30 Confessions From People Who Did Things Behind Their Parents’ Backs

Let’s face it! No matter how close you are with your parents, there are probably a few things you’ve deliberately kept under wraps. Maybe it’s to protect them. Maybe it’s to protect yourself. Or maybe, it’s just because some things are easier left unsaid. Recently, someone on Reddit posed a bold question: “What is one secret you have never told your parents and still don’t plan on telling?” The responses ranged from hilarious to heartbreaking, and everything in between.

#1

Image source: vegancupcakes, Kateryna Hliznitsova / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

I still have cancer — my mom thinks I’m “cured” (she has Alzheimer’s so we’re not correcting her).

#2

Image source: IckNoTomatoes, Curated Lifestyle / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

That my sister got arrested in college for stealing hay (to spread around a friends yard as a hearty f**k you). Had to find an ‘adult’ who knew how to bail her out bc I was 17 … then wait for hours just to drive her drunk a*s back to he dorms.
Her punishment from the judge was to volunteer at a local barn shoveling hay and horse poops around.

#3

Image source: PMme10DollarPSNcode, Damir Samatkulov / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

That I was about to commit s*****e but didn’t simply because I was afraid it would fail and I would end up severely handicapped.

EDIT: Well this blew up a lot more than I expected, I’m not saying that I’m fine now but I’m definitely better. Thanks for all the supportive messages!

#4

Image source: MoodyBibarel, Macro.jr / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

That my brother’s truck wasn’t *technically* broken in to. He accidentally locked his keys in the truck while shopping at goodwill for a tie for his interview he was on his way to. So he immediately called the insurance company telling them his car was broken into and was asking if it was covered. They said yes, so he takes the tire iron out of the bed of his truck and smashed his own window in to get his keys. Insurance fixed the window AND he got the job.

#5

Image source: therightsolution, cottonbro studio / Pexels (not the actual photo)

When I was 7yo my mother broke a vase.

I pretended to be the guilty just because i knew my dad would be angry with my mom and do s**t.

#6

Image source: ihopeyoulikeapples, Roman Derrick Okello / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

My grandmother had a collection of fairly expensive rings and when she died she left one to every woman in the family. I was 13 and told not to wear mine out of the house because it was a bit loose on me. I did and lost it within a month of her death. Every now and then my mom asks about it and I’m just like “yeah it’s in a box in one of my drawers, I don’t wear it because I don’t want to lose it.”.

#7

Image source: robbothwell, Elisabeth Jurenka / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

That I got lost in the woods hiking. The police had to rescue me. It was a whole big scene. I texted them with the little battery life I had on my phone and told them I was staying at a friends, so that they wouldn’t worry. The police eventually found me, and I got home at 5AM. They thought I was at a friends, and I’ve never told them the story.

Edit: As soon as I realized I was lost, I immediately called the police. I lied to my parents because I didn’t want them to freak out, and I needed the phone battery to talk to the people trying to find me.

#8

Image source: BlackEbolaCat, Jaturawit Thumrongkitcharoenkul / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

My parents are divorced and my mum used to tell me to ask my dad for money, for my hobbies, activities, etc. I never told her I stopped doing that when I was 15 because I was told that I was the reason his wife couldn’t buy herself anything nice. It was/is all complete and utter b******t.

#9

Image source: anon, Rhodi Lopez / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

I’m glad my grandfather is dead. He was a*****e, but I don’t think my parents realized the extent of it.

#10

Image source: anon, Robin Edqvist / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

When I was like 10-12 I threw a soccer trophy at my door during a tantrum. It put a hole in my side, but not all the way through.

I stuck a bumper sticker for my favorite college team over it.

I’m 28 and it’s still there.

#11

Image source: GenitalFurbies, Min An / Pexels (not the actual photo)

Lately, everything I do. They have a nasty habit of giving unsolicited advice and judgment in everything I tell them, even after explicitly telling them how much it bothers me when they do. So they ask, and I don’t answer.

#12

Image source: ChillyChileChili, Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

When I was a junior in college, I lived off campus with five other guys in a shady neighborhood. One Tuesday night while a few of us were high and watching tv, a couple thugs busted our door, broke in, and robbed us at gunpoint. They were looking for a d**g dealer. It turns out they had the wrong house; the dude from whom everyone at school bought their weed, c**e, and pills lived one house over. (None of us ratted him out because that would’ve brought more trouble)

These guys tore our place apart looking for our nonexistent stash, and when they couldn’t find anything, they grabbed some random worthless decorations, getting antsy to bounce. One of my roommates- big, burly, but usually reserved- grabbed one of the guys as they were leaving. He must’ve snapped. The thug turns around and lets two shots fly that both hit my friend: one in the leg, the other in the gut.

