edit: you guys are clearly too bothered by my post.

Have your dimension jumping scientist granpa shoot you in the arm with a muscle memory gun, thus inheriting the muscle ghost of a slain post apocalyptic subsistence farmer, and beat the everloving shit out of mutated gladiators in the Blood dome until you work out your feelings about the matter. This is the healthiest way to deal with such a loss.

Same thing happened to me a little while back. My mother divorced my dad and dragged my sister and I from PA to Florida. Usually I cope by playing lots of video games. But now a hurricane is coming. My life sucks.

ITT: Douchbaggery at its finest

1. Things are going to change. 2. Those changes are not about you, your sister or in any way your fault. 3. Don't take sides in any fights between your parents. People can really act like children when going through a divorce, and you have a right not to be dragged into the middle of any fights between the two of them. 4. Other than the death of a spouse, divorce is one of the worst things an adult can go through. Your parents may be too distracted and too caught up in their own pain...and their own resentment towards each other....to be able to see you and your sister. To be able to give you the time and attention you deserve, until they work their way through this. Once again. Not your fault. No reflection on you. As a teenager, you may be fortunate enough to have people outside of your family to help you get through this. Your sister being younger, may not. You might have to stick close to her, and help her through this. Be there for her if you can. If you can, your relationship with each other may come out of this stronger...and some good might come of this.

Farmer: I understand that such an event can lead to feelings of confusion, blame, and isolation. But please know divorce is relatively common and many children have successfully gone through the experience. It sounds like your head and heart are in the right place - worrying about your sister and your mom. Focus on them and be strong for them. You ask for advice, but it seems to me you're already intuitively responding in the proper way. The initial shock is the most difficult part and now you've experienced this. Now you have an opportunity to move forward provided you don't dwell or hold-out false hope that your parents will reconcile and everything will be back to the way it was. I suspect this has been a difficult situation for some time for your parents. They kept this from you and your sister because they care about you. I realize it may not feel good now, but understanding their motive for keeping it from you should give you a good indication of how important you and your sister are to them. Given your father initiated this separation, I would suspect your mom has feelings of inadequacy and may be blaming herself. She'll need to sort through all this on her own, but you can offer small, yet meaningful gestures for her (spend time out of the house, enjoy a movie together, surprise her with flowers...etc). As for your father, resist the temptation to see and cast him as the villain. What I believe you desire is for both parents to be involved in you and your sister's lives and blaming him does not facilitate this. Many divorced parents have ended marriage in an amicable way and stay on good terms with each other and their children. If this is what you desire, think about that before you react or say things to them. In short, you're already doing the right things; All bad feelings during this time are a normal occurrence; Do small things for you mom; focus on the best possible end result and consider how your actions or words support (or detract from) that outcome. I hope this is helpful.

Any idea why it happened?

Prayers for you man. I don't know how I would handle it, but I would plead with your dad to stay for your sake. If he truly loves you he will do it. But be ready to take care of them, you'll be the man of the house and they will need you more than you know.

First, realize that things are going to change. It won't be a fun change, but it won't be as bad as you fear it will. Do your best to prepare yourself for the changes ahead. Stress is usually caused by the unknown. Make a list of questions you want answered. Ask each of your parents all of your questions. They could be things like: Why are you getting divorced? If your dad is in a hotel, does that mean that you and your sister will stay with your mom in your current place? Who will you be staying with? Will you be moving somewhere else? Any other questions you have, write them down and ask your parents. Let them know that you need honest answers because you need to prepare and adjust. This may help not only by giving you answers to help prepare yourself emotionally and reduce the unknown factors causing you stress, but it could also help your parents start thinking about things in a more pragmatic and practical way. Their decision may have been emotional, and things like that may not be planned out right now, so if they don't have answers, ask them when they are going to start working these things out, and let them know you want to be informed of what's happening. I don't want to give you false hope that they will stay together, but when hit with the reality of these types of questions, there is the smallest tiniest chance that it will cause them to rethink the decision, but if they have gotten to the point that they have told you and your sister, it honestly isn't likely. I'm sorry. I was 17 when my parents got divorced, and I used that to fuel anger issues I already had. I know it's hard, but try not to get angry at the world and try not to turn into an insufferable douche-bag the way I did. Instead of retreating from your friends and becoming argumentative, do your best to focus on who you are, what is good about you, and hold on to that. Let your friends know what you are going through and what's happening, don't be embarrassed about the situation, and don't be embarrassed about asking for support form your friends, you have absolutely no reason to be. This is something that isn't within your control. Tell your teachers at school, so if it seems like you have trouble with focusing or getting assignments done, they will hopefully cut you a little slack. I'm sorry if this advice seems unemotional or unsympathetic, I really do feel for you, it sucks to have to go through your parents getting divorced, and I wish you didn't have to experience it. I'm just trying to lay out some things you can actually do pro-actively to try and get a handle on the situation, because for me, the worst part was the ambiguity and unknown that caused me tons of stress, and that just made the emotional burden even worse. Be there for your sister, stay close with her and help her through this as much as you can. There were ties when it felt like my sister was the only real family I had.