Telling the truth is indeed the right thing to do. However, it is also not that easy all the time. Sometimes, people look for the right time to tell the truth, and some people choose to remain silent about it.
One of the instances in which this case is very common is within families. Each household probably has its deepest secrets they cannot bear to tell. It could be from the parents or the kids. Sometimes, they choose to keep it a secret rather than to break hearts.
1. Super Mom
My dad cheated on my mother while she was going through cancer treatments. My mother asked for a divorce. He said go and take the kids.
Every Valentine’s Day, I would receive flowers from my dad and be so happy. My mom would smile and nod and get excited with me.
I would call him and thank him. He never sent me flowers. It was my mom all the years. Same thing with birthday cards and Christmas gifts from him.
They were never from him. My mom just put his name on them in similar handwriting. Went as far as writing return addresses on mail, too. My mom was a superhero of a single parent.
elsaanddonutss
2. Blinded Dad
It was a secret until recently, my mom told me. When she and my dad got divorced, things were very, very messy, and my dad would do messed up things to dodge paying for my care.
He ended up owing my mom a couple of thousand dollars, and my mom was ready to sue. She knew my dad was not a healthy person to be in my life.
She offered him a deal- keep the money but relinquish custody officially instead of getting the lawyers involved. I'd still get to see him if and when I wanted, but he would give up all legal rights as a guardian.
Because he hated paying my mom THAT MUCH, he took 2k over me. It's not a life-changing, earth-shattering secret. It's just revealing to know my dad values money more than me.
effervescenthoopla
3. Mistake of A Lifetime
I'm the child, but my father told me my mother was dead all throughout my childhood, and everyone in the family, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, stepmother - supported the lie.
Not because my mother was doing something illegal or abusive, or a criminal, or even a bad person. Just because they had a huge argument one night and she went to stay with a friend, without me.
So he decided she would never be allowed to be in my life again. Ever. He wrote her off. On my 18th birthday, she called our house and asked to speak with me. So, I found out the truth.
Curiosity0425
4. Big Family Tree
Not a parent but a child. This last Christmas, I found out that not only had my mom already been previously married and divorced, but my dad had a kid before he married my mom.
So, I have a half-brother or sister that I have never met. The real kicker was that I found it out from my new sister-in-law, who had someone do some digging.
Found out, assumed that I must already know, and brought it up out of the blue on Christmas Eve while we were baking cookies.
Mels_Lemonade
5. Just Not Yet
I don’t want my son to know that he was an unwanted accident. Even during my pregnancy, I didn’t want a child. I was still so young and had my whole career ahead of me.
I wanted to travel the world, finish school, and advance myself in life to the fullest. After he was born, I had a hard time adjusting, and it took me a long time to fall in love with motherhood.
I didn’t feel a connection to my son and felt like the worst mother in the world. Now, I can’t stop looking at him, hugging him, or crying over him.
I’m finishing school, and I got promoted to my job. I can have my life and still be a mother, too. I only regret my feeling of not wanting my son because he means so much to me, and there are no words to describe the deep love that I feel for him.
xpiredair
6. Painful Distance
When I was a teenager (I’m 22 now), I found out that when my mom had me, my dad did not believe I was his kid. He even demanded a paternity test so he didn’t have to pay child support to me.
It was because he really thought my mom had cheated on him during a business trip she went on. I don’t know why, but a paternity test was never done (or maybe it was, and I’ve never been told).
It explained why I felt so distant from my dad for the first ten years of my life. He always favored my older sister more when I was younger and called her “daddy’s little girl,” etc. I felt like he hated me, and this explained why.
Today, he’s the best dad ever. I don’t know if something shifted or what, but my dad and I are extremely close now, and he loves me endlessly.
crystalizedwolf
7. Life Status
We had our kids kind of young. We were both in grad school. So we're in a weird spot because we both have fancy-sounding degrees that your average person would assume turned into well-paying jobs.
