Carrying a secret for years, even decades can be taxing. If you don't tell anyone about it, that means no one can justify what you did and you're stuck wondering if you're a decent human being all by yourself. Which isn't always fun.
So in an attempt to make everyone's life a little easier, Reddit user Dramatic_Bat3265 submitted a question to the platform, asking: "What's your dirty lil secret?" Immediately, people rushed to confess, and as of this publication, there are over 17,000 comments under the post, with sins ranging from small and funny to big and concerning. Here are some of them.
This post may include affiliate links.
I have a kitten I'm feeding without my wife's knowledge. She hates cats and I found one on the street. Every night before I go home I stop by the store and get cat food. She always asks me why I come home late every other night. I say I'm working. Or out with the guys, but I sit and talk to this stray cat about my problems and how mu day was. I named her senua. From senuas sacrifice.
I know exactly the rules for helping the children in my public education classroom but I still bring cold kids coats, hungry kids food, kids with terrible shoes better shoes, and hugs/long conversations for any child that asks. If any admin is pissed I’m giving a apple and a sandwich to a kid, I claim ignorance, the school system is so strained they won’t fire me so I am doing what I can during this time.
What the f**k is wrong with a world in which giving a child food or warm clothing is something you have to do in secret?!!!
I had a counselor who straight up turned some of my Ds to Bs when I changed schools before my senior year. I had a super rough home life and I told her about it when she asked why my test scores were very high and my grades were low. Thanks to her bumping up my GPA, I was able to get into college. I know it’s probably not 'right' and she risked her job, but that woman legit probably saved my life. I saw her about a year ago out in public and gave her the biggest hug.
The CEO of the company is a micromanager who wants to make even the tiniest decisions.
He has a coffee mug with the text: Rule 1: I am always right Rule 2: When not, see rule 1.
It might be a joke, but I feel it's a constant subliminal message he sends himself. So, I hid the mug a couple of months ago.
I just left the company last week, and did not return the mug.
ETA: Thanks for the awards, this is now my top comment.
At the time he looked for it frantically searching all offices and enquiring us if we are using 'his' mug.
I played dumb obviously and laughed my ass off.
I did not steal it, I am 6'6 no one else in the company is, and it sits on top of the kitchen cabinets, just out of sight and reach.
I lost the school spelling bee on purpose. The girl I was against put a lot of time and effort into it, whereas I basically just showed up. Plus, she was more on the nerdy side, not a lot going outside of school… and I felt she needed a victory. She missed a word, I purposefully missed it to keep her in. This happened a few times. Later, I missed one on purpose to give her the victory. She went on to the state competition. The teacher giving the words threw me a look of disgust, as she knew what I did. Oh well…
I'm a therapeutic foster parent. When kids leave us to go back home, I am usually really happy for them (unless I don't think their family is going to be able to handle things safely, then I am worried as could be) but I am also selfishly completely heartbroken. I think about our former kids all the time. When they go home, I try to write our name and phone number in a bunch of their books so they can maybe find us again. And I keep my Facebook page as unlocked as possible hoping they will feel they can reach out if they need anything. I want to foster forever, but I also wonder if I can keep saying goodbye like this. It absolutely guts me and I know I have no right to feel that way.
You have every right to your feelings. You are investing heavily, and have no control of the outcomes.
My ex-husband left, no warning, cheated pretended I didn’t exist. 1 year later he wants the sofa because he bought it! Due to the lock-down happing just after his request, he had to wait a while before he could pick it up. I proceeded to have sex all over that sofa, throughout lockdown, with new boyfriend! Ex now has the sofa back.
Third grade, 1953. Somebody passed out a box of lollipops to the class. There was an extra. I took it.
I can no longer live with this shame.
When I was ten, I stole a book from my school library. It was collection of short stories and I really liked it, so I borrowed it and never returned it. No one notice, but anyway I took one of my own books to replace it. Again, no one noticed. Turns out the book I took was a first edition, and really rare. And I still have it. [Edited note] After reading the comments, I have some things to say: 1. Thanks for all the comments of support and understanding. I do not meant to justify myself, but in my mind of the time me replacing the book with another was a way of taking it. 2. The library in question (or the school, for that matter) does no longer exist. I have no idea what happened to the books. 3. I do not intend to sell the book. 4. In case anyone is wondering, the book is a 1952 first edition of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles (yes, I was an odd kid). It was old and falling apart when I took it and I repaired it myself with cellotape many times. Later I had it rebinded. I doubt it is valuable as a collectible now.
