QUESTION
Can I just go, leave my family and live with my friend and her wife?
Asked on Mar 13th, 2013 on Family Law - Idaho
More details to this question:
I am 17 years old and have problems with my guardian for years now. My parents have been divorced for six years and since then my mom has treated me like dirt. I've paid for my own food, clothes, and education since I was twelve. I'm gay and she doesn't accept it, nobody does in my family. My dad is an alchoholic and won't let me live with him. My mom has bounced from guy to guy bringing them home and sometimes leaving them there with me alone not thinking I guess. She finally settled down with one man, but he is an alchoholic and had hit me in the past. My mother has always chosen my brothers and sisters over me and of course any guy and I'm tired of it. She won't let me leave out of worries for her reputation. I've leaved in the past but had to come back to finish my education. I do not go to school anymore, I have my ged and have a very close friend who knows my mother and what she does. She wants me to live with her and her wife and I would like to. I wouldn't have to pay rent or worry about food, love, or shelter. How do I go about living with them? I have my stuff packed ready to leave but figured I should probably get someone's opinion.
7 ANSWERS
Divorce/Family Law Attorney serving Carlsbad, CA
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Anne B. Howard, A Professional Law Corporation
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File for emancipation then she cannot stop you moving out but she would not have to support you either. If you just move she could call the cops and claim you are a runaway.
Answered on Mar 14th, 2013 at 1:47 PM
General Practice Attorney serving Crystal Lake, IL
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Bruning & Associates, P.C.
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Thank you for your important question. The lawyers at Bruning & Associates PC will help you. You need to hire an experienced family law lawyer. Generally, you are still a minor and subject to your mother's rules and regulations. You could try moving to your friends home, but your mother would have certain legal steps available, at least on an initial basis, to force you to return to her home. Whether or not those legal steps would be successful is difficult to predict. You may be entitled to file a petition for an emergency order of protection against your mother for domestic violence. The emergency order of protection would permit you to move to your friends home. Another alternative, is to file a petition to declare your self emancipated. Please call for a free consultation.
Answered on Mar 14th, 2013 at 6:48 AM
Criminal Law Attorney serving Sacramento, CA
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Alison Elle Aleman
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My heart goes out to you! If your parents have no objections, you could move into your friend's home and stay there, especially if you are through with high school, and so close to being 18 and an adult. Please do not let the pain your family has caused you affect the rest of your life. You still have a bright future ahead, with people who will love and respect you. Go to college, embark on a career, make a good living, find loving friends and keep them for a lifetime. Many very happy people, both gay and straight, have had terrible childhoods with parents who did not care for them like parents are supposed to, and they have put it behind them and had wonderful lives after leaving their parents. God bless you.
Answered on Mar 14th, 2013 at 6:47 AM
John Arthur Smitten
No. You are a minor until 18. Period.
Answered on Mar 14th, 2013 at 6:29 AM
It sounds like your question is what will happen if you move out. Probably nothing will happen. Could your mom file a missing person report, yes she could. If and when the police find you, you can then explain to them why you left. I doubt they will physically remove you from a safe place to go to a place you are just going to leave again especially when you explain that your mother knowingly allowed her significant other to physically abuse you. However, until you are 18 you are not a legal adult and your parents are responsible for you. Does not sound like you have to worry about that though. I would recommend contacting a gay teen hotline for advice, they will likely be familiar with situations similar to yours and be able to give you advice, and possibly counseling.
Answered on Mar 13th, 2013 at 3:44 PM
Appellate Attorney serving Grosse Pointe Farms, MI
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Musilli Brennan Associates, PLLC
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Leave, and if she protests and seeks to have your returned then file with the court seeking an order of liberation.
Answered on Mar 13th, 2013 at 3:44 PM
Commercial Contracts Attorney serving Boise, ID
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Peters Law, PLLC
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No, not until you are 18. However, if she doesn't care, then do it.
Answered on Mar 13th, 2013 at 3:42 PM