I am now a postdoc, and we are notoriously underpaid. Sometimes I think, "Wow, I have a Ph.D.. You'd think I'd be smart enough to work out how to get more money..."
But I moved the family internationally for this job, which is another thing that would make you think we had everything sorted out. We are so poor. They're little, so they don't notice. But we struggle a lot to pay the rent and buy groceries.
Philieselphy
8. Passing Secret
Grandpa's not their grandpa. I didn't find out until I was 30 that my dad adopted me, and my mom was married to someone else when I was born.
My 15-year-old was looking at those DNA kits in the store. "I wonder what surprises it would find!" Oh, more than you think, sweetie.
I'll tell them someday. I just do not know what the right time is. Then again, that's what my parents told me when I asked why they never told me about bio-dad until he reached out to me and blew their secret.
ThePrevailer
9. Baby Brother
The baby brother she keeps asking for has caused so much heartbreak. I had a miscarriage, and every time she asks when she's getting a baby brother, I feel like I've been kicked in the gut.
I made the decision to keep this from my daughter because she does not need the heartbreak to change her little world. She's six years old.
I know she would be able to understand what has happened, but I'd rather she stayed oblivious and happy than grieve a baby she didn't know about.
I might tell her when she's an adult, but I also don't want her to be upset about how her innocent question makes me feel. Sigh.
It's a very lonely type of grief to lose a baby, even if you have the support of your partner. I'm wishing all the love and virtual hugs to all of you who have been and are going through this. Even though we feel like nobody can ever understand how we feel, we aren't alone.
Whisperedbedlam
10. Hidden Treasure
We hit the lottery for 12.5 million dollars, and nobody in our family - including our children has any idea. Besides us and the government, the only other people who know are an attorney we hired to keep our identities private and an accountant.
We have kept our lives pretty normal… We both work, so it looks like there’s an income coming in… we both enjoy what we do and didn’t want to have anything change drastically.
We just didn’t want to ruin our relationships with everyone or spoil our kids… We have it safely invested for their futures.
But not until they establish themselves on their own without any idea that there is a safety net. We support numerous charities.
It’s a blessing to win but a bigger blessing not to be destroyed by money. Obviously, this isn’t my real name, which would have defeated the whole purpose.
Jeffclaterbaugh
11. Gone Twin
I'm the child here, but my parents hid from me for over half my life that I actually had a twin sister, but she had died at birth.
Apparently, even at the age of 2, I knew I had a sister without anyone telling me.
Then, throughout my childhood and early teen years, I would always pretend my imaginary friends or my actual friends were my twins.
It all made sense when my mom sat me down a few years ago and told me my twin sister had died at birth. Sad thing. I'm an only child, too, so that doesn't really help me not feel bad.
[deleted]
12. Big Reveal
Not my secret and not really messed up, but my grandma revealed on her deathbed to my mom and dad (her supposedly firstborn son) that, while in nursing school in the 1950s (in a different state), she actually conceived a child out of wedlock and gave her up for adoption.
Not even my very religious Grampa knew that - she just wanted to not have that information to die with her, so she told my parents.
Sure enough, a few years back, the aforementioned half-aunt contacted my dad to ask about my grandmother (her medical history and so on - pretty reasonable stuff).
Since then, almost all of the family knows about it, with my dad jokingly referring to my aunts and uncles as "my full brother/sister." I have an unusual family.
chrisdurand
13. Twisted Past
Not the parent but one of their kids... My mother was pregnant with my oldest sibling when she met my father. They married shortly after she was born.
Fast forward about 6 or 7 years, and they get divorced. About two years later, they remarry each other. All those years, they added a year to how long they were married so none of us would know about my oldest sibling being born before the marriage.
Oh yeah, one more thing. We found the adoption papers for my oldest sibling after both parents had passed away. My dad adopted the eldest.
So, she would be legally his. He never treated her any differently than the rest of us; we were shocked to learn all this after they were both gone. None of us had a clue.
