Reddit Stories - My parent INSISTED that I CONCEAL my PREGNANCY and infant child, so that

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #familydrama #parentingadvice #secrets #pregnancy #concealmentSummary: My parent INSISTED that I CONCEAL my PREGNANCY and infant child, so that I could focus on my stud...ies. But the burden of hiding such a significant part of my life took a toll on me, leading to a difficult decision that would change everything.Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, familydrama, parentingadvice, secrets, pregnancy, concealment, relationships, family, parenting, decisionmaking, personalstruggle, lifechanging, emotionalstress, supportsystem, difficultchoices, lifelessonsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 I hope you enjoy this story. My parent insisted that I conceal my pregnancy and infant child, so that my sibling could receive all the focus at her marriage ceremony, but when I declined, she attempted to manipulate my child. Up for adoption without my knowledge using fake legal documents. So my sister is getting married at the end of this year, and I gave birth to my son about three weeks ago. Everybody was happy about this, apart from my mother,
Starting point is 00:00:27 and I wasn't even surprised because to her, nothing is more important than her darling baby, and that happens to be my little sister. I obviously got pregnant a while ago, and my sister got engaged to her boyfriend of three years when I was six months pregnant. Anybody who understands math would know that by the time my sister got married, would have already given birth to the baby. It would have been one thing if my sister was the kind of person who wanted a small wedding and would plan it quickly, but she wanted an elaborate and grand wedding, which would obviously take a lot of time. She and her fiance had been quite clear about that right from the beginning. But even then, a couple of
Starting point is 00:01:04 weeks after their engagement, my mom showed up at my house looking all worried. She told me that she wanted me to do something about my pregnancy because she didn't want me to upset my sister. My sister and I are not close in the slightest. She's a spoiled brat, and ever since my father passed away a couple of years ago, we've had no contact. The only reason I even stayed in touch with my mother after my dad's passing was because I had promised him that I would look after her, since he didn't think my sister would be up to the task, she was just not responsible enough. Even though my sister had always been my mom's favorite, I had tried my best to maintain a relationship with her. That changed recently when she showed up at my house to tell
Starting point is 00:01:45 me that my sister was engaged in getting married. I thought she had just come over to share the good news with me, but she then went on to tell me that since I was giving birth the same year she was getting married, it would take away her limelight because obviously a pregnancy was a bigger milestone than a wedding. I don't even understand what that was about, and I told her she was being unnecessarily paranoid. First of all, it's not like people would skip her wedding because I had a baby or whatever. I wasn't even going to be invited to her wedding since she hadn't even been invited to mine, were not friends, so there was no way I could overshadow her. I wouldn't even be there, and she and my mom had nothing to worry about. I'm not some celebrity, so I was pretty
Starting point is 00:02:25 sure that even at her wedding, nobody would be talking about me or my baby. I thought these were all valid points, but my mother told me I needed to hide my pregnancy and my baby from everyone in the family and all our common friends as well because she didn't want me to steal my sister's limelight. I thought it was crazy and got into a huge fight with her, after which I didn't speak to her anymore. I felt bad about breaking my promise to my father, but there was no other option for me because she was obviously acting crazy. I was already pregnant and quite irritable. I just couldn't handle her idiotic statements. She hasn't been there for anything after that. It's just been me, my husband, and his family taking care of the baby ever since he was born. My mother wasn't even
Starting point is 00:03:09 there for the birth of the child. My husband had called her that day, but she had refused to show up since she was out with my sister. I'm pretty sure that even if she hadn't been out with her, she still wouldn't have shown up because I'm just not a priority for her, and that's the bitter truth. If she could have abandoned her own daughter and our relationship because she thought I was stealing the limelight from my sister just by giving birth, then I had nothing to say to her.