When i was in high school, i failed second semester of biology. So here comes the next year and i have to retake it. Again, i pass first semester but fail second semester which means retaking the entire class.
Well, i transferred schools after that. When i was getting all my transfer information looked over in the office at the new school, the woman noticed i had two passed first semesters but never passed a full class.
I said “passing two semesters is KINDA like the full class”, she winked, and that was that. no more bio.
so i guess it’s OUR dirty little secret.
When I was 15 or 16, I was in an abusive relationship and he would want to go out and I had to pay, but if I didn't have money he would get mad. So I would take money out of my grandma's savings box every time he would make me go out.
It made me so guilty, but she never said anything, so over the years and after a lot of therapy now that I'm an adult and have a job and all, I put money from my salary in her box without her noticing. I think I've already paid back everything I took, but I don't want to stop. It hurts to think if she ever was affected by what I did...no matter the reason I did it.
I got an $8,000 dollar scholarship, due to a clerical error, for having above a 3.7 GPA all semester but my GPA was actually 3.07
A co-worker retired and I inherited one of his reports, which is one of my employer's Key Performance Metrics. Every two weeks it would take him an entire 8 hour day to complete.
The first week I was able to automate most of it down to 1 hour. Over the next nearly 10 years, I've improved it to the point that it runs in less than a minute, then 14 minutes to quality check it. I then spend the next 8 hours surfing reddit, watching movies, doing whatever I want in my office from home.
All this time, I've told my boss it takes me 8 hour to perform, and sometimes I'll tack on extra hours because of "technical issues". No questions asked as long as its in his inbox by COB Friday.
About 8 years ago I had a conversation with a coworker who works for my boss' boss. It turns out he recieves the report on Monday and never reads it. It gets filed away and the only time they get looked at is during an audit. I've had to discuss the reports just twice, and showed them an "SOP" I wrote that demostrates how it's done (without the automation). Auditor checks the box, next item...
Whenever I'm on vacation, I turn the SOP over to someone else who'll have to compile the report by hand. When I get back, they've alway mentioned "How do you do all that in just 8 hours???" At this point I've charged my boss nearly an entire year for sitting on my [butt]
I never wrote my 7th grade science paper on Dysentery, and when my teacher asked me if I turned it in, I said yes.
She looked through all of the papers and stacks of paperwork on her very crowded desk, and she said she "knew she saw it there somewhere."
I got a B for a paper I never wrote.
Sorry Ms. Weber.
I felt so guilty half my life. Did this once, actually when I was too young to get what I was doing, but old enough to feel bad about it? I took the same topic this presentation was about and aced it in my academic career later on. And I have never done it again, and never will. Honesty is key.
I slept with my mom’s friend. She was younger than my mom. She was 32 and I was 20 at the time. She stopped me one day as I was walking by her apartment and asked if I could take a look at her laptop because the “wifi wasn’t working.” I said of course and started looking for the cause of it. While I was on her couch with the laptop she comes out of the kitchen with a bottle of tequila and two shot glasses. At that point I knew the real reason I was there. Needless to say, there was nothing wrong with her wifi.
Don't mean to be that person but if the roles were reversed and a 32 year old man would lure in a 20 year old woman like that, everyone'd get the shivers. I mean, at least he was an adult.
When I was a kid, my mom took away my favorite computer game CD for a few weeks as punishment for something I did. (Bad grade I think?)
I found where she hid it, photocopied the CD label, cut out the print, glued it to a blank disk, and put that in the place of the real CD. (Surprisingly she never noticed!)
I played it when no one else was home. Its been 18 years, and I still haven't told her!
My parents had an old rotary phone in the late 80s early 90s that they could put a lock on to stop me from using. I was in town one day and my mother gave me some groceries to put back in the car and gave me her keys. There on her key chain was the key to the phone lock. I took it to a shop that cut keys and used my allowance to get the key copied. It worked. To this day even though they are both dead they never knew why their phone bill was a little higher each month.
I act a lot stupider at work so they don’t rely on me too much
I get this. My sister just quit her job today because she was being exploited for her labor. She was in an entry level position but so smart and great at what she did, they dumped the responsibility of a former supervisor on her and now she’s managing 10 interns at the same salary she was hired for and that a handful of others who don’t do extra make. When she tried to negotiate they used her lack of experience in the job and the fact that these were unpaid interns as an excuse to not give her a cent extra. In her meeting with her boss and HR they mentioned how smart and quick to learn she was over a dozen times. If only she had acted a little less intelligent. This happens on subtle and micro levels all the time. Your intelligence will be exploited, just as your ignorance will.
