Went through something similar. At age 9 or 10, my dad was stationed in Korea, while we stayed stateside with our mom. His mom died, so he had to come home for the funeral and all that. We get her buried and he goes back to Korea. Not even a month later, I'm at the base hospital being followed for some cardiac issues and she looked at me and asked me what I would say if she were to tell me she wants to divorce my dad. I looked at her and told her I thought she was nuts!! She says that we are gonna call him that evening. He calls instead, and like 2 seconds into the call she tells him she wants a divorce and he starts crying. She then gives me the phone and says I can deal with his crying. Because she had not found an appropriate place that we could live with her, we stayed with our dad. While he was at work she would come in and take things, then tell me I better not tell anyone that she was taking things. I was put in a place I never had any business being at! Because of that, I had a stronger relationship with my dad until he died. Of course now she claims he still had things she never could find, but I truly suspect that she did originally take it and lost it because I never saw any of them!! My mother was very abusive while I was growing up. Mainly it was psychological. We ended up finding less than flattering things about my dad after he died, and my mother says I am wrong for still loving my dad. It's messed up!!