreversible path in order to find the truth. Those sons and daughters are left with a decision - tell or hold in the truth.
A Reddit thread recently asked people to reveal the deepest and darkest secrets that their parents think they're keeping from them, and there were a lot of devastating revelations. The secrets revealed in the following stories are earth-shattering for the sons and daughters who made the discovery, but that would only pale in comparison to what would happen if their parents found out what they know. All comments have been edited for clarity and readability.
His Father Couldn’t Stand It Anymore
“My dad died of an overdose and not just complications. I was very young when he broke his neck and he was a quadriplegic for all the time that I knew him that I can remember.
The night before he died, he called me (probably about 10-11 years old) into his room and told me that he was in pain and needed his pain pills. Because he was a quadriplegic, he was unable to get out of bed or do many things on his own so he asked me to get the medicine out of the kitchen for him. I was young and innocent, so I did it. I brought the pill bottle to him and I remember him taking them all. He told me he loved me and that he was proud of me and that he knew that I was surely destined for great things. I didn’t understand why he was telling me all these things at the time but I listened and then went to bed.
The last time I ever saw him was the next morning, as he was carted down the hallway of our house on a stretcher by the paramedics. He died that day in the hospital. They always told me it was as a complication of his condition and I semi-accepted it for a long time.
It was only in the past few years that I put the pieces together and realized what had really happened. I had assisted my dad in committing suicide all those years ago; no matter what my family says, I’m sure of it. I’ve never talked to them about it, but I struggle with the thought to this day.”
The Truth Finally Came Out About Her Dog
“My dad and brother told me the reason why my dog died after being attacked by Dad’s dog was that I didn’t leave the car with a tank full of gas, so they had to stop for gas on their way to the vet, and they lost so much time because of that, that my dog didn’t make it.
The truth is that my dog made it to the vet and the vet said she’d be okay but it would be about $500 for the bill, so they told the vet to just put her down because they couldn’t afford the procedure.
I could have paid the bill if they had told me.
I only found out because my oldest brother got in an argument with my dad, so he showed up to my work one day to tell me the truth as a way to get revenge on my dad. I was working brunch, so I just drank and cried. I can’t even think about it without crying. That dog was my best friend.
I asked my mom why they didn’t ask me for the money and she said, ‘You were a child, you had no money,’ and I had to remind her that no, I was already an adult, in college, and had a job. She just said, ‘Oh.’
They aren’t worth my time; confronting people who cannot comprehend what they did is useless, it’s not like its going to make them feel bad or sorry. I’m the one whos going to be all upset and crying.”
They Went Looking For Important Documents, What They Found Changed Them Forever
“When I was 12, I needed to take a picture of my birth certificate for a school project, so I went and got it from the box of important documents in my house. When I was looking for the birth certificate, I found the prison discharge papers stating the crimes with my dad’s name on it.
When my dad was in his 20s, he served nine years in prison for a felony burglary charge. He’s completely reformed now and is a great person, but my parents never told me.
My parents still don’t know I know. It’s been a few years now.”
“She Still Thinks That I Don’t Know”
“When I moved out of my mother’s house and across the country, we had three cats. When I returned a couple months later, only one cat remained.
She brushed off the disappearance of the other two, which only made me suspicious. I skimmed through emails she sent to her overseas boyfriend, whom she would no doubt confide in if she were complicit in their disappearance.
I learned that she took the two cats, drove out to the country, and deposited them on the side of the road. That was 15 years ago. She still thinks that I don’t know.”
She Found An Unexpected Connection
“When I was 15, a girl, who was in her early 20s, reached out to me on Facebook. She sent me a long message saying that we were half-sisters on my dad’s side. I was surprised, as I never knew I had a sibling.
When I asked my parents about it, my mom was visibly irritated and my dad made me block her and told me to never talk to her again. I did for a few months, but naturally, I got back in touch with her. I found out my dad cheated on my mom and my half-sister was the result. I never told my parents I knew. My sister and I still keep in touch.”
“Heart Complications” Run In This Family
“I know that one of my uncles didn’t die from heart complications. He went out how a lot of folks from the Rez and the projects go: fell over in the gutter when he was wasted, broke his wrist, and froze to death in the winter of 2015. All the kids were told that his heart gave out. His son died the following year. Also of ‘heart complications.’
My mother didn’t want any of us getting messed up to deal with either of the funerals because chemical dependency is a running theme in my family. Her efforts, however, didn’t stop anyone from getting wasted at either funeral. I personally thought it was a bit messed up to smoke a joint with our uncle’s funeral program as the filter, but I was outvoted by my brothers.
My brothers and I were close to his son, and so he told us how his father died on the night of his funeral. It’s weird to think about, but all of our funerals will be held in the same spot as my uncle and his son. My body will be there one day. Maybe it’ll be ‘heart complications’ too.”
Despite His Efforts, This Father Couldn’t Hide The Truth
“My father has a strange, strong hatred against the LGBT community, but I honestly think it was to divert us from the truth. He’d always make comments about gay couples kissing or holding hands.
He was raised as a religious man in a conservative state. He always had this one male friend he’d see constantly for ‘work.’ I guess the guy worked on computers or something and his always ‘broke.’
