I want to live with my grandma because my dad makes want to kill myself

[Guest]

My dad has never said a single nice thing to me for as long as I can remember. He gets extremely verbally violent on a daily basis and tells me how I'm just a screw up that shouldn't be here. I'm 16 now and not a day goes by without me thinking that I should kill myself so that I'll never have to deal with how he treats me ever again. My grandma lives two states over and I want to live with her. Would she or myself get in trouble if I do make my way to live with her? I don't want to be dragged back home if I do.

[ccsmod6]

Hello and thank you for reaching out to the National Runaway Safeline. It is awful that you have to live in an environment where you are treated so poorly. It makes sense that you want to leave a situation like that. It is understandable that you feel so depressed and desperate.


While we are not legal experts, we do have a great deal of experience working with runaways. Running away is not illegal. You will not get arrested or go to jail for running away. However, your dad can file a runaway report with the police. That would mean that if the police knew where you were or encountered you, they could notify your guardian and return you back home. Additionally, your dad could potentially try to press charges against your grandmother if he wanted to for harboring a runaway. What that means varies state to state but typically it is considered a misdemeanor offense.


If you want to talk more in depth about your situation and what other options you may have to get out, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 1-800-786-2929 or chat us at 1800runaway.org.

Take care,
NRS