Not keeping secrets is the best policy when it comes to friends, family, and other loved ones. They have a tendency to come out, no matter how hard we try to keep them buried, and they’re often hurtful when they do.

Even knowing all of that (because everyone knows that!), these 10 parents have some whoppers that they’re hopping stay firmly in the closet their kids’ entire lives.

10. Life can be hard.

Many actually… That I was molested as a child. That I resent my parents. My history of petty crime and substance abuse. My depressive, borderline suicidal tendencies. Many many other things I am not proud of.

If you see me, you’d think I’m a picture perfect happy dad, while really, I’m dancing in a circle of demons. I love my kids more than anything in the world and for their own sake they cannot ever know any of it.

9. So romantic!

Let’s just say that Valentine’s Day we decided to play Mario Kart 8 drinking games. And next month we’re having a baby.

8. Those DNA tests will get you.

My dad had a love child with a woman who cuckholded her husband into believing it was his. Dad thought he took that secret to his grave…my half brother found my family about 3 years ago.

7. They might save you.

That I think about suicide wayyyyy too much.

6. One day he’ll want to know.

I may reconsider this in the future, but for now I have no intention of telling my son why I was in prison. I just got out Thursday (10-8-15) after two years. He asks why I was in “jail,” and is satisfied with the answer: “Because I did a crime.” He’s gonna be 6 in two weeks and he thinks that the word”crime” is one of those whisper-worthy words.

5. Wait until she’s older.

I don’t know if I’d want my daughter to know that her biological father used to beat me. I don’t know how I would explain to her that the man she looks up to like a dad isn’t biologically her father.

I just don’t want her knowing that half of her DNA comes from an abusive scumbag.

4. We’re all selfish sometimes.

How much I resent that they’ve ruined my body. Seriously my vagina is wrecked. I hate looking at it, I hate having sex because it hurts and I just can’t stand the thought of my partner seeing/touching it. I even hate going for a pee because when I wipe it just feels awful. This is AFTER corrective surgery btw. Also breastfeeding was hell and I don’t like my nipples touched at all. Plus my damn feet are a size bigger and I had to get rid of my favourite shoes :c

I love my kids deeply and this is obviously not their fault. Some women have easier births, some have more difficult ones. At least I didn’t die in childbirth! So yeah this is NOT something that affects my relationship with them, it’s something I will keep to myself.

3. This is kind of…sweet?

I lost my job at 24 and I couldn’t get any jobs. I didn’t have a degree in anything so after a year of being “poor” I decided to start doing sex work. After 2 years (always using condom) my condom broke, I noticed it quickly and I decided to tell the girl I was having sex with directly that evening.

I could have chosen the easy way and avoid all contact with her but I didn’t. After a few months of having contact it was clear that she was pregnant. I could have chosen the easy way but I decided to be a father for my future child. Just because I think every child needs a father.

Besides that I couldn’t live knowing that I had a son where I didn’t take any responsibility for.

I quit sex work, moved in with this girl, made sure everything was alright and 6 months later there he was: our beautiful son. The first years we didn’t tell him anything about our relationship because of obvious reasons.

When he was 7 and he really started asking questions we told him we were boyfriend and girlfriend but broke up when he was 3. We stayed together because we still like eachother but we don’t love eachother anymore. That’s what we told him and we’ll always keep it like that. Looking back on it, I don’t have any regrets.

Our son just turned 10 years old and he is a happy kid growing up as any other kid with a father and a mother. Seeing his smile makes my day. Is it the easiest way? Definitely not.

Is it the right way? Of course people have different opinions on it but I think I made the right choice and that’s what matters.

2. That is quite a tale.

I was in a bad 5 year long relationship. He introduced me to (hard) drugs and before long we were basically addicts. Anything we could do…coke, opiates, benzos, alcohol, Molly, E…it had become a problem.

I ended up in $15,000 in debt. Me and a married coworker of mine told each other we would leave our significant others and be together….we did just that. I quit everything (except weed) cold turkey, he filed for divorce and 3 months later I was pregnant.

Now we have a beautiful son and great relationship. But I will never tell our son that months before he was conceived I was a drug addict and his father was married to someone else.

1. It’s complicated.

That we considered adoption when my husband and I found out I was pregnant. We had just had a miscarriage and had decided to wait a few years. She was conceived the only time we had unprotected sex after the miscarriage (of course all sex while pregnant was unprotected).

But it didn’t take long to decide to keep her. She is absolutely loved and well cared for by us, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

I have to say, even if honesty is the best policy, I see why these parents would want to keep their secrets.

Are you hiding something like this? Tell us what it is in the comments!