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“My Dad Forgot I Was With Him”: 30 Stories Families Would Rather Pretend Never Happened
Family gatherings can be great opportunities to share heartwarming stories and reminisce about what it was like when your youngest family members were still in diapers. Keeping these tales alive is a wonderful way to bond with relatives and maintain a strong connection, even if you live thousands of miles apart.
But it seems like every family has a few stories that they never want to hear repeated and have decided to sweep under the rug. Reddit users have recently been bringing family secrets that never get discussed into the light, so we’ve gathered the juiciest ones below. Grab some popcorn, pandas, and enjoy reading through this list. And be sure to upvote the stories that you can’t believe have been buried!
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#1
When I was a teen in the ‘60s no one in my family was allowed to talk about Aunt Rita because she preferred the company of other women. I thought that she was a strong vibrant happy woman who never had a bad thing to say about anyone and didn’t care what anyone had to say about her. She was friggin awesome.
Glen Ellyn 2 days ago
This is so sad, but in some way, it may have been good nobody talked about her. I'm afraid whatever they said would not have been kind.
RELATED:
#2
When I was 5 my dad one day took me with him to visit a guy about buying a wagon. While they were talking I went into the backyard to play with the guys grandson. My Dad forgot I was with him and just left. He came back 25 minutes later and that was the very last time my Mom let my Dad take me anywhere until I was old enough to call home. The biggest plot twist is I'm now married to the grandson. But yeah my Dad hates if anyone brings up I got left so we don't.
#3
My uncle committed s***ide to escape the hatred of the family. He was gay and their "Christian" values said to treat him like absolute garbage because of it. After he passed my grandmother tried to destroy all of his things; they were/are apparently possessed by demons.
I was allowed to know him, though. He was still blood, after all. I loved him so much. Now the only memories of him that I have are playing Legos and solitaire in the computer room. I have a few of his things that no one will *ever* get their hands on. I'll just be over here, hanging with my demonic spoon rest.
#4
When I was 12 (in 1999) my parents told me they were taking me to Disneyland, and dropped me off at a boarding school and just left me there for 2 years. I had no warning and no idea what was happening or why, and no idea when I would see them again. All these years later and I still cry when I think about it.
#5
We all pretend we don't know my uncle is gay. No one has a problem with it at all aside from my uncle himself, who has a lot of shame about his sexuality due to some childhood trauma. So we all pretend we think he's just such a hermit that love isn't for him and all he needs is his cabin and his fishing pole.
He knows we know, we know he knows we know - but for now this is how he feels most comfortable.
#6
My aunt talked my cousin out of an abortion (not her kid, just her niece) and it *f****d* my cousin's life up. She lost the kid, ended up on all the d***s and spent a while in jail. She's got her s**t back on track at this point but she was headed somewhere until that f*****g meddling holy roller got involved.
My family doesn't talk about it, but I sure do. Every time I see that Aunt. She can f*****g rot in hell and I will never let her forget what she did to my cousin- we were thick as thieves. It's been thirty years and my rage still burns white hot.
#7
How I was forced to marry my second cousin at 16, and when I finally couldn’t take it anymore when I was 23. I called my Mother begging her please let me come home he is gonna k*ll me, actively beating me as we are on the phone, all she could say was “Baby I can’t help you.” Then she hung up on me. Thankfully I made it out alive, nearly a decade later living a completely different life as a new wife and Mother.
#8
That today is the day my mom died. No one has mentioned it. Rip Bobbi Jo Caraway. I'll always remember, even if they don't.
#9
My family didn’t talk about anything beyond the weather, prices at the grocery store, and light gossiping about other family members. I was 12 when my dad died. No one said his name again, and there were no stories about him. As an adult, I reflect on how pathological the avoidance was.
#10
My biological maternal grandfather smothered my newborn uncle in retaliation for my grandmother sticking up for herself during his abusive tirades. He’d been abusive in every sense of the word towards my grandmother and their children, and for the most part my grandmother just took it out of fear. One day she got a bold streak and argued back at him. He stopped arguing and my grandmother thought maybe he just decided to leave it alone. Later that day he smothered their newborn son in his cradle, and told her if she ever talked back to him again, she’d be next. He lead the authorities to believe it was crib death, and so it was ruled to be such.