When our phone was disconnected (1990's) for non-payment, I dialed 911 to see if they would still pickup (they did) but I hung up right away. Ten minutes later the cops showed up at my door, and I blamed it on the kids.
It wasn’t raccoons that spilled that paint in the garage in 1993. It was me
When I was a kid, I farted into a little box over and over for a full year. It was a tin some christmas cookies came in with a picture of Santa on it. Every single time I had to fart, I lifted the lid, “put it in the box”, and quickly closed it. Before long, the box was successfully weaponized and ready for deployment. When my brother was mean to me, I’d steal his Oakleys (expensive horrible 90’s sunglasses) and put them in the box to, um, marinate overnight. Then I’d quietly return them.
My brother continually complained to my mom about how they smelled and that they’d sold him “a bad pair,” and wanted new ones. She was like hell no dude. So he just kept wearing them til they broke.
So basically I farted into my brother’s eyes for a year. Never told anyone.
I'm actually quite impressed with the physics of this.... didn't know you could do that! :D
When I was about 8-9 I was sent to a summer camp for 1 month. My sister, who was 14, also was there. Never been away from my parents before. This camp was located around Lake Delton wisconsin. I remember the cabins in the woods. Now I don't know if I had arachnophobia before this experience, but I recall that the toilet stalls had dozens of daddy longleg spiders all over, and I was so scared I just held It in for about 4-5 days. Well.. One day I just couldn't hold it anymore and had to make a run for the toilets. I semi ran/walked to The toilets, trying to hold it in, made it In to the main area where the sinks are and just couldn't hold it anymore and just quickly, with one hand, pulled down my pants from behind and dropped the biggest dump on the tile floor, all while still in motion towards the toilet. Thank God no one was in there to see this. When I stepped out, a large group had formed out side and inside one of the staff was covering his face with one hand and holding a hoes in the other.No one suspected me.. .. I thanked God that no one found this out as if they had, the rest of my stay there would have been utter torment.
Fast forward about 30 years.. Im at my parents house with my wife.. My sister is there as well, brothers. Anyway.. We're talking and camp comes up. Told her that it was Me who did that... She nearly laughed to death, Saying "the entire camp talked about this all summer". Hate spiders up until this day.
Good times.
"Hose." A staff member in a group "holding his face and a hoes" has an entirely different meaning and would certainly have beaten your incident for top gossip of the summer. =)
I’d only just begun paying off a vehicle loan in mid 1999. My January payment was returned with the bank saying it was paid off. Not even close. Thanks Y2K.
I’m not that good at IT, I can google like no other.
My friend that is all I.T is, learning how to google and understanding that all roads lead to stack overflow
I came clean a few years ago. But in the 4th and 5th grade I had an obsession with sharp things like knives and razors and would bring them to school. One day our teacher was reading a book and I was messing with the razor behind my back and cut the overhead projectors cord and flipped the breakers for the room. They could tell I cut it but never found the razor blade I hid.
20 years later I find my teacher on FB who still teaches at the same school. I fessed up and told him where he might find the razor blade in the classroom. Sure enough all these years later he found the blade with a hole burned in it from the shock. He decided to keep it as a souvenir from his very first year teaching.
When I was about 8 i was in a supermarket with my mum and she had to use the bathroom. I was sat on the bench outside waiting and there was one of those “press to break glass” fire alarms on the wall. I wanted to know how hard you had to press it… not very hard as it turns out.
The whole store had to leave their shopping and go outside, well over 100 people. Not sure what happened after that because we just went home.
It’s been 20 years and I’ve still never told anyone.
Cheated on my CV to add some skills and certificates I don’t have to match a Google position… but after 5 years I mastered all of them and became a team manager ..
Still a black hole I still can’t get through
As long as they are asking for a PhD to re-stock shelves, you are legally allowed to lie about your qualifications.
5yr old me ruined my parents marriage. I distinctly remember finding what I now know is a condom(unused) in our old station wagon. Me not knowing any better began playing with it. Got done tossed it in the trash. Fast forward a short time later. My father returns home and begins to drag the can to the road. As he closes the lid he notices said condom and you can guess where it goes from there. I didn’t learn that was the reason until I was about 14-15.
