10 Family Secrets That Were Never Meant to Be Discovered

Families hold secrets. Some fade away, but others stay hidden for years until one moment changes everything. Here are 10 shocking family truths that refused to stay buried.

• My dad used to send me birthday cards every year when I was a young girl (my mother left my dad while pregnant with me for good reason), even though I never got to meet him when I was young I was glad to still receive a card from him with a few bucks acknowledging I was alive and that he did one day want to see me.
  Around 14-15 I learned that my mother had written every single one of those letters and my grandfather would mail it to ourselves to make it seem legit. I never ever actually received any letter from him. © Unknown author / Reddit

• I discovered that my siblings and I grew up in foster care since no family members were willing to help my aunt and uncle get custody of us. We were in Missouri while they lived in Michigan. They fought the courts with what means they had but couldn’t afford the legal battle. The system thought our mentally ill mother was the best choice even though we would only be home with her for a few months before going back into the system. Rinse repeat until my sister and I at 15&16 were homeless. Luckily we had an older brother who was adopted by a great family and found us. Sent some bus tickets to Detroit to come stay with him... © paperjockie / Reddit

• My mom gave birth on the floor of her apartment. I used to think it was because it happened so fast, that’s what she always said. I recently learned it was because she was in denial she was pregnant and never got any prenatal care..denied it up until the baby was literally coming out of her. © Over_The_Influencer / Reddit

• When I was nine, my dad took me fishing every Saturday at dawn. We’d sit on the old dock, eating peanut butter sandwiches, waiting for something to bite. I thought it was just our bonding time.
  After he passed, I found a letter from my mom in his tackle box. She’d begged him to “keep taking him on Saturdays” because my childhood seizures worsened with stress.
  I finally understood why he never cared if we caught anything. He wasn’t teaching me to fish. He was teaching me to breathe.

• Once both of my grandparents had died on my dad’s side, my dad found out he had a sister. He was cleaning out my grandparents’ apartment when he found her birth certificate. After some research, he learned that he actually had a sister who is severely mentally disabled. I guess my grandparents weren’t up for the challenge of raising a child like that. Unfortunately, they’re not around today for us to question. My dad was 46 when he found out about his sister. © and_of_four / Reddit

• Not so much let in on, as we found out by accident, but apparently my dad’s first love and him got into a serious car crash when he was 25 and she died. He lived with her father for years after her death. He still occasionally comes to visit my dad, even 30 years later. We were always told he was a mentor until my sister pressed my mom on the subject.
  One of my sisters is even named after the girl who died (middle name) and we never even knew about her until last year. None of us have ever brought it up with him. © nttdnbs / Reddit

• When I was very young, my mom used to go on a lot of business trips. My dad stayed with me, but it hurt because I thought she liked her job more than me. Things got worse when I turned 10. I was digging through her stuff, wanting to feel closer to her, when I found out that my mother’s ’business trips’ were the times she spent with her other family. I had two half sisters that I didn’t know about until that day.

• A decade or two ago, my mom signed me up for piano lessons with a very experienced teacher, Mrs. S. She was one of the few organ players in our area and, as I found out later, the teacher people went to when they wanted the best in teaching. She was fantastic, and taught all levels. She quickly became a family friend of ours.
  About a year after I stopped doing piano, Mrs. S’s dad died of a heart attack. We went to the funeral and gave our condolences and the like. A day later, the paper published the obituary and, in the list of family members, was someone with a very unusual Polish last name that matched my mother’s maiden name.
  Eventually we found out that my great-grandfather fathered two families and we never knew. My grandfather knew he had a half sister but he was so embarrassed about it he planned on bringing it to the grave.
  So I found out my piano teacher was my second cousin... © Anonymous / Quora

• I’m still at least one family’s secret! I’m adopted and found my Biological Father, he begged me not to reach out to any of my half siblings as it would “ruin his life and standing in the community”. The sad thing is I’m not even his first secret child, I have an older half sister that he also begged not to reach out to family. So that’s two kids he’s had because he cheated on his wife. I can only imagine how often he cheats to have at least two women end up pregnant...My half sister and I call 23andMe (how we met) “23andMark” because who knows how many more kids he might have out there. Pretty sure he’s been terrified since at home DNA kits became a thing. © BellaTrixter / Reddit

• When I was little, my mom always made me breakfast early but only on mornings when Dad stayed home. I never understood why she rushed me out the door without a word on the other days. She’d just smile and say, “You’ll know when you’re older.”
  Years later, after she passed, Dad told me the truth. He had struggled with severe anxiety during my childhood, something my mom had quietly managed on her own. She took extra night shifts and handled every household worry to keep our family afloat.
  I remembered how peaceful mornings felt whenever he was away. I realized my mother had carried the weight of our struggles silently, protecting me from a reality I never needed to know.

Job interviews can be awkward, stressful, or just plain weird. This one, however, takes it to a whole new level, you have to read it to believe it