" I just do n’t want to campaign with them about it . "
Weaskedmembers of theBuzzFeed Communityif anyone was willing to confess to us a secret they’re keeping from their parents. Here’s what people shared:
1.“I will never tell my parents that I had an affair during my first marriage. My current husband knows about that mistake, but my parents? Absolutely not.”
— Anonymous
2.“That the reason I have so many followers on Instagram is because of the adult content I post. I identify as a cisgender gay man, and I do porn/OnlyFanscontent creation. I have received free products from brands and recently flew toLas Vegas, but told my parents it was for ‘modeling.’ I am not ashamed of what I do and have a really great relationship with my parents, but they don’t need to know about my private activities.”
3.“That I know my dad is secretlybisexualand had a decades-long affair with his malebest frienduntil that guy died when I was 15.”
— altenbas
4.“I did ketamine therapy for my depression earlier this year. My mom knows I’ve been taking antidepressants since I was 17 and begrudgingly accepts it. I told my dad at some point, but I think he thinks I’ve stopped taking them. But both of my parents would FREAK if they found out I had IV injections of ketamine. The psychiatrist at the clinic has a son around my age (24), and when he asked if I’d told my parents, I said no, and he replied, ‘Well, you’re an adult. That’s your decision to make.’ One thing that worries me is that the insurance claim for my treatment is still being processed, and since I’m under 25, I’m still on my parents’ insurance (which is registered to their address). The copays are all charged to my card, but I’m terrified they’ll get some kind of insurance form in the mail from the clinic and find out about all of it.”
— lauren137
6.“I’ll never tell my parents that my actual first date with my now-husband was spending the night together at a hotel…and that we were supposed to just be hooking up. My parents are strongly Christian and very much opposed to premarital sex. My husband and I moved in before we were married, but only about a week or so before because we had to do a ton of renovations on the house before it was move-in ready, and we would’ve moved in sooner if it were ready. But I’m pretty sure my parents think that’s the first time we were ever intimate, and I’m like…lol, nope.”
— emmaleecrowww
7.“When my mother died, my father remarried within three months. He never spoke to my mom’s parents again, even though he and my mom had mooched off of them for 30 years. When my grandfather passed, he left my brother and me $900k each. Turns out, they changed their wills and had cut my father out entirely. I won’t tell my father how much we got because he thinks the amount is even MORE than it is. The part that bugs him the most is that neither my brother nor I need the money, while he could retire very comfortably on what he thinks his rightful share (1/3) would’ve been. Now, four years later, he’s still bitter they didn’t give him anything! We support a lot of charities with that money. Serves him right.”
— kestrelh
8.“I have twotattoos! Unless they find out because I accidentally reveal them (they are on places on my body that are hidden by clothing unless I’m wearing a bathing suit or something, and even then, I try to dress conservatively around them), I don’t plan on telling them. They are definitely against tattoos, but they never gave any clear reasons why, and I’m old enough to decide for myself what I want for my body. I just don’t want to fight with them about it.”
9.“I found out through DNA testing that my first cousin was actually my uncle. His kids were my first cousins. I couldn’t understand how that happened. Long story short: My ‘aunt H’ was my mom’s eldest sister. Aunt H had married ‘Joe Blo’ in the ’50s when my mom was a kid. It turned out aunt H had had an affair when she was 18 with Joe Blo while he was married to his first wife. Aunt H got pregnant with my mom. When aunt H had my mom, she gave her to her own mother, who I grew up calling grandma, to raise. Everybody involved, except for my mom, is dead. My mom is 72 and has COPD and heart failure, and while she’s doing better now, I am never telling her about this.”
" I ca n’t put on the line what the shock would do to her health . Side note : Joe Blo was an scurrilous alcoholic . Mom could not take see out that that abusive a - muddle was her actual Father-God . It ’s the hardest decision I ’ve ever had to make , but there ’s nothing good that could come from telling my mom who her material parents were and how she uprise up living such a Trygve Lie . "
— crystalballerina
10.“My bisexuality. While I’m recognized as a heterosexual male and few people would question otherwise, over the past 40+ years, I’ve engaged in sexual liaisons with, at last count, over 50 partners, pretty evenly divided between males and females. Sure, no big deal nowadays, but we’re talking about the mid-’70s as my springboard into sexual debauchery. I’ve always been hyper-sexual, fueled in no small part by my later-diagnosed bipolar disorder. Sex has always been my drug of choice. My octogenarian parents have no knowledge of my life’s secret. If my mom found out, she’d likely adjust. But, if my anti-LGBTQ dad learned of my less-than-hetero interests and experiences, he’d disown me in a heartbeat, if not outright kill me.”
11.“I confessed my romantic feelings over text to a teacher when I was 14.”
