how old do youve to be?

[Unregistered]

Hi i have a question see my mom wants us to move from missouri over to collinsville illinois and my mom is never home and makes me raise my 6 year old and 14 brothers and i want to know in illinois can you move out with out parental consent at the age of 17

[ccsmod2]

Thank you for contacting the National Runaway Switchboard. We are a confidential and anonymous hotline for youth or their families. You can reach us 24 hours a day at 1-800-RUNAWAY (786-2929). We are also available through chat 7 days a week from 4:30 PM-10:00 PM CST at www.1800runaway.org.

It sounds like your mom wants to move your family from MO to IL but you don’t want to do that. You had mentioned in your message that you have to care for your brothers because your mom isn’t home very often. Do you know what your mom is doing when she’s not at home? Have you had the opportunity to discuss with your mom how you are feeling about this?

Unfortunately, we are not legally trained so we would be unable to give you a specific answer to your question. Generally speaking, the age of majority is 18 years old although some places do view 17 as old enough to move out. We can provide you with some resources located in that area that may be able to give you a specific answer to your question.

In East St. Louis, there is an agency called Hoyleton Youth & Family Services and it looks like they had a variety of different services, including legal aid. Their number is 618-875-0673 and their website is http://www.hoyleton.org. Also in East St. Louis is the Land of Lincoln Assistance Foundation and their phone number is 618-398-0958; their website is http://www.lollaf.org.

If you were to leave home, do you know where you would go? Have you ever run away from home before? Running away isn’t illegal but your mom would have the right as your legal guardian to file a runaway report. That means that if the police locate you, they would contact her to let her know where you are.

If you do decide to leave home, please give us a call. We are completely confidential and anonymous but we can try to help locate some shelter or a safe place to go. We can also help discuss your options and make calls to places to see if they can help.

We look forward to hearing from you and wish you the best of luck.

~NRS