Ready to pack and just bang outta here!

[LadyZ]

I'm 14, I live in Connecticut and I am being oppressed. I know I'm not an adult yet but I'm pretty sure I still get all of my rights. At home I can't do anything. I can't go out with my friends, I can't have friends over, I'm not even allowed to leave the front door sometimes. My dad is trying to force me into religion even though I'm an atheist and I know that. He says that it's his way and that's it, there is no highway. I thought my mom would help me but it turned out that she was on his side. She would just stand around watching while she was aware of what was going on and I would always hope that she would defend me but she didn't! I hate it here, I'm the middle child and I get no positive attention. My dad is always yelling at me for no reason and he claims that I'm just lazy when HE is the one who actually does no work around the house. He constantly complains about having a clean house when he doesn't even clean his own room. I definitely don't belong in this family, they're all religious and I'm forced to participate in all the church activities and I cant even do school events or extracurricular stuff. I just wanna get out of here but I have nowhere to go. It's just horrible here, I've considered harming myself. I've considered suicide. I once thought of just sitting in the street in the intersection near my house and waiting for someone to free me. But once again I'm too much of a coward. I can't have any friends because of him. He ruins everything for me. I can't even be a proper student because he drags me to church and sometimes I have to stay up for hours trying to finish and catch up on homework. Living here is just endless emotional abuse as well as well as physical. I've always been scare to do something about it but now I just can't take it anymore. I have to get out. But I don't wanna live on the streets, besides it's winter and I'd probably freeze or starve to death. I can't stay at anyone's house because wont they get in trouble? But even if I run away I still wanna go to school and stuff. I don't wanna get away from my life, I want to get away from my parents.

[ccsmod8]

re: Ready to pack and just bang outta here!

Hi and thanks for reaching out to the National Runaway Switchboard. Because the nature of your post was quite graphic, we edited the body to remove some material prior to posting. We want you to know that we’ve read your whole post and you are being heard. It sounds like you are going through many difficult times at home and that you are not feeling physically or emotionally safe. It can be so difficult to talk to someone about what you are going through- we are glad that you felt comfortable contacting us. It sounds like you have many factors influencing your thoughts on leaving. You asked if anyone would get in trouble if you stayed with them, and while we are not legal experts, we can tell you that in most states, harboring a runaway is against the law which means that whoever you stay with may be putting themselves at legal risk.

If you are living in a home where you are experiencing physical abuse, you certainly don’t have to stay there. You deserve to live in a place that is safe and there are services available to help you. Every state has a department of children and family services that will perform investigations and try to provide safety to youth that are being harmed. One number that you can call is Childhelp USA (800-422-4453) and you would be able to file an abuse report there. Another option that you have is to contact anyone who may be a mandated reporter for abuse (a teacher, doctor, police officer, or even us at the National Runaway Switchboard), and have an adult file a report for you.

You also mentioned that you have felt suicidal at times. If you are feeling like you want to hurt yourself or end your life, we would encourage you to contact the National Suicide Hotline 1-888-273-8255 to get the help you need. You are never alone and we want you to know that there are many people that want to help you.
If you want to contact us privately either at 1-800-RUNAWAY (answering calls 24 hours a day) or through our live chat 4:30-11:30pm CST on our website 1800runaway.org, we can talk more about your situation and connect you to the best resources available specific to your city and state. Again, we are so glad that you found the National Runaway Switchboard online and hope to hear from you soon.