I'm 13 and I have a work in progress plan. Should I run away?

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I'm a 13 year old girl and I cannot take living with my mom anymore. I have a plan to get money but not where to go. I plan on taking the bus to however far it goes and go from there. I know my family will look for me so I have a plan to keep away from them. I also don't give a damn about my education so that's out of the question. Should I run away or think about it more?

[ccsmod11]

RE: I'm 13 and I have a work in progress plan. Should I run away?

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out to the National Runaway Safeline for some support. We are so glad you reached out and we will do our best to help you. Seems that you and your mom doesn’t have a very productive relationship. It also says that you are fed up and want to leave. Here at the National Runaway Safeline we don’t give advice, we’re here to help you think over some options that works best for you, because every situation is different.

We aren’t legal experts but some general information we can give you is: running away isn’t a criminal offense which means that you typically wouldn’t go to jail for running away. If you were to run away, your parent(s) have the option of filing a runaway report. A runaway report is just a notification to the authorities that they didn’t give you permission to leave. This means that if you were to run away and you were picked by the police, for whatever reason, they would just return you home to your parents. Another thing you should be aware of is, if you were to leave and you were to stay with an adult, the adult that you are staying with could face criminal charges, which varies from state to state. An option you have to get more information on these laws and procedures, you could definitely reach out to your local police department by calling their non-emergency number and asking some anonymous, general questions.

You mentioned that you wanted to run away and that you have a plan to get money. Something you could ask yourself is: Have I tried everything to help my situation? If you’ve done everything you could and you decide to leave somethings that you could think about is: Would I have enough money to provide shelter? Food? Clothing? Or toiletries? (Ex. Soap). Something else you can think about is: Would I be safe? These things can be very important in deciding whether or not you want to leave.

The fact that you reached out to us and shared this is, again, incredibly admirable. It seems like you have a really good head on your shoulders, which is really great. It’s reasonable that you aren’t sure how much longer you can stay at home, so if you would like some shelter resources, or even to talk through this in more depth, we encourage you to call us at 1-800-RUNAWAY (786-2929). We are here 24/7 and would be happy to work through this with you more. Additionally, you can chat us online any day from 4:30pm-11:30pm at www.1800RUNAWAY.org.
Best of luck,

NRS