" My married woman grew up in east Germany , and her pa left when she was 10 . He was never in contact with her until her thirtieth natal day . He email her and revealed he was a undercover agent for the KGB / Stasi , and that he may have had something to do with the death of her half - brother ’s pa ( her female parent ’s husband at the time ) . "
Reddit useru/skadarskiasked the Reddit community: “Did your parentsreveal a secretto you [once you were an adult]? If so, what was it?” Well, their responses were juicy and wild as HECK and totally blew my mind.
So, here are the most shocking secrets parents didn’t tell their kids until they were adults:
Warning : Some write up admit topic of verbal abuse , physical ill-usage , drug abuse , and alcoholism . Please continue with caution .
1.“When I turned 18, I got a letter from a distant aunt and uncle whom I hadn’t seen since I was a baby. There were hundreds of pictures of me and them together when I was a baby — they used to babysit me a lot and take me on vacations with them. Well, my mom revealed that they used me to smuggle things and that at one point, they literally smuggled cocaine in my diaper!”
— u / maid - for - hire
2.“I am 43 and recently found out that my grandfather (who 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 it as he was protecting his siblings. When he got out of prison he met my grandmother, and they had 11 children who were protected until his death.”
— u / Mimi_Jess
3.“When I was in my twenties, 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 mind-blowing revelation for me.”
— u / Prank_Owl
4.“My father told me that my mom (a teacher) used to steal the money for school trips where she worked at. For some twisted reason, she moved my sister and I to the same school. I never understood why the other teachers were so bitter towards us. Apparently there was a big scandal between the teachers, but we had no idea — the worst years of my life, finally explained.”
5.“When I was growing up, there was a story going around about how a local prince wanted to marry me and offered things like cows for my hand in marriage. Well, when my father passed away, I went back to my home country and discovered that the prince was the president’s son, and it wasn’t an offer, it was a demand. The company my dad worked for had to smuggle us out of the country because he was going to make me his wife! I was a toddler, and this was going to be an arranged marriage for when I came of age.”
— u / full - of - grace
6.“My mom attempted to miscarry me so she wouldn’t have to get an abortion. She is now very jealous that I am leading the life she always wanted (educated, childless, and climbing the corporate ladder), and frequently takes it out on me in passive-aggressive ways. I’m just glad the drinking and drugs she did while she was pregnant didn’t seem to have a lasting impact on me (other than maybe the fact that I black out quickly when drinking).”
— u / thraelen
7.“My grandma owned a bar when I was growing up, but I didn’t know until after she passed away that she also ran a huge bookie gambling service from that bar. Then it all made sense — the random police visits, the robberies…”
— uranium / moos3kc
8.“My parents invested $50,000 into an illegal weed plantation and were due to collect $200,000 on their investment (until the cops raided the place a week before it was ready to harvest). The guy who ran it had all of the paperwork and receipts in a rigged locker — so when he saw the cops coming, he burned it all. My parents were never arrested, or in any way linked to the incident.”
9.“My mom suffered from cancer and one night while she was on strong medication for pain, she grabbed my arm and told me: ‘I know the truth about your college letters. You didn’t get rejected — you got accepted, and that’s why you didn’t go.'”
— atomic number 92 / Captainbuttsreads
10.“My adopted brother was actually my cousin. We knew my aunt died in a car crash, but we didn’t know that my uncle had been shot and murdered with his son in the room. His son was three years old at the time and was found alone with the body the next morning. He was always pretty troubled, and after we found out what he had gone through, it made sense.”
— u / fourteenbananas
11.“My wife grew up in east Germany, and her dad had barely been in contact with her after he left when she was 10. I’ve never met him and I don’t know if he knows that I exist or if he knows he is a grandfather. In any case, when she turned 30, he randomly sent her an email on her birthday. He didn’t wish her a happy birthday, but rather, he told her he was a spy for the KGB/Stasi, and that he may or may not have had something to do with the death of her half-brother’s dad (her mother’s husband at the time).”
12.“I’m sure I’m not the only ’70s kid who found this out, but my mom revealed her and my dad had an ‘open marriage.’ The kind where he said: ‘I’m going to fuck other women, and you can fuck these friends of mine — let me have my fun, or I’m out of here.’ Apparently what followed was three bad years together, as my dad tried to convince my mom to participate in swinging, orgies, a poly relationship — the works. And my mom, who was barely 22 with two babies, went along with all of it to keep him happy and ‘save their marriage.'”
" It also explain why I was confused that my dada descend home with random char . I think they were my mom ’s friends , but they really , really were n’t . "
— u / brainisonfire
13.“When I was eight years old, I got a cat named Toes — he was a big, fluffy gray kitty with white feet. Well, I went to visit my grandparents one weekend, and when I came home, my mom broke the news to me that Toes had been hit by a car and killed. I was terribly upset, but my mom took me to a shelter to adopt a new kitty right away. Years later, my mom called me, upset, saying she had something to tell me. Turns out, Toes wasn’t hit by a car that weekend — he had climbed into the warm clothes dryer to sleep, and my mom didn’t see him and loaded the dryer with a blanket she had washed. She didn’t know he was in there until she opened the dryer an hour later.”
— uracil / bonitaapetitia
14.“My dad blew all of the money my family ever had. He stole my entire college fund left for me by my grandfather (in addition to the family savings), and took first and second mortgages on the house my grandfather had given him for free. He took out credit cards in my name and my mom’s name, and ran them up to the tune of hundreds and thousands of dollars (well over three million total gone).”
— u / MagogHaveMercy
15.And: “My sister took a DNA test to get some insight into her ancestry. When she got her results back, they said 0% Italian, even though our dad is 100% Italian. So she waited for me to take the test and get my results before confronting my parents. And four weeks later, I got them, and sure enough, I also had 0% Italian! The test identified that my dad isn’t my biological father, and when we asked my mom about it, she told us that she and my dad had fertility issues, so they went to a sperm bank.”
remark : Some stories have been edited for distance and/or clarity .
