S/O Poll

ShesSoCold

Do you still hide things from your parents? Now that you're an adult, have you confessed things to them that you hid as a child or teenager? Did they confess to you that they knew some of your "secrets" all along but didn't care as much as you thought they would?

baconsmom

Eh. I didn't have any secrets, really, so no. I mean, no, I've never mentioned how I slutted* it up in my 20s or anything, but I don't think anyone in my family wants or needs to know that. 

*No regrets, and I don't use "slut" in a pejorative sense. It's just accurate. 

ShesSoCold

I confessed to my mom a few years ago that I got a speeding ticket in her car when I was 16. My car was in the shop and it was one of the few times she let me borrow hers.

She knew I was having sex at 14 and didn't say anything because she knew I was on BC.

NOLABridesmaid

After college I moved back home for grad school. I had a job I hated and lied and told my Mom that they had layoffs, but I really quit. I confessed years later and she had the nerve to get mad. Hee. She didn't play about keeping a job, so that was the only way I would have had some peace.

I confessed to changing my sister's grade on her carbon copy report card from college. They mailed them home, back in the day. I think she got mad at that one too.

lembaslover

I did admit that when we were children I was the ghost who would hide in my little brothers closet making noises to scare him at night. They had a good idea it was me because after a while of him sleeping with them they told him to sleep in my room and that's when the ghost "disappeared". 

As for my college secrets, nope, I don't ever plan on telling them but they probably know or they either have to be idiots or just really didn't want to see the truth to not know them...

AddieCake

Like Baconsmom, the only things I continue to "hide" are things that don't come up/they don't need to know. 

thefanciestbeckler

All personal opinions aside, my brother and I got spanked when we were growing up. Mom had an old wooden spatula that we named the "spanking spoon" that she would use. One day, I got the bright idea to hide that sucker. I hid it under my bed and my parents couldn't find it for years. They finally found it when we moved out of the house. I was about 10 by that point, so they thought it was really funny.

Other than that, I never have really had any secrets. I'm a pretty open book.

GBCK

I still somewhat compulsively lie to my folks.
Bad habit, working on it.

Although I've been honest about some of my past indiscretions, I have to still guard my sisters' (because it's in the rules), and they're all so intertwined, I can't spill a lot of that stuff.

teddygirl9

Yes I hide things, no we've never talked about it.

SO's family is muslim (he is very NOT) and when we went to NOLA they kept hinting about pork in all the dishes. They'd be like 'oh so did you have jambalaya?' 'yes, it was good' 'YOU KNOW THERES PORK IN IT RIGHT, THERES PORK IN JAMBALAYA DID YOU EAT PORK' and he was like 'no we had a seafood one...' haha. He's way worse than me for lying to his family though. But there is for sure some things my mother does not need to know.

arrippa

I came clean to my mom and told her all my teenage shenanigans. She was shocked. I admit, it was kind of fun to shock her.

I don't lie to her now as an adult, but I also don't tell her everything. I tell her enough to keep her off my back.

My mom also had the wooden spoon. I hated that thing. One time, she spacked my brother so hard that it broke. I think that must have shocked her because she never used it again.

PrettyGirlLost

I don't actively hide things, but I know what their reactions are likely to be to certain things, and if I don't feel like dealing with those reactions then I keep my mouth shut about those subjects/topics :-)

There's really nothing that I did as a child/teen that I had to hide.  I lived a very straight laced life, lol.

VarunaTT

Well, this is a big one and I've actually been musing this very question a lot:

I've never actually discussed my sexual orientation (bisexual) with my parents, b/c I never dated anyone of any gender but XH long enough to do a parent introduction after I came out to everyone but them in college. I mean, I'm pretty sure they have a clue that I'm probably not heterosexual considering my activist activity in the local LGBTQ+ population and my social life.

I was actively avoiding it when I was younger because I didn't think they would approve.  I do have an aunt who is gay and they've never said anything straight to me, but little side not-so-great comments have been made in my presence. 

Now that I'll eventually be entering the dating world again, I haven't quite decided what to do.

PMeg819

Eh, they don't ask so I don't tell. There are some things I'd rather not tell them unless push comes to shove because it would probably damage our relationship more than it should. 

charlotte989875

There's a lot I keep from my parents. We're not super close and lot of the decisions H and I make they don't agree with. Nothing "bad" it's just my mom holds grudges when people makes decisions she doesn't like so if I'm weighing a major decision I usually don't tell them until after its made.

I also haven't "come clean" about a lot of college shenanigans. She doesn't approve, wouldn't let it go so I don't see any need to tell her.

TrixieJess

I don't hide things from my mother, but I'm not really close enough with her to confide in her. She has an idea that I was one way as a teenager (not correct) and wouldn't believe me if I told her differently.

ILoveBeachMusic

I was pretty tame as a teenager but the few things I did do I never told my parents. As the mother of 3 adult children, I don't want to know what they did.

justsie

I was a lame teenager, everything I did that would result in lying to my parents I got caught (like a car accident when I wasn't with who I said I was with, boom busted). I do keep the fact that I'm a raging feminist and lean liberal from them. My entire family are on the right (some of them the hard right) and that is a discussion I do NOT want to get into. 

drid

I think telling my Mom pretty bluntly that I smoked quite a bit of weed in high school, and indulged fairly recently on a trip to Amsterdam was one of the funniest moments I've experienced with her. Although I probably wouldn't have told her if she wasn't going off to me about my younger brother enjoying it. ..... I just still can't believe she had no clue! I've never gotten away with anything hahaha

Edit: cannot spell, has the dum

mrsconn23

There's a few things I didn't tell my parents or that I wouldn't bring up now.  But nothing too nefarious or anything, just shit that I know my mom would be all, "I didn't need to know that." 

glasgowtolondon

I still tell little white lies to my parents. I know its stupid, but they are incredibly highly strung people and even something innocuous can mean I end up on the wrong end of a lecture. I just find it easier to either not tell, or slightly alter the truth for an easier life. But I'm talking about things like 'no, I never let the car run down ro nearly empty' rather than anything actually important.

Heffalump

My mom has no idea, and I have no plans to tell her at this point.  But I don't lie anymore, because at this point what is she going to do, ground me? 

I can't even imagine my dad and me having anything even approaching that conversation.

*Barbie*

My parents are strictly on a need to know basis - although when I was in college, the guy I was dating let it slip to them that I had spent the previous weekend in Cleveland. They were a little surprised - although less surprised than when he took off his button down (he was wearing a t-shirt under it) to show them his tattoos.

(The Cleveland trip wasn't a big deal - some of our sorority members went to Case Western to help their newer chapter with rush. I didn't tell them in advance because I didn't feel like a lecture about cutting into study time or road trip safety - they were a bit overprotective. I lived on campus at the time so they just assumed I was at my dorm over the weekend.)

collegechic

Like PPs have said, I keep my sex life pretty much to myself. Except that I'm perfectly open with my Mom about everything, so really it's my Dad who gets lied to on that lolz. My FI is my first and only sexual partner and it wasn't until junior year on college, so my Mom and I had a very delayed totally open sex talk lolz.

I did have a heart-to-heart with my Mom about some high school stuff. About my depression, how I almost became bulimic but suffered from disordered eating (still sometimes do, but rarely), and about how my high school ex tried to force himself on me on our last date. She was stunned I never told her anything, I'm very open with her now about everything that concerns me, but I keep chit chat about my FI that could eventually be turned against him or questioned.