They're actually at sort of good ages to deal with this type of thing being highly self-involved teenagers. I would say they both basically ignored his plea for sympathy with an adolescent attitude of "Whatever."
I don't doubt they have "handled" it especially since they have had to live with it all along. Just because you learn to handle or cope with something doesn't mean it doesn't affect you and especially later in life or in other ways.
But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? ~Albert Camus
