20 Stories From People Of The Worst Lie They Heard From Their Parents
When you've been lied to by a parent, how can you trust anyone else ever again?
Lots of parents tell their kids harmless little white lies all the time. It usually starts with a good-intentioned lie. Like trying to keep up with the tradition of Christmas and stories of Santa come up. Or eventually when a baby tooth falls out, voila, the tooth fairy steps in to make it a magical experience.
But while some lies are innocently well-meaning, others can be hiding something more sinister. One subreddit got into this subject pretty heavily online recently. Folks started recalling their own personal circumstances when dealing with such damaging lies that ultimately led to lasting consequences. Scroll to read their stories below of some of the most shocking ways in which some parents have lied to their own unsuspecting kids, only to be revealed much later, according to these netizens’ real-life experiences.
More info: Reddit
One night I went downstairs to ask my mother something. My dad was a light sleeper and would get really pissed if anyone woke him up, so I whispered, "Mom! Mom!"
All of a sudden my dad sat up and yelled at me to get lost. They told me I should never sneak up on them because they had a gun and my dad thought I was an intruder and almost shot me.
They scared the beejeezus out of me. Sometimes when I tried to get to sleep I'd remember how my dad almost shot me. For years. Even after I moved out.
Decades later, I mentioned it to my mom. She started laughing and told me they were having sex. There was no gun.
Image source: Sapphyrre, Ron Lach
That my parents split up cos they was young. At 13 I found out that my dad had "cheated" on my mum and she couldn't forgive him. I then found out that this "cheating" had resulted in a 12 year old boy (yes they split when I was 5 weeks old) who both my parents knew about but I didn't.
At 21 I found out my father was r***d. Men being raped by women, especially in the military, didn't really happen 30 years ago. No one thought anything of the barmaid serving my dad free drinks all night and insisting on taking him to his room.
My dad woke up the next morning to 4 things
A note from the woman telling him she had a good time
My mums engagement ring from when she'd caught him
A hell of a custody battle on his hands which he lost
A lifelong alcohol addiction.
Just a side note - when my dad eventually told my mum as adults that he didn't consent to the "cheating" and he sought help she was really understanding and they are now good friends and coparents
Image source: DragonmamaGlasgow, RDNE Stock project
Image source: Depressingly_Excited, August de Richelieu
Oh man. That's a hard one to thin down to just one answer.
I'd have to say mine is this: my mom says I "started a fight" so that I could move out of her house. In reality, she tried to tell me that I couldn't go camping with my then 3 year old child (I was 18-19) and that she would call child protective services on me if I did. We got into a big fight, she told me to get the f- out of her house, so I grabbed my kid, some toys for her, some of her clothes, and my laptop -- and I left. If you ask my kid, who is now 14, what her earliest memory is, she will respond by telling you something along the lines of "my grandma holding my mom against the door by her throat".
It was great ?
Image source: ApprehensiveHousecat, Josh Willink
That my mother was schizophrenic. I was 15 and knew she had been battling depression for years. Schizophrenia runs in our family and as an angsty teenager it was very easy for me to believe that she was crazy. She was completely convinced that my father had a secret second family. She was diagnosed and medicated for years. He did have a second family.
Image source: Thationdeas76, Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona
Image source: JxAlfredxPrufrock, MART PRODUCTION
That they couldn’t afford to pay for college. So I took a job during the day and paid my way through night and weekend school.
Turns out I had a decent trust fund from my grandfather. I could have graduated and started working for a higher wage 4 years earlier. I tell myself that graduating in 2008 wouldn’t have been a good idea anyway.
Image source: RandomRavenclaw87, Charles DeLoye
My mother inadvertently confessed to me that she read my sister’s diaries to catch her in a lie, but that she could never let my sister know she did it because it would destroy their trust.
Years later I asked her if she’d ever read any of her kids diaries, after I realized she knew something about me she couldn’t have known otherwise. She gave me a puzzled look and said she’d never snoop through her kid’s stuff because it would break their relationship if she got caught. I reminded her of how she did it to my sister. She looked very nervous and said “I didn’t think you’d remember that..” and quickly changed the subject.
So, not confirmed but I’m mostly certain my mom has read through my journals as a kid and went through my room when I wasn’t home .
Not the worst lie, but yeah.