GraceUnderFire1
14. Grabbing Responsibility
My 8-year-old daughter is not mine; I met her mother, my wife when she was three months pregnant. Neither of us knew until about a month or two into dating.
What I did know was that this girl was the one. When she found out she told me and gave me a free pass to leave. She did not just want me sticking around just for the benefits of dating a pregnant chick and then skipping out.
I then made the choice to take the leap. Best decision I ever made, and I never looked back. Now, we have my daughter and a three-year-old son.
I don't plan on ever giving the information to her, but I will tell her if she asks when she is older. The father skipped out to CO and cut off ties when he found out.
That's fine by me, though. As far as everyone, including the government, knows, I am her father on the birth certificate and everything. But the way I see it, I am. I was there the entire pregnancy, the birth, and every day since. I was 22 at the time.
cmjordan3988
15. Turning A Blind Eye
My dad has early-onset dementia. One day, when we first found out he had it, I was visiting, and my mom went to run an errand. As soon as she left, my dad got super weird and started pacing back and forth, telling me he had to tell me something.
He proceeded to tell me he had a child with another woman right before my mom got pregnant (they got pregnant with me when they first started dating). He said the woman was married, and he didn’t know my mom, and he was going to get serious. He claims she passed the child off as her husband’s.
I didn’t believe him and thought he was either messing with me or he was more gone than I’d realized. He insisted he was telling me the truth. He begged me not to tell my mom.
Naturally, I asked my mom about it as soon as she got home. She was very interested, and it was obvious she had heard this before.
Apparently, my dad has told her the same story over the years, and she thinks he’s full of crap. She’s really good at denial, and my dad is really good at coming up with crazy lies, so I honestly have no idea what to believe.
The timing of the confession makes me think my dad knew he was losing it to dementia and wanted to get it off of his chest. I have looked up both the mom and son’s names on social media, and nothing comes up.
For some reason, less than a year later, I can now only remember their first names (probably because I have super early onset dementia, fml). My mom seems to remember them as people, so they at least exist, but I could not find any footprint on social media.
We now pretend it never happened, and I wonder about it every now and then. As an only child, I grew up convinced that I had a half-sibling out there somewhere, so it’s strange to have it semi-validated.
Mysteriousdebora
16. New Information
Up until yesterday, we hadn't spoken about death (he's 3). My son saw a dead bird and asked why he wasn't flying, so my wife used that to break the news to him lightly.
He kept asking questions like "When won't he be dead?" and "Why can't we fix him?" When it hit him, you could tell because his eyes got teary, and he just wanted to hug his favorite stuffed animal.
The last thing he asked me before he fell asleep was, "Do kids die too?" It was the most heartbreaking question ever. I don’t know how to answer him.
IHaveButt
17. Hidden Reason
When my wife was breastfeeding my son, she stood up to walk to another room and walked through a doorway. His head was hanging over her arm, and she walked right into the door frame.
A few weeks later, we were in the hospital because his head was a little big, and we felt uncomfortable. Ended up getting an MRI, and he had a brain bleed.
Nobody could pinpoint what happened, and it was dialogized as benign external hydrocephalus (or some crap like that), and the brain bleed was attributed to that. His head is pretty big. He will be teased for it as he gets older. He has a big forehead.
My wife has no idea it was her fault, and neither do the doctors. Only I remember what happened, and I will go to the grave with it because she doesn't need that on her mind.
mvpofthefamily
18. No Immunity
I'm not a parent, nor is this my story. It's my friend's, she found out without the parents knowing. She's not vaccinated. At all.
I have no clue how this was hidden from her or how she got into school, but her parents didn't vaccinate her. Not just that, while she's sleeping, they use their freaking holistic medicine on her (she mentioned crystals).
They even refused her HPV thing, so she's not even resistant to cervical cancer because her parents are uneducated and think you can develop autism after birth (even though she IS autistic, her parent won't accept it).
Hajitabeebus
19. Past Life
My kids and my wife, as well, are blissfully unaware that I had another family before them. My wife knows I had dated other girls before her, a few long-term. She knows I was engaged but did not get married until I met her.
