Anything your parents have let slip now you are an adult that you were oblivious to as a child?

[twentypence]

My dad said on the phone "oh, there's that mountain we climbed on the telly. You remember when I took you and your brother away for a holiday and mum stayed at home."

I didn't catch all of what mum said - but it was something to the effect that she wasn't best pleased to be reminded of the time they split up.

I had no idea - I just thought dad got more leave.

I remember fondly sitting in the dark in the kitchen on my mums knee while she read to me by the light of the solid fuel boiler with the top left wide open.
I was telling my mum the other day how lovely it was and she told me that it was after my dad had left and she had no money so it was either heat or electric not both!
I never realised that my dad had never paid any maintenance and my mum was really poor

When I was about seven I found a death certificate for a sister who had died at twelve hrs old that I didnt know about. My mum told me she had been buried in a coffin that looked like a tiny white shoebox - just like the one in the bottom of her wardrobe. I had nightmares about that for weeks. She would have been 40 this year. Dad never mentions her.

Gosh Stella I wonder who the girl is :)

When I was 16, my dad told me that when I was 10 a man rang up my mum at home and told her he had kidnapped me, and what he was going to do with me.

Police were called, and they and a neighbour raced to school to see if i was there (i was) and neighbour took me home.

I was then taken to the park by a policewoman who was a family friend and questioned. I do remember being taken to the park by her, but don't remember what she asked me, or anything else about the day.

The man was caught too.

his story is on here 3 times now!

TheOriginalNutcracker Tue 17-May-11 19:29:27
When I was 16, my dad told me that when I was 10 a man rang up my mum at home and told her he had kidnapped me, and what he was going to do with me.

Police were called, and they and a neighbour raced to school to see if i was there (i was) and neighbour took me home.

I was then taken to the park by a policewoman who was a family friend and questioned. I do remember being taken to the park by her, but don't remember what she asked me, or anything else about the day.

The man was caught too.

CrackerNut Wed 25-Feb-09 15:58:22
When I was about 16 my dad decided to tell me that when I was around 9, a man rang my mum at home saying that he had kidnapped me and was going to do xyz to me.

Apparently my mum and dad rang the police, and school to check if I was there (I was).
The neighbour was then sent to collect me from school whilst my mum and dad spoke to police.

I was then later questioned by police.

The only bit of it I remember is going for a walk in the park with this family friend who was a police offer. Apparently she questioned me in a roundabout way during the walk, but I don't remember what she asked me.

The person who made the call was later arrested and it was discovered that all of his victims had girls with the same first name as mine and he'd got our names from some cinema kids club or something.

I have no idea why my dad decided to tell me, but to this day my mum doesn't know that I know.

MrsMorgan Sun 03-Jan-10 23:45:20
When I was 16, my dad told me that when i was 10 a bloke rung the house one day saying he'd kidnapped me, and was going to do xyz to me.

He hadn't, I was at school perfectly unharmed, but he knew my full name and phone number.

When my dad told me, I did then remember a neighbour (who happened to be a police woman) taking me to the park and asking me questions, but I can't remember what.

Wonder if its the same person going a bit dotty and posting it a few times or if its some kind of nationwide thing that happens

yes that my beloved little bunny snowdrop was killed by a fox and he did not did himself out of the garden and run off :(

this secret was hidden from me for over 20 years. i was talking about my friend getting a bunny and my mum said how upsetting it was finding snowdrops tail in the garden, then realised what she said tried to back track

i never realised that my nan was an alcoholic. i thought it was normal for people to drink sherry on sunday morning and didn't think it strange her offering it to whoever came round (adults not children). also thought her going to bed for a few days was because she had migraines :( she was so anti drink as i got older and now i understand why

My Mum told me when I was pg with ds1 (and she was tring to persuade me to terminate) that she'd had an abortion when my brother was 3. She never told anyone.

I have suspicions that Mum had an affair with her friends husband. I can remember being in a house with them which was a good drive from where we lived for at least one night and being told not to mention it to his (and Mums friends' DSs).

I'd never been there before and never went again.

After my mothers funeral I was going thro' her paperwork and found her marriage certificate that said she had been married previously (annulled) and my sister who was about 8 years older than me (she died aged 18) was my half-sister who was a mistake and my mother married the father which of course didn't last. Have never found any trace of my sister, no paperwork -birth/death certificate so she may have been registered under the original surname. I asked my mothers sister about this and it turned out she had been sexually abused by this guy and threatened so she had never told mum who might have blamed herself. My other and I got on v.well and I feel sad that she could not have mentioned it (altho' it was nothing to with me).

That is me imum. Wasn't aware that I could only post something once.

I think iMum is just curious as to why you posted it 3 different times under different names, and with slightly different details

weird story though
my friend discovered that someone rang up her mum while friend was away at universiyt and told her mum she was pregnant. She wasn't and they have no idea who it was.
Someone out there likes to get their kicks from worrying parents

(someone other than the government I mean)

I've recently found out:

• I have two older brothers, my dad was married before he met my mum and had two sons, the mother tried to have him killed (apparently)
• my mum and dad met, she became pregnant within 3 months, dad went to prison for 2 years.

