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.

Not me, but DH. He thought his aunt and uncle died in a car accident, he found out 2 years ago, that his uncle murdered his aunt and then killed himself

bump? If that's not too rude after such a long gap?

Wow, what amazing stories! Thanks for sharing them, don't think I can compete though.

Are there anymore?

Ok here's one, my friends Mum has been with her partner (not my friends Dad) for about 7 years I think. She lied about her age when she met him (he is about 10 years younger than her) and said she was 5 years younger than she is. They now live together and have done for a few years and he STILL doesn't know her real age.

I know my previous post isn't related to her being a child but still, so many skellingtons.

My mum got blotto and told me my step-mum had had a termination. About the same time us kids were petitioning them to have a child together,

Also, I mentioned to my Dad I'd had a dream in which 2 older people claimed to be my siblings. He said "It's funny you should say; I got a girl PG whilst in the RAF, and had to move to stop being pestered into marriage!"
He doesn't know if she kept it. It was the 70's, so who knows?

drunken probably parents forgot the stockings on christmas eve!
had to put off christmas for a day

just started to read this thread, lot worse stories than mine,
sorry

After my Granddad's death in 97, he left me his photo albums, as it was a shared passion. In one there was a very old picture of a black man (I'm white). I asked my mum who it was and she said casually, 'Oh yeah, that's your great-granddad'! I'm really chuffed to have a slightly more interesting heritage than most, but I would've loved to have been able to ask my Granddad some questions, as now we don't know where Great-Granddad came from, etc. (Mum recalls him having an 'unusual' accent but he died when she was about 10). On the plus side, it says a lot about how unbiased my family is - it wasn't seen as a big deal, so although I'd heard quite a few stories about him, no-one had ever mentioned his colour. Slightly jealous that my mum and brother are olive-skinned with nearly-black hair and look Spanish/Italian but I just look pale and British

Also, I learnt a few years ago that I had THREE years of speech therapy between the ages of 5-8, twice weekly - I had an operation for extreme tongue-tie and had to relearn how to speak, apparently. I can remember that after I was discharged from hospital (I was 3) we had cottage pie at my maternal grandparents' home, but cannot remember a single thing about the therapy!

At DH Nanna's funeral it was discovered that she had been married three times not twice and had four children not the three we had always imagined.

Here's mine:

My uncle, whom my very straight laced respectable mother always referred to as "that bastard" which should have given me a clue really...was a Polish Nazi collaborator. He had been in Austwitz...but as a guard. He claimed he was a prisoner till someone pointed out you don't leave Auswitz with a head full of gold teeth.

Anyway he was a real bastard and once married to my aunt he instantly gave up work and started to hit her. She actually had an abortion instead of a second child as she could not stand the thought of another child being born to him. This was in the 60's but she was a nurse so mangaged to get a doctor she knew to perform an abortion.

Their son is an alcoholic and has a lot of emotional problems due to his father.

From the age of 13 my mother suddenly started saying I didn't need to visit my aunt and uncle and was old enough to stay home on my own...not an option I ever got when we visited other relatives. Then when uncle and aunt visited mum would say "surely you need to visit a friend now?" and shove me out of the room.
I discover years later that said uncle had revolting sexual tastes and they had found him taking my photos out of the photo albums and putting them in his wallet...

My aunt would never leave him though as she was religious and said she had made her marriage vows but I find the idea she preferred to abort her baby than have him be a father (she was terrified the child would be a girl which apparently it was) really terrifying.

That uncle is dead now and I really hope he is burning in Hell, as it is where he belongs.

I found out my dad drowned my rabbit then blow dried him and put him back in his hutch.

Probably sounds worse than it was..........so before all animal martyrs come knocking. The rabbit had mixi and needed putting down anyway. Just saved him the £ 40.

My maternal Grandfather was said to have run off to America when my Mother was 7. In fact Uncle Alf, who was supposed to just be a friend of the family, and who visited every few years after my Grandma died was my Grandfather.

I was told this after he died! Nobody would ever tell me why this charade was acted out for so many years.

I found out when I was in my thirties that my Grandparents were never married. That my Grandad had another family living just around the corner from my Grandma. My Mum grew up playing with the kids he had with this other woman (his wife!!) and called them cousins as they were so close.

This was in my watch list - any other interesting stories

This is a fascinating thread, but it's really sad that there are so many unhappy stories, secrets and lies.

When I was in my late teens my mum told me that after she'd told my dad she wanted to divorce him, he traced her to her boyfriend's flat and turned up with a shotgun in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other and threatened to shoot them both if she tried to get the house. So that's why mum and I left and went to live with my grandmother.

My dad told me that it was me talking that led him to know who my mum's boyfriend was. Apparently I'd told him about going to the boyfriend's son's birthday party. That made me feel like it was all my fault and I'd somehow exposed my mum.

My grandad confided in my mum that my grandmother never slept with him again after my mum was born. She was their only child.

My husband's mum told him on the eve of our wedding that his dad had run off with another woman and left her alone with my husband as a small baby for quite some time. He did come back though, and they are still together now.

In fact, she didn't tell my husband directly - she told my mum as me and my husband were walking down the street behind them open mouthed. She obviously wanted him to hear because she's made reference to it since.

Families are strange.

I found out shortly before my wedding that I had a twin sister who died shortly after birth. DH and I were having a wedding video done and the videographer wanted photographs of both of us from birth onwards. E-mailed my mum (she lives in a different country) and asked her to post some photos to me. There was one of two babies with "AnnieBeansMum and Gabrielle - 2 days old". I rang my mum immediately and asked who the heck Gabrielle was. She told me she was my sister who had died when we were 6 days old. Cause of death was unknown - she just stopped breathing. My mum thought this would be the easiest way to tell me (after 24 years! )

Blimey some of these stories!

Found out that my Dad had a brother when my sister found a photo of him with a tennage boy obviously taken a long time ago. My sister asked who it was 'Oh my brother' dad replied.

Dad won;t answer any questions. We know he s dead and his first name but that is it. Even my Mum doesn't know and they've been married 43 years!

Also when I was doing a quiz on life expectancy I was about 16- found out that my Mums Mum had killed herself and my Mum found her. She was about 17.

found out last week that Grandma died New years Day.

Lots of secrets in our family

Reading Wigglesworth's post from July reminded me of someone I used to know who told his second wife that he was 39 when actually he was 60! When I knew him they'd been married two years and she still didn't know.

Blimey some really sad stories here