12.“My parents divorced later in life. When they explained their decision, they said it was due to ‘growing apart’ and ‘living too much like roommates for too long.’ Basically, they were giving anyone who asked all the usual vague ‘we’re getting a divorce’ stock phrases, as if they were some A-list celebrity couple trying to stave off the press. A few months after my parents dropped this bombshell (but before finalizing their divorce), I overheard my mother confide in a family friend about my father’s alcoholism and various affairs (and how she deliberately looked the other way for years). Despite my efforts, I found no evidence to back these claims, and all I really have is her word.”
" It ’s been almost eight years since they officially split up , and they have no idea that I know . I do n’t know if my siblings , extended family members , or my father ’s newfangled partner have any theme either . If the truth publicly gets out anyway , I do n’t want to be the one to tell it . "
13.“I will never tell my parents that, on a long weekend when they went on vacation to Las Vegas, I ended up taking Ecstasy and having sex in all positions throughout their bedroom with a guy I’d recently started dating. Hey, what can I say? They had the biggest bed in the house.”
14.“My mom doesn’t know I’m polyamorous, and I’m scared to tell her! Probably won’t ever tell her!”
— 99mayyah
15.“My mom has wanted grandkids, so I will never, ever tell her that I had an abortion at 19. Now, I’m pregnant again in my 30s, and I hopefully don’t have to tell her that I don’t know who the father of my baby is.”
16.“When I was 16 I was texting and driving like a dumbass and swerved into a guardrail and dented the side of my bumper pretty badly. I lied and told my parents that it wasn’t my fault that some wild driver was driving towards me and swerved towards me, and I had to swerve to avoid hitting them. I didn’t text and drive after that.”
— mimi777
17.“I was sexually harassed at a job and fired for it. They’ve never asked why I stopped working there, and I won’t tell.”
— novemberreign41
18.“My mother can never know she’s my biggest trigger.”
— saraa4a00f7b8f
19.“I’m 27 and I’m sleeping with a man who is 20 years older than me and only six years younger than my parents. I could NEVER tell them that.”
— msa1995
20.“I lost my virginity on their couch.”
— caity27274
21.“That I’m nonbinary. I tried to introduce my new name to them as a nickname (it’s not too far off my deadname), and they lost it at the thought of me changing my gender. Yeah, back into the closet with that one around them.”
— canunotmywaywardson
22.“Unless I (31f) bring a woman home to meet them, I’ll never tell my parents I’m bisexual. I think they would eventually come around if I had an actual girlfriend, but I don’t want to deal with the inevitable ‘but how do you KNOW you like women too???’ interrogation.”
— captainkappa173
23.“I’ve never told my parents that I’ve had a miscarriage. 1. I don’t want the pity. 2. I don’t want to hear my mother say ‘I told you so.’ I know it sounds cruel, but being a heavy drug user and smoker has taken its toll, and with our family’s history against me, I was never going to have a kid, EVER. But I’m OK. Turns out I don’t want kids.”
— morgan_le_slay
24.“The first time I went out with my now-husband, I was still living with my parents. My husband and I decided we didn’t want to say goodbye after the first date, so I brought him home…for the whole weekend. My parents were out of town and are very anti-premarital sex. It’s 14 years later, and they still don’t know he was there for a wild weekend.”
— saraho4a20298d2
25.“That I got sacked from a barmaid job when I was 18 because I was drunk on the job. We received ‘tips’ in the form of half-pints. That night, I received eight pints worth of tips that I foolishly drank in front of the customers to make them happy. I didn’t do anything weird; I was just visibly buzzed. The other reason was that they hadn’t declared me officially as an employee, and a work inspector was planning a visit soon, but I guess the drunk part was a good excuse.”
— rohonhonhon
26.“They don’t know just how bad my college grades were before I dropped out. At the time, I was dealing with some serious issues that were related to my undiagnosed anxiety and depression, which made it difficult for me to keep up in class. They keep trying to push me back into classes to finish my degree, and I’m afraid that the grades I have are so poor that I won’t be able to get back where I was.”
27.“I can never tell them I had an abortion when I was 31. And, I can never tell them that I dated women behind their backs. They wouldn’t disown me, but my mom would likely have some degree of a meltdown over the abortion in particular, and they’d hold it against me until I die. I don’t feel some great need to let them know, but sometimes, I feel salty that I never could and never will be open and honest with them about some things.”
— s45b9ebeb9
28.“I’d never tell them about the casual hookups and the friend-with-benefits situations I had in my mid-to-late 20s. I lived with them into my early 20s, and they’d get excited and want to meet every guy I was only mildly interested in or had just met, then they’d want to give their opinions. So, once I moved out, I stopped telling them if I was seeing anyone. It’s better for them to think I’m just perpetually single. I kind of am now, anyway.”
— panda_13
29.And: “I will never tell my mother that I cannot stand her. She has narcissistic personality disorder and is the most hateful person I’ve ever met. She’s negative, mean, thinks she’s the only person alive, and has no empathy or compassion (for me, a disabled person, or anyone else). But the reason I won’t tell her is not to spare her feelings; she has none, and this would not hurt her. I won’t tell her because she can use ‘my daughter hates me’ to gain sympathy from other people.”
take note : submission have been edited for duration and/or lucidity .