Thankfully my grandmother escaped him some time later. I didn’t hear this story until I was an adult. I never met my maternal grandfather and I’m quite content with that. If I cared enough to know where he was buried, I’d go p**s on it.
#11
My dad's old hairstyle in the 80s. We have an agreement to never bring up the perm again.
#12
My wife once made some kind of chicken with a chocolate glaze.... we don't ever speak of that evil lest it rise again!
#13
My grandmother sadly had to enter a TB sanitarium when she still had a handful of children at home. A couple of older sibs moved back home to help raise them. Eventually my grandfather started seeing another (married) woman in their small rural community. (My mother always said that once her mom learned of the affair, "she just gave up" and died at the sanitarium. This was about 3 years before the advent of antibiotics that might have cured her.)
So now grandfather was widowed, his youngest two kids moved to town to finish out high school by themselves, and the Other Woman had a baby that was putatively her (still) husband's child. I don't remember if her husband died or they divorced, but by the time I came along, my grandfather was married to the Other Woman, and had been for decades.
He was the patriarch of our very large family, the only grandparent I ever knew, though surely he couldn't have picked me out of a lineup, along with his dozens of other grandchildren. Anyway, this side of the family was fun, gregarious, beer drinking, Catholic church attending, poker players. Once during a pretty lubricated family get-together, the Affair Baby, now a grown woman, said something like: "I just don't know where I belong in this family" (because supposedly she was no blood kin to any of us). My lovely Drunk Uncle Nick said: "Well hell, you're our SISTER!" I was about 12. I swear the windows rattled from the seismic release of emotions over what was finally acknowledged.
#14
My brother SAing me from age 6-12.
Finding videos of him recording girls at school....like under their skirts and stuff like that without them knowing.
Me trying to reason with my mom that he needed help after a s***ide attempt....but she didn't listen.
He...left a s***ide note saying cremate me and sped and crashed his truck.
After he died went through his computer and it was filled with even more videos he took of girls at school.
But my mom REFUSES to the core to say it was a s***ide. Talk about the note, talk about the behavior that led up to it. Refuses to discuss or bring up any of the findings.....refuses to acknowledge my sexual trauma in any capacity....the family doesn't talk about any of it. Thats a big fat sack of nope.
#15
Oh, in my family, it’s definitely the mysterious ‘potluck fight of 2016.’ Like, no one will tell me exactly what happened, but apparently, it involved my aunt’s potato salad, my grandma’s deviled eggs, and my uncle making a ‘harmless joke’ that escalated into full-on chaos. 😬
All I know is that someone stormed out, my mom ended up crying, and to this day, the phrase ‘potato salad’ is basically a trigger word at family gatherings. We’ve all collectively agreed to just pretend it didn’t happen, but the tension every time someone brings a dish to share? Palpable. 🥴
Family secrets are so weird, right?
#16
My aunt. She abandoned my grandmother on her death bed leaving my dad to sort out everything. After he did the only thing she cared about was the money, didn’t even try to show up for the funeral. F**k you Kelly, you hateful, conniving, racist c**t. She won’t even talk to her own daughter (my cousin), because she had kids with and married a black man. They’re happily married BTW.
Bill Walker 2 days ago
I've never understood racism. It just isn't a logical conclusion to ever come to. As a fellow human spinning relentlessly on this rock I can only attribute it to a lack of belonging, attachment issues, and perpetuated hatred. We are not born to hate!
#17
The fact that my father is likely responsible for the disappearance of his 1st wife.
Pandemonium 2 days ago
I hope dad was a magician and his first wife was his on-stage assistant
KazzaHazza 2 days ago
Two ways you could read this, either she disappeared because she’d had enough of him and wanted to do a runner, or… 😵
Ace 2 days ago
Yeah, I think, sadly, it's the latter that is implied here.
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Michael Largey 2 days ago
"I always refer to my wife as the Dear Departed." "Oh, she died?" "No, she just departed."
#18
On my dad's side: my parental grandmother died from "complications from diabetes" when my dad was in his 20s. My grandfather was dating a woman he knew less than three months later.
The elephant in the room is that my grandmother, who to be fair had mental illness issues, k*lled herself by putting herself into a diabetic coma after finding out my grandfather was cheating.