She doesn't know I made a baby girl with that former fiance, though, and I'll never tell. Just like I'll never tell anyone that the baby died of a fever after just six weeks of her beautiful life.
This is the part of my story where my wife believes that "it just didn't work out" and that "she got really crazy." The truth is, we were both destroyed as people, and neither of us could continue our lives together.
We quickly grew to resent and hate each other and lashed out against the world and ourselves in a horrible fashion. No one from that past still has a connection with me, barring my brother, who has faithfully kept my secret for twenty years.
My parents passed on before they really got to know my wife. My friends and the rest of my family from that time have all long since been separated geographically and by time.
The former fiance hasn't spoken to me since and now lives in a different hemisphere. To my knowledge, she has never dated again, but she did finish school and start a career. I hope she is happy.
My kids don't need to know they have a half-sister in a little grave in a town 1900kms away. They don't need to know that their father sees her face in theirs every day. They don't need to know that he has been broken inside since before he even met their mother.
[deleted]
20. Rollercoaster Relationships
Our parents don't know, but when my parents broke up, my Mum took me and my Brother back to Denmark from England. My Mum started dating a girl she had been friends with for years.
My mum's girlfriend had two daughters with a guy who my mum used to date years before. My Dad then moved over not long after to be with his two sons.
He ended up stealing my Mum's girlfriend and marrying her, and they are still married today after about 25 years. The only reason we know this is because my Stepmum gets a bit too honest when she's drunk.
Potatopirat
21. No Relationship
My mother cheated on my brother’s father and got pregnant with me. She didn't tell him until I was two years old, well after she tricked him into signing the birth certificate.
She divorced him and was getting child support for my brother and me, as well as half his naval pension. They all decided that I did not need to know anything about this.
When I say 'they,' I mean the entire family - immediate and extended. When I was 13 or 14, my mother decided to keep me home from school for a day and take me to my favorite restaurant.
She proceeded to tell me that I was not related to anyone I thought I was, and I'd never met my real father or grandparents.
Brick_in_the_dbol
22. Missing Dad
My sister is hiding from her daughter the true identity of her biological dad. My niece has been raised thinking that her father is her biological father.
That is actually kind of sad because she just naturally feels like a misfit in his family, and my sister and this man are divorced now.
She's turning 12 soon, and I wish my sister would tell her, but that's a very personal decision. I just feel like the older my niece gets, the harder the secret is going to hit.
[deleted]
23. The Youngest
My youngest daughter isn't mine. I met her mom one night at a bar and was too drunk to hit it off with her. Nothing happened. We were off and on talking for months while each of us was doing our own thing (with other people).
Months later, I found out she was pregnant and decided to date her anyway. Find out the dad is a complete douchebag who has no real intent to support her or be her father. He just wants to take cool selfies for his friends and for chicks.
We decided to just cut him out before she was six months old and say I was the dad. I signed the birth certificate and everything. Dad came over, and I gaslighted him by "confirming" his suspicions that she was cheating while they were dating, and I know the kid's mine.
Never seen him since. I have family that knows that they are crappy and tried to tell my other kids that she isn't really their sister.
I tell them that the family is a bunch of crappy people (true) and make the "big secret" be that I knocked up my now-wife that first time we met at the bar and didn't get back together until I found out she was pregnant. So everyone, except for a few holdouts in the family, was regarded as crazy and a jerk.
Everything is great now. We have had more kids together (that are actually mine), and everyone who knows the "big secret" just knows a layer to the lie. The only people who really know is my wife and I.
Sometimes, I feel bad for what I did. Then I checked up on the guy and realized that she was not missing anything. He had improved his life a little but was still a man-child.
I hope that there's never a reason to tell her, but with the way medical science is, it will probably come up eventually. The real secret is that she's my favorite kid out of all of them. Even my wife doesn't know that.
