I want to move in with a friends family

[Guest]

Here's my situation: I've lived with my parents my whole life and I'm absolutely miserable. I suffer from minor depression and occasional suicidal thoughts due to my situation and relationship with my parents, along with situations they've put me into (of which I prefer to not specifically speak about, but from what I understand, some of what my father does could be considered emotional abuse). I have a best friend whose family has offered to help me find a legal way to move in with them and be in a safer environment, which my best friend (who is 1 and her parents have agreed would be more beneficial to my well being. I want to take them up on the offer, however I also have four siblings that can be effected by my decisions. For what I've discovered, I can do emancipation (earn legal ability to have some rights an 18 year old would have) or change legal guardianship. With the first option, I would need a way to financially support myself, however this is not possible for me. For changing legal guardianship, I would have to prove my parents to be legally incapable of caring for me. My fear however is that this will affect my siblings, one who is only 2 and another who is going into college next year, and who their legal guardians will be if my parents are deemed unfit for only caring for me. I don't want to be the person that ruins my siblings future, but at the same time my current mental and emotional health is being destroyed by continuing to live with my birth parents. Any advice on this situation would be appreciated, thank you.

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RE: I want to move in with a friends family

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out! It sounds like a difficult situation that you’re in. It’s very brave of you for speaking out about your problems, and it’s very admirable that you want to be responsible for your siblings.
Since you mentioned suicide, we would like to give you the number to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline in case you feel like you may want to hurt yourself, or you need help dealing with those thoughts. Their number is 1-800-273-8255, and their website is youmatter.suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
Firstly, we are not legal experts, so for any questions about navigating the legality of moving out of your home, or emancipation, might best be directed at legal services. You can certainly give us a call and we can put you in touch with emancipation resources specific to your state. Generally, however, guidelines for emancipation include being able to support yourself financially, which you expressed you expected to find difficult.
You also expressed interest in finding a way to change your legal guardianship without getting your siblings involved. Again, we are not legal experts, but generally changing legal guardianship does not mandate that a child prove that the parents are not fit to take care of children. Generally the procedure involves the parents wanting to give up custody of the child, and then the person the child wants to stay with has to prove to a family court that they are fit to take over custody. It is not the same thing as filing an abuse report and/or entering the foster care system, which often can involve proving that a parent is unfit to take care of a child. So, it might also be in your interest to contact local legal services to find out the exact way these procedures work in your area, because it sounds like you are talking about two different things.