#19
Autism. We're all autistic. I'm just the one who got my kids diagnosed.
I absolutely cannot have that conversation with my mother. She used to have meltdowns over how I wasn't masking very well. Not the words she'd use, of course.
Tropical Tarot 2 days ago (edited)
You're weird, you're strange,you're too sensitive. Just ignore him. That's what you grow up hearing when a neurodivergent. I didn't learn till I was 55.
#20
My Mother sleeping with my BIL while he was still married to my sister. Big time family drama.
Pandemonium 2 days ago
Considering the damage that must've caused it would have had to have been the best sex in the history of humanity to have been worth it.
#21
One Christmas, we had to pretend my cousin wasn’t 7 months pregnant because her dad “didn’t know.” She was thin as a rail with a big beach ball belly. Denial was strong in that part of the family.
#22
My mom had a brother who was a couple of years older than her. From what I’ve put together, he was autistic and was sent away for electric shock therapy some time in the 50s/60s, which eventually k*lled him.
We have no idea when he died, or where he is buried. My mother apparently found out when her parents casually mentioned it over dinner when she asked how he was doing. My grandfather (with whom I grew up with) refused to speak about him. Would change the subject or leave the room if he was asked anything about him.
The only evidence we have of his existence is a picture of him and my mother when they were children, and some forms from the hospital he was in describing an episode where he was hitting and scratching the nurses. Just really sad all around.
Panda Kicki 2 days ago
I knew a similar case where I met an old lady whose brother had been put in a institution and never being mentioned again. I was 40 years ago but I managed to track him and arrange a visit. They just hugged forever. So many lost years.
#23
The fact that I have two half sisters…….my dad cheated on my mom. My mom knows about one of the girls, not the other. Ancestry DNA for the win……no one says a word because we don’t want mom to have to relive that trauma.
#24
My dad beat the living s**t out of me and my brother very frequently. Almost every time he got drunk, he would either slap us till we fell down, haymaker swings at us until we ko'ed, jump kick/round house kicks us till we ko'ed. It was scary every night. Then we both grew bigger than him, I confronted him once when he was about to do it again. It stopped then and there, and we never talked about it since. I'm 40 now, and this happened throughout my childhood well into my late teens.
#25
My late uncle had schizophrenia or something schizophrenia adjacent, things weren’t bad enough to force him into treatment but mental illness was completely undeniable. I once asked family if he’d been taken to a doctor to see if there was something diagnosable he could have been helped with and you’d think I’d kicked a baby. That uncle is “a little weird” and that’s the end of that conversation.
Tempest 2 days ago
My late uncle was (most likely) bipolar. Definitive diagnosis is unknown but he was unstable, being medicated & going in & out of hospitals. He eventually died from an incorrect d**g prescription (probably lithium overdose). Nobody pursued legal action because the hospitals have a way of overlooking medical mistakes, something only the best & most expensive legal teams can fight. While his death was acknowledged, nobody ever spoke of his illness or cause of death because mental disorders were seen as a shame. I only learnt all this by putting together the pieces myself as an adult cause after years of hiding it all, no one alive knows the exact details anymore. He was a gifted sculptor. He didn’t work & lived with my grandma making the most beautiful sculptures as a hobby. He taught my siblings & I how to paint them. When he died the house was filled with his creations but his brother threw it all away, erasing his existence forever. If he got the proper help he could have been saved.
#26
My Great Aunt.
She and my grandma (her sister) hate each other so much that I didn't even know she existed until I was 30 and I was accidentally shown a picture with her in it. I still don't know why they stopped talking and grandma is obviously not willing to talk about it at all.
The funny thing is, I know my great aunt's children. They're really close to my grandma and come to every holiday dinner. I always knew they were related to me, I just never knew how.
Earthquake903 2 days ago
My sister hates me due to lies told her by our father. So glad he suffered before he died.
#27
I have an older sister I have never met. My dad got a girl pregnant in high school and refused to marry her. She gave the baby up for adoption. It was a closed adoption in the 60s so I would not even know where to look for her. I found out one night years ago when my dad had too much to drink and told me. Both of my parents are now deceased. They would never talk to me about it after that one time.