[deleted]
24. Long Lost Sister
When I was 13, I found out I had a second sister. I grew up with a sister that was 13 years older than me. On Christmas day, when I was 13, my parents, my known sister, and her husband called me into the living room and handed me a picture.
I, of course, had no idea who this lady was. They explained that when my mom was younger, she was engaged and got pregnant by a bad man, so my grandfather went and brought my mother back home.
She was about 17 at the time. My mother's cousin was under the impression that she couldn't have children. Well, my mom went to the hospital under the cousin's name (this was in the 70s) and gave birth to my oldest sister.
So, my oldest sister grew up in the next state, and I had no idea she existed until that day. She had apparently visited a couple of times when I was too young to remember, but they didn't think I was old enough to handle the information until then.
Luckily, we have a wonderful relationship now and live less than a mile apart. I've never held a grudge against my parents for withholding this information, but it was definitely mind-blowing.
NewNormalDesigns
25. Horrible Deed
My wife and I adopted a boy. Nobody except myself and the birthmother know that I am the biological father. It was a one-night stand.
Someday, I have to tell my son. My wife will surely leave me. I am a complete jerk. She can’t get pregnant. I love my boy. I want to tell him so bad.
He is five. My wife is a good mother. It was a one-night mess up, and I’ve never cheated on her since. The birth mother has no contact and doesn’t want to.
She didn’t want to get pregnant and didn’t want to give up the baby. So, she reached out to my wife’s Craigslist post. I am so messed up, I know.
deathiswishedforme
26. Innocent Witness
The reason we got divorced is because he left me for another woman, Amy*, his friend's wife. When she was 2, we moved back to my mom's house while my world fell apart.
She innocently - randomly - said, "Daddy's on the floor, and Amy can't say no," which was evidence she witnessed at least some of what was going on while I was out of town.
She's 11 now and has asked me a few times when she was younger. I always tell her to ask her father because I can't bring myself to lie or tell her the truth.
She asked me one day if I still loved him. The best I could come up with on the fly was, "If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have you, and for that, I am grateful," because I didn't even want to break her heart by telling her THAT truth.
Amy's ex-husband has since become one of my best friends, whom my daughter knows, but she has no idea why he and I are such good friends.
[deleted]
27. Sister Bond
My dad hid my oldest sister from me for years. I grew up thinking I only had one sister when, in actuality, I had two. My aunt let it slip during an argument between them when I was eight.
When she left our house, my dad dug out all of these photos. She was only really part of my life for my first two years, so I had no memory of her but tons of photos of all of us on holidays and birthdays. It was bizarre.
What’s more messed up is that my sister’s mom (she’s my half-sister, if that wasn’t clear) hid her from my dad for seven years.
She let my sister think some other guy was her father and then told the truth when she went after my dad for child support. My sister’s mom and my dad had a very messed up relationship that ended with her telling my dad that she wanted him to have no part of my sister’s life.
He thought that was what my sister wanted, and he respected it, though it always bothered him. Twenty years later, my oldest sister and I are incredibly close. She even named her son after our dad.
We see each other as often as possible. We were bridesmaids at each other’s weddings, and our husbands were both good friends. It’s kind of like the first 16 years of my sister’s life never happened.
_thisyearsmodel
28. Suddenly Gone
When I was going into middle school, my parents told me that I had a half-sister who was my dad's kid. She was college-aged, and my parents had been in contact with her for years, helping to pay her tuition.
My mom went up to talk to her for whatever reason and arranged for her to come down to meet her half-brothers and her father.
My younger brother and I absolutely adored her; we talked to her every chance we got, and she would always send us packages for birthdays and holidays.
She lived a few states away, so it was hard to visit, but we saw her fairly often, especially over the summer. She even went on vacation with us.
She hardly knew my family but seemed excited to have us around. Once she graduated college, she never spoke to me or my brother again bc my parents had already paid their way through college and didn’t need to play nice anymore.