The only time I ever saw my father laugh was around him. My mother used to comment on the amount of Preparation H he used, but since she also had butt issues, I guess two and two were never put together.
When his friend passed away, my father changed completely. He honestly shut down and became a shell of a person. I never saw my father laugh after his friend died. My father and mother divorced, and my father got remarried within a year. I feel like he rushed into this relationship to cover up his feelings for men.
I had to use his phone one night (flip phone) because mine died, and while trying to dial out, I found several texts from unsaved numbers asking when he was coming over.
Also years later, while going through some old school boxes, hidden away in one of my photo books from kindergarten, there was a letter titled ‘Mr. Blair’ with a heart. Inside was a letter from my preschool teacher, male, that said he appreciated everything my father did for the class and hoped he’d stop by soon to ‘chit-chat.'”
They Had Heard Stories About Their Mom But This One Made Their Jaw Drop
“My boring, 66-year-old, president of the PTA, bunco playing, minivan driving, soccer mom doesn’t know that I know she made a living smuggling dope over the US border for a few years with her first husband in the late ’60s.
I had heard stories of her being a bit of a hellion as a kid, but I this one made my jaw drop.
It all started off rather heroic in a way (depending on your views of the Vietnam war, I guess), using her Canadian citizenship as a guise to help smuggle draft dodgers over the border into Canada. I knew about that part, but it turns out that wasn’t all they were smuggling.
She lived in a small house, and worked at a fish packing plant near the border with her high school sweetheart turned husband, and would apparently have dozens of people — at any given time — waiting for their turn to be snuck across. They’d feed everyone with misshapen fish they brought home every night from work, and take regular trips back and forth over the border to help people escape.
Now, I knew about that part… I don’t remember how I found out, but I remember my mom being really uneasy about it. She tried to set a good/lawful example for her terrible son (me), and she didn’t want me to know — as a young teenager — that she would do such a thing.
I brought this up one time a little later in life amongst family — away from my mom — and I could tell something was up the instant I opened my mouth. Aunt Ronda, who was kind of a piece of work herself, thought It’d be hilarious to tell me the truth and badmouth my ‘perfect’ mom a little bit.
It was pretty well known that the main reason my mom and her first husband broke up was because of his massive substance problem and that smuggling dope into the US (along with being one of the largest manufacturers of fake ID’s in their particular state) was his and her main source of income.
I also learned that day that my mom stole a car when she was 12, went on a joyride with three of her friends, and later crashed it into a pharmacy window.
My mom had an interesting life, before she had my sister and me anyway. I’m not sure though that she knows WE know how much fun she had.”
Their Dad Still Treats Their Mom’s Death Like An Accident
“My mom passed away 10 years ago. The night before she died, she sent both my brother and me a message saying she loved us. My dad said my mom passed away in her sleep, but I’m convinced it was a suicide. I don’t think he can accept that information.
She had been in a car accident about five years earlier that messed her neck up. She had gone through physical therapy and had been on some meds for the injuries, but she later developed sarcoidosis in the years after.
A week before her death, she came to see my wife and me at college some four states away out of the blue. While she was there, she told me she’d stopped taking her medication, felt great, and had big plans for the future. When she left, she told my wife to take care of me, which I thought nothing of at the time.
A few days before she died, my mom told my father that she consolidated the pill bottles she was no longer using, but he found them mixed together after her death. The coroner’s report found different medications in her system but there wasn’t enough to definitively say that they were the cause of death. Couple it all with the texts my brother and I received, I’d say she took a fatal combo and passed. She either did it for attention or she did it with the intent of ending it all.”
Their Wealthy Family Has More Secrets Than Money
“My father doesn’t know that I know about his mistress: her name, where she lives, how long they’ve been together, that he bought her a house in 2009. I’ve quietly been stalking her – I originally wondered if we would become friendly, but she seems rather unpleasant.
My mother doesn’t know that I know she abandoned her first child when he was a toddler. Everyone else believes her story that he died of scarlet fever. She doesn’t know that I found him using those DNA kits. I’ll never let her know that he went on to become a lawyer and a judge in another country. She’ll die not knowing.
There are many more things, things that could send both of them to prison for many reasons. Mafia involvement, supermarket price fixing, contract breaches, even simple shoplifting.
My parents are quite rich, but also truly horrible, and I have collected a great deal of blackmail material.”
“He Didn’t Know How Much Proof I Had”
“In the early days of AIM, I installed a program that recorded every AIM conversation and organized them by screen names into dated folders on the family computer.
Looking through my dad’s stuff, I discovered he was chatting with other local women and did the whole ‘a/s/l?’ thing. I also found a picture he sent out where he was standing in front of a mirror in his underwear holding his junk.
My parents were still technically together at the time. I asked him about other women and he denied it. I left it alone. He didn’t know how much proof I had.”
They Watched Their Parents Crumble For Far Too Long
“Between 2009 and 2015, both of my parents developed addiction issues after my dad was prescribed painkillers following a back injury. Sometimes I’d find them passed out in bed with a pill grinder and a pen tube on their bedside table. I didn’t bring it up with them for years.