He lived but was in the hospital recuperating for a month. None of us were able to recover from what happened, so after the short, fruitless investigation was over, we withdrew from school and went home.

I stayed until the end of the semester. When I went home, I just told my parents that I wanted to transfer to a school closer to home. I never told them why I made that decision. I have two younger brothers. I didn’t want my parents to be afraid to send them away to school; I didn’t want my brothers to be afraid to leave home and explore.

EDIT: Holy canoli, this kind of thing happens a lot more at college campuses than I realized. For those wondering how my parents haven’t found out, this was fifteen years ago. AIM was social media. I’ve told friends and cousins, but the story never made it back to my parents.

#13

Image source: WorldWideWeb03, Grant Durr / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

That the month i was “living a month in Spain” was actually spent in jail. I had friends to post fake Instagram pictures for me too

Edit: Wow, would never expect such a response! Since so many of you have been asking heres some more info:
I was sentenced to 1 month for DUI and the month I was supposed to do my sentence happened to be at the same time as I was actually going to Spain for a month. So instead of traveling to Spain, I went to jail. No questions ever asked from my family. Now, I knew my friends would notice, so I had to tell them and they were the best and helped me keeping this a secret. This was the first (and last) time I had ever been into any trouble.
Most awkward bit was to figure out excuses for not driving the following year.

Im from Norway btw, so sorry if I messed up prison/jail.

#14

Image source: anon, Enjon Chakraborty / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

My dad recently asked me how I paid for my college when he knows I don’t have a job. I’m never going to tell him that I became a local d**g lord for 24 months and moved hundreds of lb’s of pot through frat houses and cashed out when I was free of student loans.

#15

Image source: seabreezesqueeze, Ivonne Lecou / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

My mom doesn’t know that the mental/emotion a***e she inflicted on me as a child almost made me k**l myself at thirteen/fourteen. She is a very big denier of these actions and manipulations during my childhood but I’ve gone through therapy and have made my peace. We have a decent relationship now but it will never be what I have with my father. He’s the reason I stayed on this earth and even then I don’t even think he realizes that he literally saved my life when I asked him to fight for my custody at fifteen. I think he knows to some extent but I don’t want to ever ask if he knew bc I know how painful it is for him, he already struggles with the fact that he didn’t fight for me when they split (I was three). He chose to let me decide for myself and didn’t want me to resent him for taking me away from her without my own decision. I hit my breaking point and he jumped into action with a lawyer and saved my life. I try my hardest to reassure him that he was trying his best and regardless I still turned out okay but I know he still beats himself up over it.

#16

Image source: Throwitallthway101, Alexander Mils / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

That I am currently in a long-distance relationship with a woman twice my age who lives across the country. And that I’m flying out to go see her, not to go on a spontaneous vacation. (I’m in my 20’s).

#17

Image source: CrispyGingers

When I was about 8 my little sister and I broke a candy jar. We told our stepmom when she called and she said “it’s okay, throw away all the candy it’s old anyways.” Being the unsupervised children we were, we ate every last piece, probably about 300+ pieces of candy total. The next day we were throwing up all day and our parents assumed it was the flu. We didn’t touch another piece of candy for several months after that.

#18

Image source: designgoddess, Andre Tan / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

I’ve been married for 6 years. My husband and I have been together almost 40 years but we were crazy kids who didn’t need a piece of paper to prove our love. After a health scare my husband’s sister made a comment that implied she had a closer legal relationship than I did. It was offhanded but it made us think. We already had wills, medical power of attorney, etc., paperwork done but we decided to get married just to make it more cut and dry. Only a few people know we’re married. Our kids and a couple of close friends. And now some people on Reddit.

#19

Image source: anon, Mitchell Johnson / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

I skipped college for like 4 months
I was studying to become an english translator. The first month there was so f*****g bad, I couldnt stand the subjects, and as I hadnt finished high school yet(exams left), I could not keep going to college anyways.
So i spent the next months pretending I was going to class, while actually taking really long bus trips back and forth and reading books near the river.
Its the douchiest thing Ive done and I cant let my parents know.
EDIT for some context:
It was a public college anyways, but my parents wanted me to get a degree and a job as fast as possible. We’re pretty poor and have been without internet since my parents divorced(posting from my phone).

