What did you keep hidden from your parents as a teenager?

[BeckyRac]

What did you keep hidden from your parents?

Nothing really, the only 'naughty' thing I did was buy the cheapest bread roll with my lunch money and then buy coke and sweets on the way home.

Most things. Periods, Tattoos, boyfriends, sexual partners, feelings, problems, mental health issues, food (Food was restricted in our house. My Mum has only just mentioned I was too thin as a teenager, I'm 40! Always thought I was too fat.). They have no idea I was bullied badly at High School as I know they wouldn't have done anything.

My parents weren't neglectful as such but DB was definitely the golden child, to the point where I got blamed for him having a house party while I was away at University. Fuck knows how they justified that.

Everything. My mum has a very short fuse and she would scream, shout and smash things over the smallest indiscretion. One day when I was 12 she broke my hand with the TV remote because I came home slightly late, through no fault of my own.

I hid tattoos, piercings, underage sex, drinking, disordered eating. She also has no idea that I spent my later teen years writing erotic Harry Potter fanfiction it was well-received online!

My mum was was of those who thought she was very cool about stuff but in reality reacted very poorly. When I started my periods she made me go to my grand to borrow 50p for sanitary towels as she said she had no money. After that never offered or bothered to buy them again. For years I used toilet roll even though I had extremely heavy periods. She knew this as I would hide my soiled knickers as I was so embarrassed but she still didn't buy any.
I went on the pill when I was fifteen and didn't tell her. Didn't tell her I was staying at a bfs every weekend,didn't tell her the first time I was pregnant as she spent our whole lives telling us kids ruin your life and not to have them until at least 35.
Unsurprisingly we are now no contact after she scapegoated me for the abuse we suffered from her bf when we were kids.
My dad knows there is always a supply of tampons/pads in the cupboard so she doesn't even have to ask.

Should be my daughter not dad!

I kept my salary hidden from my parents or they would have demanded too much from me for my "keep". I was saving up for my own place. Every pound I gave my mother for my board went onto the back of my spoiled sister. By 18 I was earning almost as much as my father which I did not care for them to know. I was paid by bank transfer and used an accommodation address so they would not see my mail.

Interesting to see how many of us hid starting of periods.

Thought it was rare and everyone was chatting about periods regularly!

I have not once had a conversation with my mother about this subject.

Self-harm (my mum found out about this at one point, made some vague comment and never mentioned it again), depression, suicidal ideation. I saw what I now realise was someone from a CAMHS service and my parents didn't know (now as a parent and a healthcare professional I have no idea how that happened although I was 16 at the time which might have helped my insistence that my parents were not informed). In primary school I told friends that I wished I was dead (I very much meant it) and they told the teacher which led to a long, serious conversation, but, as far as I know, my parents were not informed.

Everything. Depression, self-harm, anxiety, feeling suicidal. Eating anything at all had to be kept hidden due to my mum's intense policing of what I ate and how fat I was (I was never fat, but in my head I always was due to her her obsession).

Having sex. She gave my older sister such a hard time when she lost her virginity so I knew from an early age that I would never tell her anything. She was not an easy person to speak to about relationships. She must have been worried about one of us getting pregnant but she went about it the wrong way and we ended up sneaking around.

My woo stuff like tarot cards as Mum was a staunch RC. Also that I didn't go to mass. Also the extent of my mental health problems as they were often met with an eye roll, a not again and a reminder that nothing that I was going through was ever going to be as bad as the admitted shit she'd come through.

That and my credit card spending (I lived at home for too long)

Underaged drinking, sex, recreational drug use.

My room was at the back of the house and they never knew I spent hours running to get weight off. They were so confused.

I stopped sharing anything with my parents when I was 15 and they blamed me for being sexually abused by a family member. I no longer trusted them and they ceased to be people I considered sources of support.

I felt I needed to protect my mum from.the awful truths of real life, and I was scared/resentful of my Dad.

Boyfriends - I wasn't allowed one.

Smoking

That I started my periods - she was really weird about periods. I also hid that I used tampons as she would have been really shocked.

My parents didn't mind me drinking, as long as I didn't get too drunk. To be fair, I don't think I ever did.

I also didn't tell them that I had been sexually assaulted by a man who waited to meet me after school. I think they would have blamed me

I also accidentally broke my mum's Sony Walkman and never told her.

A lot of really sad answers here.

I hid nothing from my mum and dad. My dad wasn't so much interested in my life but my mum was always there if I needed to talk about anything.

She did get annoyed when I started my period though, only cause I hobbled down the stairs crying and flashing my bloody pants at her while she was cleaning the car

I walked 10 mile round trip to visit an older guy I had a crush on. I was about 13 he was late 20s early 30s. Luckily he wasn't home.
I had sex with my first boyfriend at 16. She thinks it was with another one aged 18.
I used to go clubbing on Thursday Fri sat nights when I was 13. Not sure where she thought I was.
Nothing involving drink or drugs, I was an orange juice girl.
Standard behaviour for teen with newly divorced parents and dad who didn't give a shit.

Reading some of these replies makes me sad for the posters growing up. I am very close to my mum, always have been and my dad too when he was alive. I'm shocked by the responses to girls starting periods. My mum told me about periods at age 10 or 11. I'm sure it wasn't that easy for her to tell me, but I felt reassured and mum always made sure there was plenty of pads available and Feminax. I can remember once writhing in pain (I had incredibly painful periods growing up) and mum riding to the chemist on her bike to buy me Feminax. I really feel for poor teens who had to use roll and were actually shouted at for starting their period. I assumed providing a few cheap towels and some paracetamol were the absolute basics that all parents made available for their daughters. Clearly not which is very sad.

I hid my diary, but not too well because I wanted my mother to know that my father was abusing me.
Either she never read it or she ignored what I’d written.

Judy Bloom books

When my mum found “Are you there god it’s me Margaret” and FREAKED OUT I then hid everything about my social life from then on.

Suicidal depression, one suicide attempt, a complete lack of interest in the subjects they thought were good for me at school and an eating disorder.

The copy of Lady Chatterleys Lover that I'd stolen from the top of Mother's wardrobe.

That I had a knife put to my head by a boy who was in year 10 when I was in year 7. It happened in school. The boy didn't get sanctioned because "he was a good student".

I told my aunt about it recently. She told me my parents had found out months later at a parents' evening from my head of year, who 'just assumed' I would have informed them. They never told me they knew either. They've still never mentioned it.