Then, one day, I was just going through some of my stuff and found out that my grandfather’s (deceased) ring was missing. I had no idea where it went, and so I asked my parents, but neither of them had a clue.
The next day, one of my good friends who worked at a local convenience store told me that my dad had come into the store kind of delirious and tried to pawn off a ring to them for cash. I confronted my dad about stealing my ring, and he denied it until I brought up my friend’s account. He said he needed the money for bills. And that’s when I said, ‘No, you were going to use that money to buy pills, weren’t you?’ The look on his face is something I will never forget. It twisted into something raw and hungry and filled with rage.
At that moment, he ceased being my dad and was an addict. It hurt to be looked at with such unabated hatred. He snarled a, ‘Get lost,’ at me and went downstairs. I moved out later that year, and it took me a good long while to readjust.
My parents eventually split up and they both got clean. I don’t talk to them much nowadays.”
They Thought Their Mom Was A Great Role Model Until This Revelation
“My father passed away in a car accident when I was a toddler and I’ve always looked at my mother as a hero for powering through it all as a widow with two small children at 23. She ended up marrying my stepdad a few years later but, unfortunately, they divorced when I was in middle school.
Things are calm and quiet these days, but my ex-stepdad told me that my mom was actually cheating on my father before he died, and he actually knew my dad and ran into him a couple times. My dad knew that my mom was cheating, but I suppose he died before he did anything about it. My stepdad actually met my mom at the hospital when they pronounced him dead and was able to recount details of the story that ended up checking out later on.
I can never talk about it with either of them and especially not with my older sibling who remembers my father quite well because it would cause a huge rift in my family.”
Normal Christian Folks They Are Not
“My parents are your basic Christian folk. They politically lean more liberal, but it wasn’t uncommon for me to come home to find mom listening to Christian music and doing needlework. My dad even went to a Christain college and got a degree in religious studies.
It turns out that my mom’s business was a front for her being a mistress and my dad had a bunch of sugar babies (Mom knows, sometimes joins in).
My sister found out about Dad’s sugar babies first by snooping through his emails; I found out about Mom by checking Backpage.com.
They’re still great parents and love us a lot, however, it definitely caused some huge trust issues there.”
His Mom Gave Him No Choice But To Dig Deep
“I know that my ‘dad’ isn’t my biological father. It’s a pretty spectacular story. They got divorced when I was 6 or 7, and as part of a long messy divorce, he asked for a paternity test. Her story is that his lawyer was super shady and paid off the blood company to say I wasn’t his so he wouldn’t have to pay child support. I was young enough that while it didn’t feel quite right, I believed her because she is my mom and she framed it as a positive because ‘Now your stepdad can adopt you!’
As the years went on, I questioned more and more. I’m the only blonde in my family, much lighter complected, etc. She continued to insist on her story, so I decided to do one of those ’23 and Me’ tests. My supposed biological father was 100% Polish, I am 0% Polish.
I asked again, she insisted again – to the point of yelling, ‘I didn’t sleep with anyone else.’ Which is, you know, great to hear from your mom. I started to get connected to cousins through ’23 and Me’ that weren’t on my mom’s side, and I was starting to get close to names on my own when one day, my mom finally confessed to my older brother (who was giving her a hard time in my behalf).
It turns out it was some guy from work with whom she had an affair. He’s now married with two kids (who look just like me). She said he doesn’t know, so I sent him an awkward letter.
I wanted the answer, that was a must for me. But beyond that, I am honestly comfortable with letting him decide what he would like to do. My stepfather was amazing and will always be ‘dad.'”
Their Mother’s Criminal Ways Effects Their Brother More Than Her
“My mom thinks I don’t know she got processed and charged with 96 counts of fraud. She just opened her business and is now facing nearly 100 Class 5 felonies connected to the false reporting of care given to someone (my brother) on state and federal medical assistance.
She is used to the court system from past careers (teacher for violent offenders) and my grandparents have money, so she’ll turn out better than most people would. I’m more worried about my brother (the person she was caretaker for), and his life after this. I just hope he ends up with someone who knows him. Downs Syndrome, Celiacs Disease, unknown thyroid issues, and seizures are his major issues, but his behavioral problems aren’t any better than his physical ones.”
They Know How Their Parents Really Feel
“I’ve always known about how disappointed my parents are in me. I was a decent kid, but ever since high school, I’ve started to get more and more depressed and my mental health has really taken a toll on me since then. They say they’re supportive of me and that they’re proud of me when I get a D on a test because I ‘tried my best,’ but sometimes, they accidentally leak out their disappointment. Like how my mom sometimes says she wishes how I wasn’t such a burden. Or when I overheard my dad say to my mom how he always knew I was stupid.
At the end of the day, I tried my best, gave it my 110%, and I push myself to not want to kill myself and to love myself more. But man, does it hurt to know that the only people I really want validation from don’t really think highly of me and act like they’re proud of me.
I just want to make them truly proud even fully knowing how toxic and unfair they can be to me. In my twisted head, I just can’t move forward and I’m stuck in this obsession in wanting to make my parents proud and happy when I know that they will never see me as anything but a disappointment.