#20

Image source: IronTarkus91, Rene Alsleben / Pexels (not the actual photo)

I am from the UK, when I was 16 I was holidaying in Mexico and ended up banging this American girl. Flew home and obviously thought that’s that, we literally live thousands of miles away I’ll never hear from her again. I’m 25 now and two years ago I got a message on facebook from her saying that she got pregnant and had the baby and that I have a son, she sent me some pictures and he does actually look like me.

I wouldn’t even consider telling my parents about this until I have absolute proof that the kid is mine, but even then it would break their hearts to know they have a 9 year old grandson they never saw. At the minute I’m kind of just playing it by ear.

UPDATE: While I appreciate the sentiment of most of your comments please try and appreciate the difficulty of my situation. Being this far away really does cause a lot of problems and it’s just scary to be honest, however, the majority of you were right I did need to do something so I went and found an American company that will collect a DNA sample from me in London and then conduct the paternity test in the US and send the results individually to both me and her so I guess I really did just need to get off my a**e and do something. I suppose I’ll be finding out sooner rather than later.

#21

Image source: Knot_My_Name, Photographed by Robert Paprstein / Wikipedia (not the actual photo)

I broke my moms waterbed having s*x, the same night she came home really drunk and when she woke up in the morning she thought she did and didn’t remember.

#22

Image source: percocet_20, Edward Cisneros / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

When my dad and I lived with his then fiance years ago, her oldest daughter and I used to fool around.

#23

Image source: _ohhello, Murilo Simoes / Pexels (not the actual photo)

That I have a tattoo. It’s been 4.5 years and they have never seen it.

#24

Image source: Youngurb, Carolina / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

My dad always comments on how confident and chill I seem. I’m usually experiencing a lot of anxiety, mostly about money and my future. Hard to let those feelings show, though.

Edit: it’s great a feeling to see that there are so many other people out there who experience this same feeling.

#25

Image source: Macro_Knight

I watched all 8 seasons of GOT without my parents knowing. My mom would never let me watch it but I told my dad after I was done and we talk about it all the time when she’s not around.

#26

Image source: jsntco, Eyasu Etsub / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

I was only about 9-10. When my older brother would get home from high school he would constantly ring the door bell for me to open the door. He has his own keys but he just kept ringing. It annoyed me almost everyday.

One day I start yelling out to open it himself.

He kicks the window by the door, it shatters and a tiny shard cuts my foot. No big deal, just a band aid fix.

We call mum and dad saying someone threw a rock, and my brother even found a rock outside as evidence. Mum and dad call the police later when they get home, police arrive, there’s a full report done.

And my brother and I have never mentioned the story again.

I’m glad that it wasn’t some hard core detective s**t, where he asked how I injured my foot.

#27

Image source: h0lleyb, Sara Groblechner / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

My mom found some used cotton swabs in the shower covered in a brownish red substance, she thought it was battery acid. She wanted to know what it was. She asked everyone in the house, no one knew. For some reason, it really bothered her. She went ballistic over it. ‘Someone in this house knows what this is!!! They didn’t just appear out of thin air!!!!’ Nobody knew. Later that day, it dawned on my that they were probably the qtips I used to clean out my ear (had a pimple or something) and it was dried blood. She was so mad, I didn’t want to confess. So I never told her. I am now 45 and still haven’t told her. She has even brought it up a few times over the years. I’m taking this one to my grave.

#28

Image source: kallenl8, Akshar Dave🌻/ Unsplash (not the actual photo)

I’m a teen and they’re somewhat strict – they don’t let me have my phone after 10:00 at night. So I found my moms old phone, reset it, set it up with my ID so that it would forward text messages from my normal phone to it, and I keep it in my room.

Edit: back when I had the apple restrictions on my phone I also found a way to disable those.

#29

Image source: MySixInchTaint, iam_os / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

I had s*x with my cousin when we were in high school. Twice.

FAQ edit:

I actually went to high school four times: freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years.

It was very much consensual.

It occurred after no longer being able to ignore sexual tension while hanging out together (just the two of us; great friendship; eventually got aroused). We lived under the same roof for a couple of years.

#30

Image source: uwila, Curated Lifestyle / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

That my little sister didn’t break her arm by accidentally falling off the bunk bed, but rather that she broke her arm when we flung her off of it during a game of King of the Hill (bunkbed)

My parents were out at aerobics class, in a very pre-cell phone age. We just tried to keep her comfortable and waited patiently for them to get home.

We did finally tell them last year, and they thought it was hilarious. We kept that secret for close to 30 years.