Every family has a past.
We all think we want to know our family's tales.
But that journey can be riddled with horrors.
You don't always want to find yourself saying....
"I wish I didn't know that."
Redditor Flash_Dimension wanted to sip all about the crazy family tea that our loved ones are hiding.
So they asked:
"Once you were old enough, what were the dark family secrets you were finally let in on?"
My family's darkness is too long to share. And I also don't want to know.
Hey Fam...
"Got a Facebook message from one guy asking if I was related to [my dad], since it's not a common last name. I thought he was a fan of his work, because I was in college at the time and the guy was about the same age as me. And that's how I found out my dad slept around and that I had a half-brother the same age as me."
Apatches
Never Found
"My father was married with another woman before meeting my mother. They had a daughter and my dad loved her so so so much his wife started going crazy jealous. My dad noticed some strange behaviour she had towards the girl and when he tried to talk to her about it she started arguing with him. He then left with his daughter to my uncle’s house."
"She knew my dad would left the girl with my aunt while he was at work, so she called the police and said my aunt kidnaped her child. The police came in and took the girl away from my aunt. She immediately tried to call my dad. But the woman drove back home, put poison in her daughter’s milk and forced her to drink it. When my dad arrived, he found his daughter already dead and left alone."
"The woman was never ever found. My dad had never had justice for his first child. Kinda sad. Then when I was born my mother didn’t mind to named me after my 'sister.' We share the same name, and that’s actually how I found it out! I asked my parents about my name and they told me the whole story."
mylows
The Aunt
"When I was around 3-4, my 'Aunt' and her 3 sons came and lived with us for a few weeks. One night my mom stayed up and I found her downstairs sitting in a chair looking out the window. One day, my 'Aunt' and the boys 'moved' and never came back."
"Turns out, she was going through a nasty divorce. She had the boys at the house with her while she was packing things one day, and her husband came home. He locked the boys in a room, stabbed her, and then shot himself. My mom had been staying up with a gun that night because she had seen him in our backyard earlier that night."
Deepstate-intern
No Touch
"My paternal grandfather was an alcoholic wife abuser who regularly cheated on Grandma. When my father was a teenager he stood up to him, and threatened to kill him if he ever touched her again. The abuse stopped."
pattersonjeffa
It's HIM!
"My mild-mannered Christian mother casually told me that she dated a gangster who trafficked drugs in NY during the 80's. He bought her a brand new BMW before getting sentenced to prison for murder for 20+ years. Someone who was friends with her and her ex for YEARS turned out to be an FBI informant and she barely escaped jail, had to enter a witness protection program, and moved cross country."
"Here's the craziest part: He's still stalking her, has contacted her on her birthday every year for 40 years, and keeps tabs on her!! My dad has no idea."
"I asked her why she waited so long to tell me. Like, what if she went missing? and she said 'Oh, honey. He's the type of person that if he wanted to harm me, I would already be dead by now.' Very comforting."
marvelous_persona
This is why we're sent out of the room as children when adults are talking.
Swing Low...
"My grandmother tried to murder my grandfather when she got sick of him beating the crap out of her everyday. She swung an axe at him and he blocked it with his hand and lost his thumb. She left him before I was born."
beers_n_bags
"I don't AT ALL wish to make light of an obviously terrible ongoing domestic violence situation (my grandmother faced a similar scenario, I'm very sorry). But the appearance of the axe makes it poetry. Good on her. I wish every victim could feel that strength."
Dangercakes13
Madness...
"That schizophrenia ran in my mom’s side of the family. I developed it a year after she told me about it at 25. She didn’t refer to it as schizophrenia, but as the '(her maiden name) Madness.' She said that every once in a while someone in our family would go mad and that that’s what they would call it."
"I guess her side of the family also had ties to organized crime. My family never talked about issues or emotions at all so it was a shock. I assumed our ancestors were relatively normal, but I also thought my family was sane back then too."
A**ckindragonyo
“sister day”
"Grandma had 13 siblings, of those 7 women are still alive. Once a year they have a 'sister day' where they all except one are going somewhere to have fun. They’ve been doing this since they were teens. All but one sister, who has been lied to her whole life about sister day, because she thinks it doesn’t exist. This is supposed to have been started when that one sister borrowed something and didn’t give it back."
"Or something trivial like that. We are all reminded whenever we ALL get together (pre pandemic) that we’re not to talk about this, because it will hurt that sister. Still can’t wrap my head around how backstabbing *itchy some family members of mine are. Because this is just stupid."
Whooptidooh
History
"My father always tells me as a joke that it's my fault my mom and him are married ( I'm the second son). But through the years from drunk conversations and several sources I've pieced the story together, my parents separated before they knew my mother was pregnant and only came back together after I was born."
Mond_13
Anxious...
"My mom had a brother who died in childhood, maybe 9 or 10. I always thought he drank cleaning chemicals and died that way, but turns out he was hit by a school bus while riding his bike. Now I know why my mom was so anxious about me biking on the road."
Corgi_with_stilts
Well, family is certainly never boring... but sometimes it's safest to keep these skeletons in the closet.
Do you have any family secrets to get off your chest? Let us know in the comments below.