That my dad went to prison for 3 months for trying to sell something that wasn't his! Only my mum, her sister and my Grandpa knew!

Gobsmacked, can't believe he was so stupid and also can't believe that someone as lovely as my Dad was sent to jail. I can't imagine that he had a very nice time in there.

Fascinating thread! I was compelled to read all the way through hence my late coming post - some of the posts are very sad :(

My family were very secretive and I have only come across stuff since I became custodian of the biscuit tin full of birth, marriage and death certificates after my grans death

My grandmother was 5 months pg with my mother when she got married in 1948 - I have the wedding pictures and the only person smiling is my lovely grandad, the rest of the family all look like they have trodden in shite

Getting all the certificates spurred me on to building a family tree and discovered that my not talked about great great grandfather was the hangman at the city jail .... apparently it was a well paid job but he never mentioned it to his wife, he 'just went out to work'

My great grandmother on my fathers side had 3 kids by 3 different fathers, the last of which was an irish bloke who ship hopped for a living and would disappear periodically - the last ship he hopped on was the SS Ceramic ...big mistake cos it was torpedoed and sank in 1942

My Mum and Dad told me that they were walking arm in arm when they slipped on a banana skin, but sometimes it was an orange skin and my Dad had lots of injuries and my Mum had to have her jaw wired together. I was three and remember the jaw bit and that my grandma came to look after us for ages.

It turned out that they'd had a bad car accident and didn't want me to worry about going in a car. They told me when I was 18 after I passed my driving test.

my mum is the queen of too much info, and when her and my dad split they both told me WAY too much.. some of her "gems" include..

my mum stole/trade my dad from her sister. mum says she was "given" him they all have different versions thou, kinda funny. Oh and I am the product of too many drugs and too much drink and withdrawl failure (part of mums dont trust men speach)

The reason I dont remember my mum until I was about 7 was she refused to accept she had PND and never accepted treatment and has never bonded with me. If I wasnt in school I used to get taken out for they day so she could "rest". Didnt figure this out until the doctor let it slip when I was a depressed/suicidal teen who thought my mother hated me and wished Id never been born (this was after the dont trust men talk). I dont remember any of it and it wasnt until I was a teenager and she still couldnt bond. Makes me feel better that if I ever suffer as mum did my kids wont remember.

actually theres alot of mad incidents I was on the fringe of that I only found the truth of later.... surfice to say my folks are the kind of people your parents warned you about lol. I have a good memory so i remember fragments of alot of it.

the one WTF moment a few years back (apart from the random wifeswap/ "party" stories) was that my great aunt was married before and has never slept with her husband. Her first husband left her and was a bigamist so she get an anullment but her catholic guilt means she wont sleep with her current husband because his prior marriage wasnt anulled. thats a headshaker!!

Aaah Pip Pop

My mother told me a couple of years ago that she and my dad are first cousins, and that they had to get special permission to get married, and I've not to tell anyone else.
I've known since I was a small child, my nan (dad's mother) always talked about her sister (my other nan) who had died when I was young.
They're still freaked out in case I tell anyone....even my husband!

Oooo, quite a tenuous link here- hope I'm forgiven! My great-uncle started going senile a few years ago and, whilst there were generally no problems, every so often he would say something about somewhere he'd never been, or mention people he'd never known. Finally, one afternoon, he mentioned that time he'd been sent to Burma during the war. My aunt turned round and smiled, saying, 'you didn't go to Burma in the war dad'.
To which my GU replied to her in what appeared to be a fluent foreign (possibly Burmese) language.
Either he was having a great old laugh at our expense, or he was a spy.

My mother recently let slip that the reason we moved abroad for 3 years was because my dad was caught drink driving and lost his licence. Back then (the 80s) things like that didn't follow you overseas, so he just applied for an assignment in Europe from his company.

I had no idea until this year (I'm 32) that the reason I'd been to schools in 3 different countries and was fluent in 3 different languages before the age of 10 was simply because my father was an alcoholic

A couple of years ago I found out that my gps eloped to Gretna Green when young, as his parents refused to allow him to marry my gm.

My gf's parents were very well off, but my gm came from a mining family, she was one of 21 children and she was sent off into service when she was ten.

My gf was cut off by his family and thrown out of his job - he ended up being a train driver to support them; they rented a room in a house which they shared with their 6 children!

I found out that my little sister and I lived with our grand parents as babies because of my mothers post natal depression and schizophrenia, I am 26 and am training to be a Steiner teacher and can't beleive they had never told me, my granny mentioned it flippantly over a nice cuppa the other day- so english.

My mum told me her half sister had given her baby away to her landlord and landlady (infertile) in lieu of rent. This was about 60 years ago.

My Grandmother had 11 children, 3 of whom died in infancy of pneumonia.

I remembered a massive fight with my mum and dad once in the bathroom...turns out he was addicted to painkillers and my mum and a neighbour were trying to get the pills from him to flush them down the toilet.

I found out a few weeks ago that my dad sold most of his family's land to set up a trust fund for my sister & me after my parents split up, but my mum spent it!

I don't know how to broach it with her.