Starting point is 00:03:33 Because of all these things, we had absolutely no contact, and I was fine with it. But then she called me up a couple of days ago. When I didn't answer initially, she started texting me frantically and told me to answer the call because she had to talk to me about something very important that had happened. It was clear she had some bad news to share with me. I really didn't want to talk to her, but I kept thinking about the promise I had made to my father and decided to answer her. I'm really glad I did because that's how I found out she was in legal
Starting point is 00:04:04 trouble. She had tried to put my baby up for adoption without our consent, and the adoption agency found out about it. It was a case of fraud and misrepresentation because a Apparently she had contacted an adoption agency and falsely claimed that she had power of attorney. She told them that both my husband and I were addicts and had been deemed unfit to take care of our baby by the court, so as the custodial caretaker of the baby, she had decided to put him up for adoption. Obviously, they easily found out that all the legal documentation she provided had been fake and immediately stopped the process.
Starting point is 00:04:37 Now they were going to take this up legally. She was calling me because she was scared about what was about to happen next. She had been informed that they were going to take legal action against her and that she would be served in a couple of days. But before they could find out how to contact me and inform me, she decided to tell me about it herself so I would be able to help her out somehow. She had been crying on the phone and begging me to help her out, but I could hardly understand how she could expect me to help her when she had done something so horrible. I could understand that she wanted my sister to have all the limelight, but going out of her way to put my baby up for adoption, that was just disgusting. and I think it was pretty stupid as well. This way, it's just going to bring more attention to me
Starting point is 00:05:18 because now I plan on suing her too. After she explained the situation to me, I just disconnected the phone call because I had nothing to say to her anymore. I didn't feel bad for her at all. In fact, I thought she deserved this and even worse. Later that day, I was contacted by the adoption agency so they could let me know what was going on
Starting point is 00:05:39 and I could do what was needed. I had already spoken to my husband after my mother's phone call, and after the adoption agency contacted us as well, the two of us decided we were going to pursue legal action against her because there was no way she could do something like that and hope to get away with it. We spoke to a lawyer a day after that, and within a few days we had filed a civil lawsuit against her. The proceedings against her are going to start soon, but given the seriousness of the situation, criminal charges have been filed against her as well, so there's little to no scope for mediation. The best she can hope for is an
Starting point is 00:06:13 of court settlement or maybe a plea bargain for the criminal charges, but even then she might be facing jail time. She's under house arrest right now, but she can still contact me, and that's why she's been sending me emails one after the other, begging me to help her out somehow. She's been apologizing and telling me that she just got carried away because she had been very upset with my decision not to hide my baby and my pregnancy for my sister's sake. Obviously, she knows it was a messed up thing to do, and she's really sorry for it. I have been able to ignore her so far, but then she hit me where it hurt yesterday and reminded me that I had promised my father that no matter what, I would always take care of her, and this didn't seem like taking care of her right now. That kind of caught me off guard because I had had that conversation with my father in private, and I didn't even know that she knew about that promise I had made.
Starting point is 00:07:02 So now, am I the asshole for suing my mother for trying to put my baby up for adoption without my consent or knowledge? update one i have decided not to drop the civil lawsuit against her she deserves this she brought this on herself and i'm not going to back down just because of the promise i made i had taken it very seriously for the past couple of years ever since my father passed away and i had tried my best to live up to the promise i made but at this moment it's just emotional manipulation emotional manipulation at its finest which is why i almost fell for it as well I using my father to defend herself, that's just low. A lot of people have criticized me for even bothering to live up to the promise for so long
Starting point is 00:07:47 when it was so evident that my mother couldn't care less about me. But I don't know if you guys have ever lost a parent, that stuff is heavy. I lost my father to cancer, so this was literally a promise I made to him on his deathbed. I don't know about everybody else, but that's not the kind of thing I can take lightly, and that's why I'd been putting up with my mother for so long. but this is crossing a line now that I have made up my mind nothing can make me back down
Starting point is 00:08:13 and even my husband thinks I have made the right call I'm not even asking for a lot of money I just want her to pay whatever I have spent on her in the past couple of years because I have been taking care of her since my sister wouldn't spend even a dollar on her to be fair to her though she doesn't spend any money on anybody apart from herself
Starting point is 00:08:31 so it's not very surprising it's probably the reason why my father asked me to be there for my mom but I don't think he could have seen something like this happening at any point in the future. I'm sure he will forgive me for this, and even if he doesn't, I still have to do it for my own sake. I also thought it through, her having to pay back the money she owes me is not going to cost her anything. I know for a fact that my father had not only left her the house but a substantial sum of money as well, so she will be able to get by. Even apart from that, she has her brother to take care of her after me.