Jill Rhodry 2 days ago
Extremely common for the time period - perhaps a DNA test and see what relies are out there
#28
My blood type doesn't make sense. My mother is a B+, father is an O-. I donated blood in college and found out I'm A+. I brought it up in a casual "This is interesting, I must be a medical anomaly!" way and was immediately and brusquely shut down. I DNA matched to my paternal cousin on Ancestry, but no one else in the family would do a DNA test. There's more questions than answers. Considering I no longer talk to my bio parents or a majority of my family due to other things we don't talk about (like addiction, mental health and abuse), I doubt I'll ever get an answer.
#29
Both my parents cheated on each other. All my aunts and uncles got divorced but my parents stayed together and drank and fought and supposedly that was better.
#30
How my uncle Freddy k*lled his girlfriend by pushing her out the back door in the middle of the winter I left her to freeze to death. He got off because of lack of evidence. Half a family won't talk to him now and the other half take pity and pay for his bills and help him after his bankruptcy.
What do you think ?
LakotaWolf (she/her) 2 days ago
I found out that I was adopted by accident. I was 6 or 7 and was snooping around in my parents' bedroom upstairs. I found a Polaroid photo that showed a woman holding a baby in a hospital bed, and it was labeled "Rose and Crystal, 1982". My tiny brain gears whirred - MY name was Crystal, and *I* was born in 1982, but I didn't know anyone named Rose (my mom's name is Linda.) I toted the photo to my mom and said "Who's Rose?" My mom started crying. She called my dad to come home from work and they told me I was adopted (I didn't care that I was adopted, since I figured we adopted our dog Split and I loved Split like family, so it must have been the same kind of thing. Kid logic is weird.) I honestly do not know how long my parents would have waited to tell me I was adopted (if ever) if I hadn't found that photo.
Ace 2 days ago
I read the first sentence to mean that they accidentally adopted you. Took me a second or three. My wife was adopted too,, as was her (non-blood) brother. They both knew from a very young age but never felt bad about it in any way.
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Nils Skirnir 2 days ago
South Carolina, ca 1925. My great aunt was single, but was raped and had a daughter. The daughter was given to her sister and raised as hers. Always thought she was my grandmother. Ultimately my great aunt (real grandmother) had a hysterectomy at about 25 and could never have kids again. So who I thought was my grandmother was my great aunt and vice versa. Found this out when I was 30 Evidently the shame of rape was too much back then in old SC. And of course religion
KatSaidWhat 2 days ago
That my mother was an abusive alcoholic who neglected my brother and I so much after the divorce that her own father begged mine to come and collect us and keep us safe, which he did. And that my half cuntsister was conceived while my biofam were all still living together. I worked that out and told my father I knew when he asked why I didn't like my mother... Also said he didn't have to say a word and it was never spoken of again. My father is an utter gentleman to his own detriment when it comes to the ladies.
Caffeine72 6 hours ago
Sooooo many secrets in my family. Justified patriticide, surprise cousins from DNA tests, hidden suicides, mafia hits, abandoned kids "adopted" by other family members. It's the gift that keeps on giving. My cousins and I get together and laugh at it all.
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 2 days ago
Accidentally overheard my mom talking about how she was sexually abused by a family friend as a child…
BookFanatic 2 days ago
This is incredibly tame by comparison. Turns out the wonderful woman my uncle married when I was nine...was what my grandmother referred to as a "homewrecking hussy." She and Uncle worked together and had an affair. Mom let it slip when I was a teenager and immediately ordered me to forget she said anything.
SkippityBoppityBoo 42 minutes ago
While I've always known that I'm adopted? I was told too many adoptive family secrets. I was too young to know. I don't care because it's too hurtful... I can't know, why are you telling me? Just Stop........ Some secrets are meant to be buried with the people who were involved. I'm 9yrs old... What do you want from me? Just go... It's why I emancipated myself as soon as I was legally allowed to. Some secrets are meant to be buried with the people involved and never mentioned. I grew up too fast, too young... And I cannot forgive any of them for that.
PenguinEmp 2 days ago
There was a family story that I dug up due to the family tree being a bit missing. I found some cousins but wasn't sure if we were related as I'd never heard of them. Turns out they are the kids of my a great uncle, who married his niece. They had kids. No one ever talked about them. Ever.
