12 Stories That Prove Our Parents Aren’t Superheroes — But Close Enough

Our parents poured their sweat, tears, and sacrifices into raising us the best way they could. While they don’t have actual superpowers like the heroes in our favorite comic books, their deep generosity, boundless love, and endless care make them real-life superheroes. Today, we share stories of the most heartfelt actions our parents took to ensure we were safe and fulfilled.

• My dad never liked my husband. He believed I deserved a better man. On our wedding day, he looked worried and kept asking me, "Are you sure this is what you want? Are you sure he’s the one?” I said, “One day, you too will see his good side!” He nodded.
  
  Last week, Dad had a stroke. The moment I told my husband, he was at work preparing for an important meeting. He canceled it and ran to be by my side, making sure that my family and I were fully supported.
  
  Later, I went to my parents' house to pick up some of my dad's things for the hospital. When I opened his drawer, I was shocked to find many photos of my husband next to photos of our kids. I know how much Dad cherished photographs and only kept the ones he truly loved close to him. That proved to me that the years had made him warm to my husband, accept him, and even love him. I am happy to say that Dad's intuition was wrong after all.

• My mom was a widowed immigrant mother raising six kids. She worked so hard to fulfill both traditional parental roles, despite others telling her to remarry. She always put us, her children, first. That meant working long hours on the second shift, missing out on the majority of our school life, and giving us complete freedom and independence to dive into our interests, molding them into passions.
  
  She’s a retired baddie now, and all we do is take care of her, funding her trips back to her homeland, Laos. © someradkid / Reddit

• My parents are imperfect, but they did a lot of things right. The biggest one that sticks out to me is that they’re supportive of things my brother and I like, even when they don’t understand or like them. They didn’t care for skateboarding, but they spent hundreds of dollars over the years for my brother to enjoy his hobby.
  They not only helped me get a drum set but also allowed the band to hold practice in our basement and drove us to all our shows.
  
  They wanted me to be a lawyer, but they were willing to settle for a line cook. It made a difference in the long run because it helped me realize that I get to make my own choices in life—nothing is laid out for me. I can do whatever I enjoy, and my parents will be there for me, cheering me on.
  © mgraunk / Reddit

• When my father left my mother for another woman, I was prepared to never speak to him again. My mother sat me and my siblings down and said, "Even though your father was a bad husband, do not let this strain your relationship with him because he is, and will continue to be, a fantastic father."
  
  I can’t imagine how hard that must have been. I credit her for the wonderful relationship I still have with my father. © gogu***6 / Reddit

• My dad worked seven days a week, twelve hours a day, at two different hospitals for a large portion of my childhood. The man would get sick if he was on vacation; he called it “motionless sickness.” Somehow, he still managed to wake up several hours early and make me and my sister breakfast before school.
  
  He was a strong believer in working hard and set so many examples for me while also being a child at heart. I don’t know how he did it, but I love him. © TurtleFisher54 / Reddit

• My mother always tells her friends that with my brother and me, she “spoiled us with things but not our attitude.” Both my parents worked hard to get where they are today and to give my brother and me everything since they grew up with nothing.
  
  They always told us that hard work will reap rewards and that we shouldn’t expect things to be handed to us.
  
  I’ve never felt they had a favorite child; they always treated us equally and taught us growing up that no one was beneath us. They have been fantastic, and I’ve been very, very blessed.
  © echohotel_ / Reddit

• My husband has amazing parents, and he is one of the best people I know.
  
  One of the biggest things they instilled in my husband and his brother is a sense of 'quiet praise,' in which they are rewarded by seeing the completion of their work and the impact of what they have done on the people around them. Both of my in-laws are physicians, and I think this stems from that.
  
  They were also encouraged to constantly be inclusive and kind, with my grandmother-in-law calling it 'princely behavior'—that is, a prince should be courteous and kind to all of his subjects, no matter their station in life. © skynolongerblue / Reddit

• My only good parent was my mom. I say it like that because I’ve had two stepdads. She was a great mother even though we had nothing. Rent was hard to make, and sometimes we’d go without water and electricity. I never knew there was anything wrong with this; my mom never put any thoughts of worry or panic into my head and made me feel that everything was alright.
  
  I grew up with amazing memories and a happy childhood, although I went without most of the time because my mother never looked at life negatively. © Unknown author / Reddit

• My parents had my back no matter what. They always accepted me, didn’t make me feel one bit guilty about going to art school, and when I was in a terrible place, my mom told me she would sell her house if that’s what she needed to do to take care of me.
  Luckily, she didn’t have to do that, but it certainly hammered into my mind the concept of unconditional love and the role of family. © AmberFall92 / Reddit

• My father worked a high-level job that meant he couldn't be home for dinner most evenings. Instead of family dinner, we had breakfast together as a family every morning, and then he drove us to school.
  
  It wasn't until I was an adult and wanted to a) sleep as late as possible and b) often woke up to stressful work issues that I realized what a sacrifice this was. That was our family time—time with our dad.
  
  Even when my siblings were teenagers and school started much later, they were forced to wake up early and come down to breakfast (and then go back to bed). I respect it.
  © frnoss / Reddit

• When I was little, we lived near a freeway. I asked my mom one time how far the freeway went and where we would end up if we just got on it and kept driving.
  
  She had a map. Did she show it to me?
  
  Nope. She said, “Let’s see.” We hopped in the car and drove for hours until we were both tired of it, then pulled out the map and found a route home along the shore of one of the US Great Lakes. This was in the ’80s, before GPS or cell phones. I was maybe 10, and she let me navigate home.
  
  She could have just told me or shown me the map without leaving the couch, but she wanted me to know... and maybe she wanted to know herself. That’s how she’s always been—it’s amazing. © Panic_Azimuth / Reddit

• My parents moved to Canada literally for the sole purpose and hope of giving my brother and me better lives. A better environment, better opportunities, better everything, really. They left all of our family and friends—everyone—and moved here just the four of us.
  
  They worked so hard those first few years, making barely anything and living in a tiny apartment in Toronto. Looking back at it now, I'm honestly shocked they didn't give up and move back home, where they had respectable jobs and a lot of support.
  
  I'm so happy they didn't. Everything I have and everything I am, I owe to my parents for their unconditional love and support. © lenerz / Reddit

While our parents do their best to give us joyful lives, it doesn’t mean they don’t also hide deep and sometimes life-changing secrets. In this article, people share the most profound and shocking family secrets they discovered, which shattered their reality and turned their lives upside down.