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.

[BlingLovin]

Also, the really embarrassing one for me is that my dad always told me about his mother and her three siblings and then that her mother had two more children after his grandfather died. I thought that was the story. He FORGOT to mention to me, that while everyone KNEW that child number 1 from the second family was the second husband's, he'd been born while his grandmother was still married to her first husband!! So, I innocently asked my (half) great aunt about her brother and when she corrected me and said half brother, I said, "No, I thought he had the same father as you". She was mortified, I was confused. My father gave me a lecture about airing family secrets to older relatives!!!!

[squeaver]

Wow what a fascinating thread.

And here was me going to post that my mother (now a huge breastfeeding advocate) actually bottle-fed me. I only found out after I had dd.

Kind of pales into insignificance compared to some of these incredible stories.

[pedilia]

Really interesting thread!

[fancyflo]

Wow at these skeletons!

[BroccoliSpears]

This thread is fascinating.

[yeahyeah]

My grandfather killed himself when I was 9, always thought he'd died of a heart attack...

[edam]

Only found out after my Granny died that her mother had been a lady's maid before she got married. Apparently Granny was very embarrassed that her mother had ever been 'in service'.

[vonsudenfed]

I didn't know until I was ten or so that I'd had an elder sister who had died at birth. My parents didn't tell me though, my grandparents were showing me our family tree (I think deliberately) and I was totally shocked to see that I wasn't the first child.

My father still has never mentioned this to me - have no idea if he even knows I know. My mother talks about it though - they're divorced, and I think that my father's reaction had a lot to do with it.

But my family are full of secrets - cousins in prison, strange wills, scandalous leavings, horrible (to the point of cruelty) step parents, my aunt investing all her money in gold chains and then getting them nicked. When we were teenagers, my cousin and I would swap the latest ones we'd found out when we met.

[edam]

Oh, and my great-aunt was very, very, concerned to pass on a big family secret about an illegitimate child before she died. When I tried to contact her family (she was my great-uncle's widow, not a blood relative) it turned out they all knew and had met the 'baby' concerned, now a middle aged lady. And the person she'd been worried about telling had died a decade earlier.

She was a church-going Catholic and believed that she was going to see all her deceased relatives again when she died. So I hope she's got it all sorted with everyone now. RIP Auntie Hilda.

[ChupitosGalore]

my mum showed me her mums original wedding cert the other night. it was for what we had thought was her first marriage (of 3?? im lost now myself tbh) but states that she is a widow at the time. she was 24. no idea who the mystery first husband was or what happened to him. my mum reckons he killed himself, hence the never being mentioned. no2 killed himself too - my mum found him with his head in the oven when she was a kid. nice eh. spose he might have been my mums real dad... tho i thought hed buggered off and left her in the lurch wehn my nana got pg... guess i'll never know!

[southeastastra]

yes, they told me our rabbit and guinea pig ran away and i spent months looking for them.

they later let slip they were both eaten by foxes

[cocolepew]

We have a murderer in our family, going back a few years. Apparently he lay in wait and brained a member of the landed gentry.

My Grandad was married with a family before he married my Gran, my Mum and Aunty know this through gossip, my Gran never mentioned it. She was also pregnant when she got married. In Northern Ireland in those days it would have been very scandlous!

My Dad's Mum was in service and we think his elder sister was a result of a fling between her and her boss.

[MKG]

Last year I found out the reason my cousins would stay over at our house so much when we were younger was because my aunt and uncle were swingers, and would drop them off to have sex parties.

[VeronicaMars]

My mother told me one night when she was drunk that years ago while she was living in London having a few drinks with some work people that she was raped by a 'friend' and then found out she was pregnant and had an abortion
She has never told my dad or anyone else. She met my dad a few years later, got married and had me and my brother but before that she had a miscarraige.
She told me she always felt that the miscarraige was punishment for the abortion she had. It was a lot to take in at 18.

[JillJ72]

Someone got in touch with me a couple of years ago, she was helping a her boyfriend find his family. Turns out my Dad is his brother, and that my Nan (a very strict and scary lady who died in 1984) had had her family of five, plus another three boys, two by the same man. Twas the straw that broke the camel's back and she had to give the three away if she wanted to keep her marriage and five. Two of the secret children were adopted out to good lives, sadly the other (the one who got in touch) was adopted into a family with children, and is scarred from his upbringing.

On my Mum's side, there is a half-sibling out there. Who knows if contact will one day occur...

I never had birthday parties as a child; this only came out a couple of years ago when I asked my Mum. Maybe that's why I ensure DS has a party each year (and because he is our one and only...).

My Great-Aunt was married during the war, divorced and then married my Uncle W. I was surprised when she told me because I thought Uncle W had been the only one. True love!

[Twims]

Any more - this was a great thread

[lilac21]

southeastastra, my mum can go one better - she won a pet rabbit in a fairground aged around 7. It got out of the hutch her brother built a few times, then one day they told her it had escaped. When my mum was 28, my aunt let slip that the family had eaten the rabbit and my aunt didn't realise that my mum had never known that. My nan was a single parent to three kids at this time and money was very tight.

[Twims]

My mums friend's dad used to tease them that they were eating the pet rabbits!

[goodnightmoon]

the open marriage.

i mean, i sort of knew, but i don't know if i needed that much information.

they are divorced, btw.

[lalalonglegs]

GentleOtter - maybe someone else has asked, but why did your parents get your birth date wrong?

[AnathemaDevice]

Not me, but my dad found out when he was about 18 that his 'cousin' Michael was actually his half brother. My nan (herself an illegitimate child, no-one ever found out who her dad was) had a baby and left him in Ireland, while she moved to London, to be brought up by her mum. Think she only married my grandad as she got pregnant again and didn't have anywhere else to run away to.
I've always known my parents weren't married when I was born (though that was still quite unusual in the early 80's, from what I remember). What I didn't know was they hadn't got married because my dad hadn't got around to divorcing his first wife. I'd always known he'd been married before, but I'd assumed it was over and done with before I was ever thought of.
In summary, my family on my dad's side are very good at popping out sprogs out of wedlock.

[TweetleBeetle]

Recently found out that 2 of my mums siblings are only half (nan had an affair) apparently its an open secret but no-ones confirmed it, mum won;t say anymore, I'll have to ply her with drink one night!

[ElenorRigby]

Found out in the last few years that my aunt was incarcarated in a Magdalene Asylum in Ireland by my grandmother. My aunt was sent there for getting pregnant as a teenager.
My mum took it on herself to forge my grans signature, got her out and put her on a ferry to England.
My cousins (my aunts children) still know nothing about it!

[TweetleBeetle]

Had my step borther live with us for a while when I was younger, then one day he wasn't there - was told he''d gone back home, turns out he was in wormwood scrubs for breaking ans entering!