This was many years ago, and I’m still crushed. I’ve tried reaching out a few times to no avail. She’s now married and has a child that I will probably never meet. Honestly, I just wish I had gone my whole life without knowing I had a half-sister.
tdev98
29. Dropped Off
Not my child, but my sister’s. My sister got pregnant at 19, so it was very inconvenient for her. She was willing to stick through the pregnancy but didn’t think she was ready to be a mother.
When my niece was around six months old, her mother dropped her off at my parent's house to ask if she could watch her for a couple of hours while she went to work/ school (I don’t remember. She just needed my parents to watch her) but after about 6 hours, she didn’t come home.
She sent a message to my dad asking that they legally adopt my niece, but they refused and tried to get her to come back home to raise her daughter.
Luckily, she realized she wasn’t doing what was best for her daughter and came home after a few weeks of living alone. Now, she has a pretty successful life because she decided to trust my parents and let them help her raise her daughter.
Now, my niece is seven and living the best life we can give her. But she still doesn’t know that her mother abandoned her when she was six months old, and probably never will know.
Richerlie
30. Left Alone
My son is not mine, biologically. He has no idea. No, I'm divorced from the mother, who also gave up all legal and, for the most part, custodial rights to him.
See him 3 hours a week. Real Dad has no idea; she is convinced he was never his. It's a very long story that involves deception, lies, and a gullible 20-something me who had a big heart.
I have been told to write a book about it. To which my response is... So I could relieve the horror again and again... No thanks.
My relationship with his mom is friendly. However, I wish she would spend some actual time with him. I don't think I'll ever tell him. Why? At this point, I'm trying to be the best dad I can be. Being a single parent is tough as it is. So yeah.
Throwawayfool777
31. Needs Reconnection
I've been married for ten years to my daughter's stepdad. She knows he's not her biological father. The last time she saw her bio dad was when she was 18 months old; she's 12 now.
So, my husband and I have dealt with infertility for the past six years. My daughter wanted a sibling so badly for so many years.
I found out her bio dad now has two sons from two different moms. He has our number and knows our address. I even started a Facebook page where he could connect with my kid.
She wants to have a relationship with him so bad. She used to cry at night, "Why doesn't he want to see me?" I haven't told her because I know it will crush her.
Eimiaj_Belial
32. The Worst Lady
I'm not the bio parent, but I was with the guy. He's not the father of his son. We believe that the real father is actually one of his brothers.
His GF at the time slept around with three of his brothers, so he thinks it's one of them. He refuses to get a DNA test and won't tell his son the truth.
He doesn't want to hurt him in any way, so he's willing to pay child support and be there as the real dad for him. He might think about the DNA test when he's 18 so the kid can decide.
The dad and I have two kids ourselves, and we don't want him to feel as if he has no one, so we keep telling him that we miss him and his sisters miss him. I think it's messed up all around, but his mom is a real piece of work.
the_onlyfox
33. No Accountability
The reason for the divorce. My X is a terrible witch. If my kids ever ask once they're adults, I'll be more than willing to tell them the truth because she never will.
A couple of the kids have thought it was their fault we split. I reassured them it was not, and my x has told them they were a factor in the divorce.
She felt she was being smothered with the kids and being married, and that's why she had to sleep with three guys at the same time.
But really, it was my inability to forgive her for the infidelity that I walked in on. So, I can wholly say the divorce was because of her infidelity.
If I had just forgiven her for the infidelity, we would have had no problem, but I couldn't forgive the infidelity. The reasons for the infidelity don't matter.
And her blaming the kids for part of why she had to do that is probably one of the most shameful, idiotic, loathsome things that she's ever done.
pm_meyourlegs
34. Change Of Heart And Mind
My firstborn was almost given up. We had gone to a planned parenthood type of clinic a few times because I told her she had to. She was a lot more submissive and listened to everything, but I wasn’t caring or supportive in any way.
Pretty much right before the appointment to complete the operation, she showed a huge surge of confidence that I’d never seen before and sternly told me she was keeping him.