Donna Peluda 2 days ago
My very Catholic parents had a shotgun wedding. My sister has screwed all her relationships and jobs because she can't keep her legs closed. She's slept with her best friends husband and BF, work colleagues and bosses, including females. Can never hold a job because of all the drama she creates. Lies about it all to my mum who, like a knocked up catholic girl believes my sister is unlucky.
Floeckchen 2 days ago
You wouldn't believe our family secrets, but we don't talk about them...
LakotaWolf (she/her) 2 days ago
I found out that I was adopted by accident. I was 6 or 7 and was snooping around in my parents' bedroom upstairs. I found a Polaroid photo that showed a woman holding a baby in a hospital bed, and it was labeled "Rose and Crystal, 1982". My tiny brain gears whirred - MY name was Crystal, and *I* was born in 1982, but I didn't know anyone named Rose (my mom's name is Linda.) I toted the photo to my mom and said "Who's Rose?" My mom started crying. She called my dad to come home from work and they told me I was adopted (I didn't care that I was adopted, since I figured we adopted our dog Split and I loved Split like family, so it must have been the same kind of thing. Kid logic is weird.) I honestly do not know how long my parents would have waited to tell me I was adopted (if ever) if I hadn't found that photo.
Ace 2 days ago
I read the first sentence to mean that they accidentally adopted you. Took me a second or three. My wife was adopted too,, as was her (non-blood) brother. They both knew from a very young age but never felt bad about it in any way.
Load More Replies... Nils Skirnir 2 days ago
South Carolina, ca 1925. My great aunt was single, but was raped and had a daughter. The daughter was given to her sister and raised as hers. Always thought she was my grandmother. Ultimately my great aunt (real grandmother) had a hysterectomy at about 25 and could never have kids again. So who I thought was my grandmother was my great aunt and vice versa. Found this out when I was 30 Evidently the shame of rape was too much back then in old SC. And of course religion
KatSaidWhat 2 days ago
That my mother was an abusive alcoholic who neglected my brother and I so much after the divorce that her own father begged mine to come and collect us and keep us safe, which he did. And that my half cuntsister was conceived while my biofam were all still living together. I worked that out and told my father I knew when he asked why I didn't like my mother... Also said he didn't have to say a word and it was never spoken of again. My father is an utter gentleman to his own detriment when it comes to the ladies.
Caffeine72 6 hours ago
Sooooo many secrets in my family. Justified patriticide, surprise cousins from DNA tests, hidden suicides, mafia hits, abandoned kids "adopted" by other family members. It's the gift that keeps on giving. My cousins and I get together and laugh at it all.
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 2 days ago
Accidentally overheard my mom talking about how she was sexually abused by a family friend as a child…
BookFanatic 2 days ago
This is incredibly tame by comparison. Turns out the wonderful woman my uncle married when I was nine...was what my grandmother referred to as a "homewrecking hussy." She and Uncle worked together and had an affair. Mom let it slip when I was a teenager and immediately ordered me to forget she said anything.
SkippityBoppityBoo 42 minutes ago
While I've always known that I'm adopted? I was told too many adoptive family secrets. I was too young to know. I don't care because it's too hurtful... I can't know, why are you telling me? Just Stop........ Some secrets are meant to be buried with the people who were involved. I'm 9yrs old... What do you want from me? Just go... It's why I emancipated myself as soon as I was legally allowed to. Some secrets are meant to be buried with the people involved and never mentioned. I grew up too fast, too young... And I cannot forgive any of them for that.
PenguinEmp 2 days ago
There was a family story that I dug up due to the family tree being a bit missing. I found some cousins but wasn't sure if we were related as I'd never heard of them. Turns out they are the kids of my a great uncle, who married his niece. They had kids. No one ever talked about them. Ever.
Donna Peluda 2 days ago
My very Catholic parents had a shotgun wedding. My sister has screwed all her relationships and jobs because she can't keep her legs closed. She's slept with her best friends husband and BF, work colleagues and bosses, including females. Can never hold a job because of all the drama she creates. Lies about it all to my mum who, like a knocked up catholic girl believes my sister is unlucky.
Floeckchen 2 days ago
You wouldn't believe our family secrets, but we don't talk about them...
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