Starting point is 00:09:04 Even if she does lose everything because of this lawsuit, it's still not going to be any of my concern because I have tried my very best, and it's not been enough. I don't think anything will ever be enough for her. I am done trying to be a good daughter. I'm simply a mother now, and that's my only priority. Update 2. It's been a few weeks since my last update. We are currently in the process of mediating since everybody wants to settle the civil lawsuit out of court. It has to hasn't been going well so far, and we have had to terminate every session after a while because my mother would get too emotional and would start screaming. I don't know if that's her strategy or if she's actually losing it. Whatever the case is, it's just delaying the inevitable,
Starting point is 00:09:48 and I don't think she realizes that there is no way out of this for her. My uncle has also reached out to me to try and convince me to back off. He has told me that the amount I'm demanding from her as a settlement is way too huge and unfair. He has also brought up the fact that she was the one who had raised me from when I was a baby, and this is really ungrateful of me not to forgive her for one stupid little mistake. But that's the thing, it was not a stupid little mistake. She had literally falsified documentation, and I don't think if it had been a heat-of-the-moment decision, she would have been able to come up with that. It was all premeditated, and that's the scary part because by some fluke, if the adoption agency
Starting point is 00:10:28 hadn't done its due diligence, she probably wouldn't even have been caught. The more I think about situation, the less forgiving I feel, and I feel like no amount of money is ever going to make up for what she did. At least I'm being kind enough to only demand whatever I had spent on her so far, not a single dollar more. Obviously, that's not mentioned anywhere in the paperwork, so he wouldn't know that. But even when I mentioned that to him, he still told me it was extremely unfair of me to do so. After a while, I started getting agitated, and I really didn't want to fight with him because so far, my uncle and I have not had a bad relationship, and I do not want to ruin that. But since he seemed bent on doing exactly that, I started
Starting point is 00:11:10 fighting with him as well. I told him that if he cared so much about his sister, then maybe he should just bail her out by offering to bear the cost of the settlement himself. And then we could be done with this a lot quicker. That's when he started yelling at me and calling me all sorts of names, and I ended the phone call because clearly there was no point in speaking to him anymore. I don't even understand how anybody can find themselves defending her right now given the circumstances. On one hand, I had my uncle, and on the other, I have my sister, who has been insufferable ever since she found out about the lawsuit against our mother. I don't know why, but she has been making me out to be the villain in this situation, claiming that I'm doing this all because I want
Starting point is 00:11:52 to get back at her and my mom for not paying me enough attention. At least my uncle had the guts to come and speak to me directly. She has been speaking behind my back to everybody we know, and that's how everybody in the family has been able to find out about the lawsuit. I really didn't want that happening because I didn't want to answer questions since this is really personal and kind of disturbing, and I didn't think it was necessary for me to talk to people about this. But since she has been talking everybody's ear off about it,
Starting point is 00:12:19 people have had a lot of questions and have been reaching out to me as well. So even though I didn't want to bring it up with anyone, right now, I'm having to answer questions. The only reason I'm even doing it is because at some point, I might have to get them to testify if this goes to court, so I'm just consoling myself by telling myself that this was bound to come out at some point or the other, so better now than later. But the bigger problem is the narrative that my sister has been setting, like I got vindictive and stuff, and that's why I'm pursuing this legally. I don't even think she understands the gravity of what our mother has been trying to do, and this is not some sort of sibling rivalry that
Starting point is 00:12:54 manifesting itself in the form of lawsuits. I don't even understand how somebody can be so stupid and self-involved, but well, it's my sister, so it's not very surprising. After all, she's my mother's true daughter. I have been speaking to the rest of my family, and it's kind of funny that this whole thing had actually started because my mother wanted my sister's wedding to be the event of the year. That's why she wanted me to hide my pregnancy and my baby. But now, because of her own actions, this is going to be the family highlight for a long time to come, not just this year. I hate to acknowledge it, but it's pretty scandalous from a gossip point of view. If I myself had not been involved in this directly, I probably would have found it pretty