She didn’t give a damn what I wanted, but if I adjusted my attitude and put in the time and effort, we could still work as a couple, and I get to be a dad.
When she essentially told me off, I don’t know why, but it really put things in perspective. I realized I didn’t want to terminate either and didn’t want to break up.
We got married, got an education and jobs, and we’re expecting our third in June. I love that boy (and his sister and soon-to-be brother) with all my heart. However, he doesn’t need to know that I initially didn’t want him in this world.
gentlemanlyconducts
35. Huge Offer
My family and I entered the country when I was a kid. We were about to get deported when my mother was offered to enter into a marriage of convenience.
We all got our citizenship as a result, but technically, we could lose it based on current laws. More than 20 years later, I am living the American dream, and I have a university degree, a career, a husband, and children, but I still feel like I'm not 100% deserving of everything I have.
The marriage was the best that could have happened to us. It was winning the lottery rather than the alternative of going back to our country.
I can't reconcile those things in my mind. She took care of the husband (he was elderly at the time but sane of mind) and did not take advantage of his kindness or his money.
He was a lonely old man, and I believe we all made his life better. They divorced amicably a few years later, and she took care of him for as long as she could.
[deleted]
36. Lost Best Buddy
My family adopted this old German Shepherd that was about the age of 12. At the time, I was in pre-school, and we named the dog Petey.
I loved Petey very much, and he was my best friend. He had been with me for over five years, and we had a really special connection.
But all good things have to come to an end. In the middle of my 5th year of elementary school, Petey was suddenly gone at 18.
At the time, I didn’t get a sense of what really happened, and my parents just lied and said another family had adopted Petey and was living happily.
I didn’t think much of it until last year, and I asked my parents what really happened and it turns out he passed away years ago.
I’m in my last year of middle school and still in shock. I’ve been lied to for years about the death of my best friend and the fact that I haven’t got to have a proper goodbye to him. Petey, if you’re out there, I miss you, man, I really do.
Guest82O1
37. Different Characteristic
It was the result of an affair she had with a Chinese man. I grew up thinking I was Mexican (my stepdad adopted me, and I never knew he wasn't my real dad).
I grew up thinking something was wrong with me because people kept asking me if I was Chinese, and I hated it. My mom is white btw, so I couldn't understand why people thought I was Asian.
I even refused to look at pictures of myself because I was upset at how Asian I looked. When I turned 15, my school counselor told my mom I needed to know who my real dad was.
I remember her telling me he was Chinese, and I know at that moment, I felt like my whole life had been a lie. And I just couldn't deal.
My biological father passed away when I was a toddler, and he never even knew I existed. My stepdad hugged me for a good twenty minutes that night, and I will always remember him as "Dad."
SummerEmCat
38. Lost Grandpa
This is not about me, but this is what my grandmother hid from her children. My mother and my uncle were always told their grandfather died of pneumonia in Australia, which is why their mother and grandmother had to move back to England and were very poor.
In reality, his official death is from a shark attack, which is most definitely false. Apart from the fact there was no evidence of a shark attack, no body, no blood, and no hole in the shark net in the bay where he supposedly died, he also emptied the family bank account the day before.
His life insurance was going to his friend, whereas before, it was supposed to be his wife (the same friend who had alerted the authorities that he had died in an apparent shark attack).
He left his family with no money during a very difficult financial period where they were living and likely left for a new life with the money he took.
My grandmother still maintains the fake story even though my uncle has done his own research to find the truth, mostly from talking to my great-aunt.
Unfortunately, as my great-aunt was only a teenager at the time, she didn't have many details. She only knows about the financial evidence because her mother fell apart and left all that kind of stuff to her and my grandmother to sort out.
My grandmother had a very difficult childhood and gave up a lot to look after her mother, who had a breakdown after returning to England and refused to do anything for herself.
It saddens me she still can't talk about it truthfully, but it is her business, and neither my mother nor my uncle has asked her about it in case it brings old grief back.
elannew
39. Hidden Witness
I’m the Child, so this is kinda reversed. My parents are divorced and have been since I was about 8-9, I’d say. I live with my mother.