You did not ruin their marriage. lies and deceit between adults did that
One time when I was 10-12 ish, I told a group of friends that I brushed my teeth with hot water instead of cold water (our cultural norm) just to seem quirky or cool, and man did it get the reaction I was hoping for. However, it was all a lie. I did brush with cold water. And this lie was too heavy for my pre-teen soul, so every day since then I have brushed my teeth with hot water, despite being 15 years older. I feel trapped in my hot teeth scrubbing sentence yet it feels right as a punishment for lying.
I've brushed my teeth with hot water for sad long as I can remember. It feels better on my teeth and I feel like it's a little more sanitary.
I was 10 ... My parents had been working day and night to get their start up business off the ground. ... After several months of spending my afternoons alone ... I decided to diversify my entertainment selection. I proceeded to ransack their entire office ... I broke a window and two lamps, smashed the legs off a chair, and pulled every file from the cabinets and tossed them around the room like confetti. I then called my mother and told her I’d just gotten home and found the place burglarized.
She told me to get out of the house, and called 911 on her way home. The cops arrived with their sirens blaring at about the same time she rolled up. They stormed the house with guns drawn, screaming, 'Come out with your hands up!' When I saw them going all Delta force through my front door, I knew that I had probably gone a little too far this time. Long story short, a detective came to take a report after the patrol cops had cleared the premises. As I was sitting on my living room sofa, surrounded by the tattered remains of my dirty work, the detective looked me dead in the eyes and said, 'There was no break in, was there?' The man looked right into my soul and knew the truth. ... Thankfully, I was young enough to escape any criminal charges.
My freshman year of highschool, I ditched class so much that I flunked the year. I moved to a different town over the summer and somehow they lost my "permanent record" in the mail. (Early 90s, so they had computers, but they weren't integrated between school districts, so it was just a fat folder of paperwork.) Anyway, when the new school realized this, they called me in and asked what classes and grades I had, so I straight up lied my way out of having to retake freshman year.
I (M25) had a threesome with two co-workers (M40 & F33). Now she's pregnant with her husband (atleast we think that it's his)
Note: this post originally had 46 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
When I was 15 in the mid 90's, I found a phone number that would just ring and ring. I told my mom it was my friend Cindy's house phone, and I would spend the night at her house every weekend. Really, I was going to punk shows, parties, and spending the night at boy's houses. I did have a friend names Cindy, but I never once spent the night at her house.
In the early 80's I was 16-17. My best friend and I would each tell our parents that we were spending the night at the other's house. Neither parents ever called to verify. I don't even think that either parents had the other parent's number. That was normal in those days. Instead we'd go to parties where we'd drink and smoke weed. One of our friend's' parents was out of town a lot so we'd stay at his house. (I'm married to that man now.)
Load More Replies...
I am a nurse at a children’s hospital and I always give the kids little gifts and say it’s from the hospital but really from me :)
remember when i was in highschool ( i was 15 i think) they was a girl i know for a long time. never really talked to her ( i was scared of girl when i was younger) but i always had a crush on her. remember i just saw the movie Cyrano de Bergerac (with Depardieu) and i don't know it just give me a boost to try something. i wrote her a letter and just slip it in her school desk. but was too scared to put my name so i just put the first letter of my first and last name together F + L if you fused them it makes a E. but i decide to erased it but not enough it was still there. so the day after that i remember her coming to class (she was sit just beside me) she was M-A-D!!! OMG i feel so bad. i was too scared to even say of do something as i heard her. i never was so scared of my life. she never knew and never told her. i told that only to one of my friend who never told her too but for what i knew she never have ideas of who it was. i never did that kind of thing again.
Yes, we stole the idea from Chunk from Goonies. We bought cans of cream corn, peas, cream of mushroom etc to make "vomit". Roosevelt Theatre, in Kenosha, a historic theatre. We went to the balcony, made the puking sound and spilled our vomit over the edge. It was closed over a month for hazmat cleaning. When Raider's of the list arc was playing at said theatre, during the snake scene, we toßes small rubber snakes and worms over the balcony.
In high school there was a guy who was a bully. Came from a rich family and got away with everything. Oddly enough, his name was donald. One day, after class, he forgot his wallet on his desk. I took it and went through it and found phone numbers, including his home number. I called it, changed my voice and said i was a truant officer with the school. I spoke to his mother and asked why he was ditching class and was facing suspension. She was not a happy mom...😁. The next day donald came in and looked worried and was hunched over, compared to his usual bullying behavior. I told a close friend about it and we sat there in class and laughed at him the whole time. He was still a jerk but it was satisfying knowing i made his life miserable if even just for a day. Maybe even longer. You're welcome donald.