Starting point is 00:13:37 juicy as well. It sounds a bit trashy to say out loud, but it's really just poetic justice for my sister because now not even her wedding can top something like this. Update 3. My mother has agreed to our terms, and soon enough we will be receiving our settlement money. But apart from that, she's still under trial for her criminal charges right now. She and her lawyer are doing their best to get her out of it without any jail time, but for now it's looking bleak from what I know. I have already been asked to testify by the prosecution, and so have the people from the adoption agency, so let's see how that goes. Apart from that, even my sister and a couple of other people from the family who are close to us
Starting point is 00:14:17 have also been contacted. It's been a couple of weeks since our last update, and so far things have been going well for our family. We even managed to sneak in a short weekend trip with our son so we could go and see his great-grandparents. I don't mean my grandparents, they're not around anymore, but thankfully my husband's grandparents are still around. When we went to see them and spoke to them about whatever was going on in our family, they told me I was doing the right thing by stepping up for my child. I even shared the guilt I was feeling because I had broken my promise to my father, but they told me I had nothing to feel bad about because if my father had been around, he would have probably told me to go for it because
Starting point is 00:14:55 this is just insane. That made me feel considerably better about everything, and I guess I really needed a change of scenery because when I came back, I started feeling really refreshed. It had definitely been quite a distressing experience for me so far because even though my mother and I had had differences in the past, it had never gone to these levels. In the last couple of sessions with our lawyers, she had probably realized that screaming and terminating our sessions was not going to make anything better and eventually it would end up going to court, and that would probably end even more badly for her. So probably at the advice of her lawyer, she decided to behave herself and let her lawyer do all the talking. She would hardly even look at me, and even when
Starting point is 00:15:36 she would, she would look very quickly, like she couldn't bring herself to even glance at me. I think it's a good thing because she doesn't deserve to feel like she has the right to even see me anymore. My uncle and my sister are still actively spreading hate against me in the family, but that hardly matters to me because anybody who wants to be on my side is going to be on my side nevertheless. People who just want to gossip, I'm sure they are going to stick to the sidelines and not actively get involved, so they don't pose any threat to me. As long as that's happening, I'm fine with whatever they're saying about me because I'm secure enough to know that it won't make the truth change just because they're saying it. Update 4. It's been a little over a month
Starting point is 00:16:16 since my last update. My mother had agreed to my terms, and a couple of weeks ago our settlement money finally came through. We are setting that aside for our son's future because we can do without that money right now. We're quite happy with it because this was the money we were owed. This is what I had been spending on my mother in the past couple of years after my father passed away. My sister knows that, but in spite of that, she showed up the other day and started accusing me of ruining her wedding because apparently our mother had promised her that she would pay for part of the wedding. Now, since I had sued her and taken back all the money, our mother won't be able to live up to that anymore, and it's all my fault, apparently.
Starting point is 00:16:56 It was crazy because literally while she was yelling at me about it, she had mentioned it herself, that I had taken back all the money. That meant it was originally mine, so it's not like she wasn't aware of the situation. In spite of that, she still thought it was appropriate to be yelling at me instead of questioning why any of this was happening at all. When she showed up, I hadn't even let her in, so I had been speaking to her at the door. The second she started yelling at me, I slammed the door shut because I really didn't need this. I was already quite busy with work because even though I was on maternity leave, I was still trying to work from home so I wouldn't be overwhelmed when I rejoined. On top of that, I had to look after my son as well,
Starting point is 00:17:38 so I didn't have time for this drama. But even when I shut the door, She didn't take the hint and continue to stand outside and scream about how unfair everything had been for her. After a while, when she still didn't leave, I started to get annoyed and decided to call the cops. Within a couple of minutes, they had shown up. While they were dragging her away, she started cursing at me so loudly that even the neighbors, who had probably been peeking outside from behind the curtains until then, actually came out to watch what was going on.
