Your parents can usually handle the bad news. It’s the lying about it that breaks something.

Most parents are tougher than you expect about the actual news. What they struggle with is discovering they were being managed, because that turns a bad grade or a dented bumper into a question about everything else you have said. Anger about the thing itself passes in a few days. The other kind takes much longer to settle.

If something is coming and you are planning a careful version of it, tell them the plain one instead. Pick a quiet moment, keep it brief, and let them react without arguing them out of it. You can say you were scared to tell them, and that part usually helps.