Did you think you were hiding your tie-up activities as a kid…but they knew?

[copperfox]

After responding to the recent post about how everyone’s interest in bondage started, I wanted to ask a separate, kind of follow-on question. For those of us who didn’t have anyone to play TUGs with as a kid or teen and had to engage in self bondage types of activities…did your parents or family know about it? If you never got caught in any embarrassing situations, do you think that they knew the real extent of your hobby? As an adult, have you ever asked them as much? As in, did a parent ever find your bag of ropes or other make-shift goodies and just choose to respect your privacy and say nothing about it? Did they know all along that you weren’t really “taking a nap” but took every chance you could to steal away for a bit and tie yourself up?

I’ve gotten to be kinda curious about this, as I never was “caught” and (to my knowledge) my old backpack full of rope and other tie-up gear was always right where I left it, whether in my closet or under my bed. However, on an interesting note, I remember getting all four very large (3-4 foot tall) stuffed/plush turtles from TMNT for Christmas one year (I was about 10, I think). As a kid in the 80’s/90’s, I loved TMNT as many of us growing up in that time did…and, yeah, all the tie-ups that ended up happening made it one of my all-time favorite cartoons. Anyway, it probably wasn’t more than a few days later that all of their bandanas oddly went “missing”. With each turtle wearing five bandanas (around their eyes, elbows, and knees)…at a total of 20 new bandanas, this was the gift that kept on giving. It was a veritable treasure trove of (colorful, might I add) binding and gagging material. Looking back, however, that must have caused my parents at least a little bit of confusion. After all, what little those turtles were wearing when they were originally bought…they were wearing no more, and all four heroes were still being proudly displayed on my bed. Again…maybe I wasn’t being as super-secretive as I thought at the time. They never said anything or asked any questions about it, though.

Fast forward 30-some odd years later. Almost my whole family knows about my bondage kink—this in no small part due to my wife (of now almost 20 years) having no filter and bringing up the topic seemingly whenever it pops in her head. (On that point, I’m not complaining…we’ve actually found out some of our friends also have a very kinky side, and there’s really no “off limits” conversations in my family as we’re very close.) However, getting back to the point of the post—I’ve never asked my parents, “Hey, did you know that for the first hour after the lights were off at night I wasn’t trying to sleep but was bound, gagged, and wide-awake struggling to my heart’s content in bed?”

Would really like to know how or if you’ve ever had this conversation with your parents, other relatives, or family friends. How much did they know, and what did they think about it at the time? I’m kind of afraid the answer for me is going to be something like, “Yeah, we knew you were kind of a weird kid, but we knew you were having fun…but no, you absolutely weren’t hiding anything.”

[Kyle]

There was an instance when I was about 16 a cat my family had caused an issue under my bed and my parents had to go under there (long story about the cat). I had some rope under there, enough that it should've been suspicious why I had it, and my mom was (and still is) the kind of person who will never, ever hold back a question if she thinks something's weird with me. Put it this way, she was the type who demanded to know what I was doing if I was getting a snack from the kitchen. And...never once did I get asked about why I had so much rope, under the bed, of all places.

It's possible in the heat of the moment, they didn't think much about it. But I have always wondered if they at least suspected something and didn't want to ask. The one saving grace is rope was the only thing I had under there, no duct tape or anything really incriminating like handcuffs or balled up bandanas. I'll likely never know, because I'm not planning on bringing it up all these years later.