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40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
Relationships,FamilyJUN 23, 2025

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way

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“You can tell us anything, sweetie. We love you, and we just want what’s best for you.” Nice try, Mom. I’m not falling for that one!
No matter how close you are with your parents, you’ve probably concealed some information from them at one point or another. After all, do they really need to know about that tiny fender bender you got into or that you actually broke the vase that’s been mysteriously missing for years? Everyone keeps secrets, and sometimes, they hold onto them for a lifetime.
Redditors have been revealing information that they’ve sworn never to share with their parents, so we’ve gathered some of their juiciest replies below. From dark secrets that could destroy families to innocent little white lies, enjoy reading through these responses. And be sure to upvote the one that you’d keep from Mom and Dad too!

#1

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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!
57points

#2

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
I still have cancer — my mom thinks I’m “cured” (she has Alzheimer’s so we’re not correcting her).
50points

#3

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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.
50points

#4

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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.
39points

#5

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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
39points

#6

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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.
34points

#7

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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.".
33points

#8

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
I'm glad my grandfather is dead. He was a*****e, but I don't think my parents realized the extent of it.
33points

#9

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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.
32points

#10

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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.
30points

#11

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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.
30points

#12

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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.
26points

#13

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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.
25points

#14

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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.
25points

#15

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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.
24points

#16

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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
24points

#17

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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).
21points

#18

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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).
20points

#19

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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.
20points

#20

40 Things Kids Kept Secret From Their Parents And Intend To Keep It That Way
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.
20points
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