My father calls me here and there (mostly when he needs something...) and lives in the same town where I work, so I stop by occasionally.
Anyway, I watched him berate my mother when I was very young, and I still have yet to hear him apologize to my mother.
He doesn’t take fault for anything he does. But little do my parents know that I’m going to change my last name to my mother’s maiden name.
I think it’ll be a big surprise for both of them! One good and one not so good. On a side note- I am not changing my name out of spite. I have many reasons why I’m changing it.
DJCW-
40. Sisterly Love
Not the parent, but it may as well be because I've raised my baby sister for long enough. Our mom tried to get rid of her because "she would just be another pain in the back."
I don't know what made her not go through with it, but she carried my sister to term. She never showed her any love or attempted to be a mother.
As her big sister, it caused me so much pain and anger to see how cold our mom was to her. She lives with me now, and I shower her with more love and affection than any one person could contain in a lifetime.
AnimeDreama
41. Wrong Path
My dad hid that I had an older adoptive brother for years. He was having surgery and was scared of complications, so he told us so he could be clear in his Will that my 'brother' had chosen a very bad path and had nothing to do with me or my other four siblings.
A couple of months later, at a search warrant (I'm a cop), this lady asked my last name. Then, I asked which one was my dad (my family has been in the area for decades, and my dad has seven brothers).
When I told her, she paused and said, "Well, I was married to your dad. This is your brother." And points to the main suspect. Ended up taking my brother to jail for numerous felonies.
SirWellsy
42. Joke Uncovered Truth
I’m not the parent, but about three years ago, I was working on a hard Yoda puzzle with my cousin and sister at Christmas. We were just talking about random things, and eventually, I made a joke that I was adopted.
They turned to me and told me I could have been adopted, and I thought they were joking. When I was born, my mom wanted to send me to the Philippines to grow up with my extended family.
It was because she thought I would be too expensive to take care of. The only reason why I’m still in the US is because my sister kept crying to let me stay, and Dad didn’t want to send me over.
plapaplatypus
43. To The Deathbed
My dad was the kid in the scenario. My father grew up, and just after hitting 45, his father passed away. At the funeral, it was revealed that his parents were actually his aunt and uncle.
His parents had to give him up to them because they weren't married. Having a child without marriage would get them excommunicated from the family, so his father's brother decided to take him in.
His biological parents were already both dead and left him and his brothers and sisters (biological cousins) a trust with a few million. My dad refuses to touch the money, so now it gathers yearly interest and is set to donate it to charity.
Diablo_Unmasked
44. Hamster Writer
When I moved my kids to a different city, I had to give their hamsters away. I promised them I would teach their hamster how to write.
I kept "sending" letters with little seeds in them and weirdly written notes. They finally got old enough to get annoyed and tell me to stop it.
But for a long time, I felt guilty because the lady who adopted the hamster said it died two days after she got it. So, faking a dead hamster's correspondence. I can never show my face again.
candacelarissa
45. Good Real Dad
Not the parents, but my sister and I have different dads, and she never knew her dad. She always knew that my dad wasn't her dad, but my parents told her that her biological dad left when mom got pregnant and moved to California because he wanted absolutely nothing to do with her.
It tore my sister up for her entire life because she never understood why he didn't want her. It made it worse that my dad, her adoptive father, was absolutely terrible to us, so she had two terrible fathers in her eyes.
When she turned 18, she found out from my aunt (mom's sister) that her biological father had loved her for her entire life and had made multiple desperate attempts to be in her life, but my parents refused for him to ever meet her.
He kept in touch with the rest of the family and got updates and pictures of her growing up her entire life. They connected when she was 18, and he was an absolutely amazing guy.
It's really sad to think that she grew up with a terrible father (my dad) when she actually could've had a wonderful father-daughter relationship with her real dad if my parents had just allowed him to meet her.
trashcat99