Image source: josiahpapaya, Pixabay
Image source: drillgorg, Jp Valery
Image source: luxi_yes, Nick Karvounis
After my mom died, my dad fell into [illegal substances] hard. My brother is autistic and he would get both Disability and SSA by check (this was before the Direct Express cards). Several times a year he would go to cash the checks, stay gone all day and then come home and claim his wallet was "stolen". Then the next day his wallet would *miraculously" reappear with everything in it except the money. I'm not even sure how in the world he managed to pay our rent or if he wasn't, why our landlord never kicked us out. We certainly didn't have electricity on (legally) most of the time, nor a phone or internet and what little food we had was through food stamps and me babysitting for my neighbor. I suppose you could claim he was using the money to pay the rent but the rent was only $350 (our landlord was a slumlord) and my brother got about $900 each month. I eventually got to the point where I didn't believe the "stolen wallet" story.
Image source: kanna172014, Nicola Barts
*"if you go to a private college, we'll pay all your tuition."*
got accepted to an amazing private college, handed them the bill and...
*"no, not like that!"*
needless to say, I did NOT go to that amazing private school. 23 years later and I'm still bitter about it.
Image source: MaddyMadds01, Tim Gouw
Image source: DonaCheli, Sebastian Voortman
Image source: Even_Future2580, Daiga Ellaby
We moved when I was 4, and we didn’t bring my parent’s 5-year-old cat with us. When I asked, they said they put her in a shelter and she’d be fine, some little old lady would probably adopt and coddle her.
They euthanized her. She was perfectly healthy, and they didn’t even give her up to the shelter. They just straight-up had her killed because she sometimes had hairballs.
Image source: kyreannightblood, Tranmautritam
Image source: AdLive7065, Kelly Sikkema
one year I made an agreement with my mom for my holiday present. I would pitch in $100 and she'd pitch in $100 and she'd get me a nice $200 laptop. Which was decent enough for a teen at the time.
Instead, she took my $100, and bought my brother and I each a s****y $50 notebook style laptop with no battery, no wifi, and a barely functional mouse ball. I was disappointed when I saw what she got and immediately suspicious. This was NOT a $200 piece of tech. I found the receipt from her order and had the receipt from the withdrawal and demanded to at least get my money back if she was going to reneg on our deal. She denied ever making such a deal, ever taking money from my account, and said I should be thankful I got anything at all.
For reference my family was by no means poor. My mom had a second antique car she drove in the summer. Dad had a boat, motorcycle, and ATV all high end bought new. And they took 2 vacations a year without us kids minimum. While I struggled to have lunch money on a consistent basis. This was the moment that solidified my belief that my parents didn't give a single f**k and I needed to *never* rely on them again.
Image source: chiksahlube, Yutaka Tsutano
The worst lie? I was diagnosed with a chronic cancer at 16, and my mum got drunk and told all of my friends that my doctor had told her that I only had a year to live.
Found out through my friends when they started giving me excessive condolences.
Emailed my doctor, he never said that. Still don’t know why mum did that, my main theory was that she was scared.
Image source: Rainbowwonder23, Max Fischer
They had no idea what that weird smell was in the basement when I was a kid. From around 8 years old to about 16, my mom would go down to do laundry and my Stepdad would go down to talk to her. I thought for the longest time it was just their little adult gathering place. They would even had their friends go down there as well. When they went down, a few minutes later, I would smell this odd smell.
As I got older, and got in high school, I had a more "rebel" sister. I finally found out what the smell was through her.
It was marijuana...lol. Oddly enough, going through D.A.R.E and all that, I always thought it would basically rot your brain and turn you into some type of zombie. That was a lie.
Image source: ZekeMoss18, Shorya Sharma
That because of my 3.2 high school GPA I may have to "go back" to the German equivalent of high school — even though I had graduated and was in my first semester of college — if I moved there when my family did.
My Dad's company was transferring him to Germany in 1990. I had graduated high school in 1989 and was in my first year of community college (at the time).
Truth is they just didn't want me to come along because I was 19 and to them I should be on my own already. So they made it sound like I would have a very hard time getting into college in Germany because of their very high educational standards.
I knew my situation was weird because I was an adult and Germany's education (especially higher) system works differently, but I know plenty of young adult peers who followed their parents over when they got transferred (I came from a town where the company employed just about everybody, so a lot of families continued to be friends overseas). I bumped into two people I went to school with when I would visit them, and their GPAs in high school had been lower than mine.
The result is that my kid brother got the best education someone might get, while I ended up trying to make ends meet after my attempt at the military failed. That's not jealousy or envy, I say these things to show what the results of believing or making up BS stories instead of just being honest can do. I actually don't regret the path I've taken, but I do wonder how my life would be different if I had been able to live over there with them for a while, and it does make me angry to think my parents would make up something like that just out of some notion that a 19 year old adult son barely out of high school would be "dead weight" for them.
Image source: Engelgrafik, cottonbro studio
#1
One night I went downstairs to ask my mother something. My dad was a light sleeper and would get really pissed if anyone woke him up, so I whispered, "Mom! Mom!"
