This article presents results from the first Norwegian nation-wide study on children in shelters for battered women and their situation. One of the qualitative findings; that children who live in shelters with their mothers have difficulties in keeping the shelterstay a secret is discussed specifically. The argument pursued is that the children are struggling to keep the shelter a secret, and that the secrecy creates problems in their everyday life and social relations. Moreover, the children develop a number of strategies to manage the issue of secrecy. Finally, the implications of this is discussed, as well as the secrecy as one of the dilemmas facing the new Norwegian shelter movement with an integrated children’s perspective.