Starting point is 00:18:08 It was extremely embarrassing. While she was cursing at me, she also said a bunch of concerning things about me and my child. I don't want to repeat that, but they were pretty threatening, and I didn't feel comfortable with it at all. I had already called my husband up and told him what was going on as soon as I had called the cops, so he came back home earlier than usual. I told him whatever my sister had been saying, or rather threatening us with, while the cops were dragging her away. One of the officers had even suggested we file a restraining order because obviously there was something very wrong going on with her, and we do think it would be a good idea to go ahead with the restraining
Starting point is 00:18:45 order because I really don't feel safe anymore. Now that I think about it, she not only knows where I live, she knows every other way how to contact me. If she took it upon herself to try and make me feel uncomfortable, she would easily succeed in doing so. I'm not saying she's going to go ahead and do whatever she had threatened me with, but even apart from that, there are other ways to intimidate a person, and I'm just scared because I'm a mother now and I don't want episodes like this repeating again. After a really long discussion with my husband, we decided we were going to move. I had already been planning to change my phone number and other contact info so that people wouldn't be able to contact me without having a good relationship with me first.
Starting point is 00:19:25 It's not even just about my sister. I have had a lot of messages and phone calls from people who only want to gossip, and it's getting really annoying at this point. So that was another reason for me to change everything because the last thing I need is visitors who only want to talk about this situation and gossip about it. My husband has been doing well for himself, and if we need to, we can just ask my in-laws to help out as well. But we will definitely be moving, and we will also definitely be filing for a restraining order against my sister because she's clearly unhinged, and I don't want her coming around anymore. Everything has been pretty expensive for us so far because we had to pay for our lawyer, and of course we have a newborn with us, so even
Starting point is 00:20:05 that's pretty expensive. The finances have been a bit tight recently, and with the move and everything, it's probably going to get even more expensive for us. But when I think about my son, it seems worth the trouble. I'm honestly just really tired of everything, but my husband and my son are the only people who keep me going and motivated to do better. I don't think I said it enough, but I'm really happy and lucky to have found a partner who understands me so well. I would say I'm pretty lucky that even his family has been standing by me throughout all this. To be frank, after my dad had passed away, it was mostly my in-laws who had been there for me, even more than my own mother. I know for a fact that not everybody is lucky enough to have such wonderful
Starting point is 00:20:48 in-laws, so I'm very thankful for them as well. It has been a really messy and exhausting past couple of months, and I'm just really hoping that it comes to an end soon. Update 5. Last week, the verdict of my mother's trial finally came through, and she has been convicted on all charges. Since she's a first-time offender, she's going to have to pay a huge fine as restitution to both the adoption agency and me, along with several hours of community service. She has been able to dodge incarceration, but she does have to attend court-mandated mental health treatment in a rehabilitation facility since her lawyer made it seem like she had been going through some psychological issues. I'm not in touch with her anymore and haven't been ever since she
Starting point is 00:21:30 agreed to the terms of our civil lawsuit and we came to a settlement. I found out about it from a couple of family members, and well, I guess it's fair enough. I also managed to get a restraining order against my sister soon after my last update, so that's another win for me. We are currently in the process of moving houses, and it's a bit stressful, but we can handle it. Especially with the money that's about to come in, it's been a huge relief for us, so we might not need to ask our in-laws for help at all. We won't even need to dip into the settlement money that we had decided to put aside for our son, so it's all worked out in our favor. Even though my mother got lucky legally, she hadn't been so lucky in her personal life. I've been hearing a lot of gossip and have even been sent
Starting point is 00:22:14 screenshots of my sister's recent posts on social media. She has denounced everything that her mother has done so far, going as far as to claim that she had no knowledge of any of this until recently and that she doesn't agree with my mother's behavior at all and thinks that she deserves to get convicted. That's not what she had been saying to me before everything went wrong, before that, she had been strongly on our mother's side. From what I know, she did this because her fiancé and her in-laws had not been comfortable with the idea of him marrying into a family like this, which is quite understandable actually. They had been considering postponing the wedding, which is why she decided to cut off our mother in such a public way. It sucks for our mom because all her
Starting point is 00:22:55 life she had been dedicated to my sister, and now this is what she gets. It's pretty sad, but well deserved. I don't feel bad for her at all. Now that I'm moving, I'm going to have nothing to do with these people, and I really can't wait.

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