When I was 8 I was invited to a pool party. Well we all are a ton of food and later the mom tells us the only toilet is broken and.not flushing. Of course I had to go number 2 pretty bad and it became downright painful. So while everyone was off snacking I jumped into the pool and took a huuuge poop much to my horror the poos were floating and they were big. I got out and went about party business. Later the girls all jumped in the pool. One of them dove to get a sinking toy but grabbed a number two instead and came up screaming while another floater passed by another girl's face they all began screaming and fleeing the pool. I got blamed on the toddler that had been in the pool for a bit. I am laughing as I type this out remembering it haha
was/am terrible at math so i needed a tutor in college in order to meet requirements for graduation. the tutor worked with the professor and she was known to be good with helping so he never questioned her practices. the prof would assign only the 'even' numbered problems so she thought giving me the 'odd' ones would be great for practice. come the final, it was all the odd problems which i had written down in my book so basically just copied them. after grading i felt guilty for 'fessed up to the prof and his response was that i had at least done the problems so no problem.
When I was 15 in the mid 90's, I found a phone number that would just ring and ring. I told my mom it was my friend Cindy's house phone, and I would spend the night at her house every weekend. Really, I was going to punk shows, parties, and spending the night at boy's houses. I did have a friend names Cindy, but I never once spent the night at her house.
In the early 80's I was 16-17. My best friend and I would each tell our parents that we were spending the night at the other's house. Neither parents ever called to verify. I don't even think that either parents had the other parent's number. That was normal in those days. Instead we'd go to parties where we'd drink and smoke weed. One of our friend's' parents was out of town a lot so we'd stay at his house. (I'm married to that man now.)
Load More Replies... I am a nurse at a children’s hospital and I always give the kids little gifts and say it’s from the hospital but really from me :)
remember when i was in highschool ( i was 15 i think) they was a girl i know for a long time. never really talked to her ( i was scared of girl when i was younger) but i always had a crush on her. remember i just saw the movie Cyrano de Bergerac (with Depardieu) and i don't know it just give me a boost to try something. i wrote her a letter and just slip it in her school desk. but was too scared to put my name so i just put the first letter of my first and last name together F + L if you fused them it makes a E. but i decide to erased it but not enough it was still there. so the day after that i remember her coming to class (she was sit just beside me) she was M-A-D!!! OMG i feel so bad. i was too scared to even say of do something as i heard her. i never was so scared of my life. she never knew and never told her. i told that only to one of my friend who never told her too but for what i knew she never have ideas of who it was. i never did that kind of thing again.
Yes, we stole the idea from Chunk from Goonies. We bought cans of cream corn, peas, cream of mushroom etc to make "vomit". Roosevelt Theatre, in Kenosha, a historic theatre. We went to the balcony, made the puking sound and spilled our vomit over the edge. It was closed over a month for hazmat cleaning. When Raider's of the list arc was playing at said theatre, during the snake scene, we toßes small rubber snakes and worms over the balcony.
In high school there was a guy who was a bully. Came from a rich family and got away with everything. Oddly enough, his name was donald. One day, after class, he forgot his wallet on his desk. I took it and went through it and found phone numbers, including his home number. I called it, changed my voice and said i was a truant officer with the school. I spoke to his mother and asked why he was ditching class and was facing suspension. She was not a happy mom...😁. The next day donald came in and looked worried and was hunched over, compared to his usual bullying behavior. I told a close friend about it and we sat there in class and laughed at him the whole time. He was still a jerk but it was satisfying knowing i made his life miserable if even just for a day. Maybe even longer. You're welcome donald.
When I was 8 I was invited to a pool party. Well we all are a ton of food and later the mom tells us the only toilet is broken and.not flushing. Of course I had to go number 2 pretty bad and it became downright painful. So while everyone was off snacking I jumped into the pool and took a huuuge poop much to my horror the poos were floating and they were big. I got out and went about party business. Later the girls all jumped in the pool. One of them dove to get a sinking toy but grabbed a number two instead and came up screaming while another floater passed by another girl's face they all began screaming and fleeing the pool. I got blamed on the toddler that had been in the pool for a bit. I am laughing as I type this out remembering it haha
was/am terrible at math so i needed a tutor in college in order to meet requirements for graduation. the tutor worked with the professor and she was known to be good with helping so he never questioned her practices. the prof would assign only the 'even' numbered problems so she thought giving me the 'odd' ones would be great for practice. come the final, it was all the odd problems which i had written down in my book so basically just copied them. after grading i felt guilty for 'fessed up to the prof and his response was that i had at least done the problems so no problem.