All of a sudden my dad sat up and yelled at me to get lost. They told me I should never sneak up on them because they had a gun and my dad thought I was an intruder and almost shot me.
They scared the beejeezus out of me. Sometimes when I tried to get to sleep I'd remember how my dad almost shot me. For years. Even after I moved out.
Decades later, I mentioned it to my mom. She started laughing and told me they were having sex. There was no gun.
Image source: Sapphyrre, Ron Lach
#2
That my parents split up cos they was young. At 13 I found out that my dad had "cheated" on my mum and she couldn't forgive him. I then found out that this "cheating" had resulted in a 12 year old boy (yes they split when I was 5 weeks old) who both my parents knew about but I didn't.
At 21 I found out my father was r***d. Men being raped by women, especially in the military, didn't really happen 30 years ago. No one thought anything of the barmaid serving my dad free drinks all night and insisting on taking him to his room.
My dad woke up the next morning to 4 things
A note from the woman telling him she had a good time
My mums engagement ring from when she'd caught him
A hell of a custody battle on his hands which he lost
A lifelong alcohol addiction.
Just a side note - when my dad eventually told my mum as adults that he didn't consent to the "cheating" and he sought help she was really understanding and they are now good friends and coparents
Image source: DragonmamaGlasgow, RDNE Stock project
#3 "I won't get mad at you."
Image source: Depressingly_Excited, August de Richelieu
#4
Oh man. That's a hard one to thin down to just one answer.
I'd have to say mine is this: my mom says I "started a fight" so that I could move out of her house. In reality, she tried to tell me that I couldn't go camping with my then 3 year old child (I was 18-19) and that she would call child protective services on me if I did. We got into a big fight, she told me to get the f- out of her house, so I grabbed my kid, some toys for her, some of her clothes, and my laptop -- and I left. If you ask my kid, who is now 14, what her earliest memory is, she will respond by telling you something along the lines of "my grandma holding my mom against the door by her throat".
It was great ?
Image source: ApprehensiveHousecat, Josh Willink
#5
That my mother was schizophrenic. I was 15 and knew she had been battling depression for years. Schizophrenia runs in our family and as an angsty teenager it was very easy for me to believe that she was crazy. She was completely convinced that my father had a secret second family. She was diagnosed and medicated for years. He did have a second family.
Image source: Thationdeas76, Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona
#6 I would hide in the pants ? displays at Walmart as a child. My mom told me “you know how they make shorts ? don’t you? A man comes by with a chainsaw and cuts the pants into shorts. & if you're inside the rack. He will cut you in half.
Image source: JxAlfredxPrufrock, MART PRODUCTION
#7
That they couldn’t afford to pay for college. So I took a job during the day and paid my way through night and weekend school.
Turns out I had a decent trust fund from my grandfather. I could have graduated and started working for a higher wage 4 years earlier. I tell myself that graduating in 2008 wouldn’t have been a good idea anyway.
Image source: RandomRavenclaw87, Charles DeLoye
#8
My mother inadvertently confessed to me that she read my sister’s diaries to catch her in a lie, but that she could never let my sister know she did it because it would destroy their trust.
Years later I asked her if she’d ever read any of her kids diaries, after I realized she knew something about me she couldn’t have known otherwise. She gave me a puzzled look and said she’d never snoop through her kid’s stuff because it would break their relationship if she got caught. I reminded her of how she did it to my sister. She looked very nervous and said “I didn’t think you’d remember that..” and quickly changed the subject.
So, not confirmed but I’m mostly certain my mom has read through my journals as a kid and went through my room when I wasn’t home .
Not the worst lie, but yeah.
Image source: josiahpapaya, Pixabay
#9 That the 2K I earned at my summer job would be safe in my mom's savings account until I wanted to withdraw it later. Never saw that money again.
Image source: drillgorg, Jp Valery
#10 "We are going to denmark for only a month" we are still here after 4 years
Image source: luxi_yes, Nick Karvounis
#11
After my mom died, my dad fell into [illegal substances] hard. My brother is autistic and he would get both Disability and SSA by check (this was before the Direct Express cards). Several times a year he would go to cash the checks, stay gone all day and then come home and claim his wallet was "stolen". Then the next day his wallet would *miraculously" reappear with everything in it except the money. I'm not even sure how in the world he managed to pay our rent or if he wasn't, why our landlord never kicked us out. We certainly didn't have electricity on (legally) most of the time, nor a phone or internet and what little food we had was through food stamps and me babysitting for my neighbor. I suppose you could claim he was using the money to pay the rent but the rent was only $350 (our landlord was a slumlord) and my brother got about $900 each month. I eventually got to the point where I didn't believe the "stolen wallet" story.
