I want to live with my dad but my mom has custody and wont let me. what do i do?

[Guest]

Hey so my parents divorced awhile ago when i was like 8 or 9 and now im almost thirteen. When they divorced my mom got a job at a college really far away in Georgia. She didn't let us choose who we wanted to stay with and just moved us away. My dad has hated living in Missouri without us and me and my little brother absolutley hate it here. We've tried talking to her multiple times and even talked to my dad about us moving in with him. Every time we bring it up she just tells us it's "not legally possible" which I don't know if it's true or not. Both me and my little brother really wanna live with my dad and his girlfriend and neither of us like our living situation with our mom. It's gotten to the point where it's moreof a mental health thing for me, she's really hard on me constantly with no regard to my feelings and I'm always really sad. I've struggled with thoughts of suicide and selfharm for the past year and I've tried therapists and stuff but it doesn't help me. She always yells at me and it's gotten to a point to where i hate her. She has no respect for my privacy and never listens to me because I'm "too young". I don't know what to do and I'm really considering running away and getting on a plane with my little brother to go live with my dad.

[ccsmod16]

Thanks for reaching out to the National Runaway Safeline! It is very unfortunate that you and your brother are going through such a hard time living with your mom right now but you are quite a protective older brother so you should be proud of yourself for that. And it appears that you know that the situation is affecting your mental health and that it needs to be dealt with. While getting on a plane with your brother and flying to dad may sound like a great plan, it can bring up a lot of issues. Plane tickets cost money, crossing state lines without permission could be a problem, and of course leaving your mom not knowing where you have gone might really be hard for her. Here at National Runaway Safeline we have a database of resources that might be able to help you look into possibilities of making life better at home as well as trying to get some assistance in getting past your thoughts of suicide and self-harm. It would be great if you could reach out to us either via our chat option (www.1800runaway.org) or via phone at 1-800-786-2929 where you can speak to someone personally. We are available 24/7 and a conversation will allow us to really focus on things that would be good options to help you and your brother feel more comfortable in your current living situation. Thanks again for reaching out to the NRS. We look forward to hearing from you! You have really showed that you are quite mature just in contacting us and hopefully we will be able to help you figure things out.



Sincerely ,

National Runaway Safeline