Image source: kanna172014, Nicola Barts
#12
*"if you go to a private college, we'll pay all your tuition."*
got accepted to an amazing private college, handed them the bill and...
*"no, not like that!"*
needless to say, I did NOT go to that amazing private school. 23 years later and I'm still bitter about it.
Image source: MaddyMadds01, Tim Gouw
#13 When I turned 5 my mom told me that my dad sent me money to buy a bike from prison for my bday present. He didn't, she just didn't want me to forget him so she gave him credit for it.
Image source: DonaCheli, Sebastian Voortman
#14 Found out when I was 25 I have a sister one yr older than me that they gave up for adoption, I'm 37 and been searching for her for the past 10 yrs.
Image source: Even_Future2580, Daiga Ellaby
#15
We moved when I was 4, and we didn’t bring my parent’s 5-year-old cat with us. When I asked, they said they put her in a shelter and she’d be fine, some little old lady would probably adopt and coddle her.
They euthanized her. She was perfectly healthy, and they didn’t even give her up to the shelter. They just straight-up had her killed because she sometimes had hairballs.
Image source: kyreannightblood, Tranmautritam
#16 My Dad used to tell me that he learned all of his cool tricks and skills in "Daddy School." I'm now 28, married and still have not been enrolled.
Image source: AdLive7065, Kelly Sikkema
#17
one year I made an agreement with my mom for my holiday present. I would pitch in $100 and she'd pitch in $100 and she'd get me a nice $200 laptop. Which was decent enough for a teen at the time.
Instead, she took my $100, and bought my brother and I each a s****y $50 notebook style laptop with no battery, no wifi, and a barely functional mouse ball. I was disappointed when I saw what she got and immediately suspicious. This was NOT a $200 piece of tech. I found the receipt from her order and had the receipt from the withdrawal and demanded to at least get my money back if she was going to reneg on our deal. She denied ever making such a deal, ever taking money from my account, and said I should be thankful I got anything at all.
For reference my family was by no means poor. My mom had a second antique car she drove in the summer. Dad had a boat, motorcycle, and ATV all high end bought new. And they took 2 vacations a year without us kids minimum. While I struggled to have lunch money on a consistent basis. This was the moment that solidified my belief that my parents didn't give a single f**k and I needed to *never* rely on them again.
Image source: chiksahlube, Yutaka Tsutano
#18
The worst lie? I was diagnosed with a chronic cancer at 16, and my mum got drunk and told all of my friends that my doctor had told her that I only had a year to live.
Found out through my friends when they started giving me excessive condolences.
Emailed my doctor, he never said that. Still don’t know why mum did that, my main theory was that she was scared.
Image source: Rainbowwonder23, Max Fischer
#19
They had no idea what that weird smell was in the basement when I was a kid. From around 8 years old to about 16, my mom would go down to do laundry and my Stepdad would go down to talk to her. I thought for the longest time it was just their little adult gathering place. They would even had their friends go down there as well. When they went down, a few minutes later, I would smell this odd smell.
As I got older, and got in high school, I had a more "rebel" sister. I finally found out what the smell was through her.
It was marijuana...lol. Oddly enough, going through D.A.R.E and all that, I always thought it would basically rot your brain and turn you into some type of zombie. That was a lie.
Image source: ZekeMoss18, Shorya Sharma
#20
That because of my 3.2 high school GPA I may have to "go back" to the German equivalent of high school — even though I had graduated and was in my first semester of college — if I moved there when my family did.
My Dad's company was transferring him to Germany in 1990. I had graduated high school in 1989 and was in my first year of community college (at the time).
Truth is they just didn't want me to come along because I was 19 and to them I should be on my own already. So they made it sound like I would have a very hard time getting into college in Germany because of their very high educational standards.
I knew my situation was weird because I was an adult and Germany's education (especially higher) system works differently, but I know plenty of young adult peers who followed their parents over when they got transferred (I came from a town where the company employed just about everybody, so a lot of families continued to be friends overseas). I bumped into two people I went to school with when I would visit them, and their GPAs in high school had been lower than mine.
The result is that my kid brother got the best education someone might get, while I ended up trying to make ends meet after my attempt at the military failed. That's not jealousy or envy, I say these things to show what the results of believing or making up BS stories instead of just being honest can do. I actually don't regret the path I've taken, but I do wonder how my life would be different if I had been able to live over there with them for a while, and it does make me angry to think my parents would make up something like that just out of some notion that a 19 year old adult son barely out of high school would be "dead weight" for them.
Image source: Engelgrafik, cottonbro studioDE
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