16 wants to runaway to stay with boyfriend and his parents because of mental abuse.

[Unregistered]

So Im a 16 year old girl who lives in Florida and my at home life isn't the greatest. My step dad is verbally abusive and so is my mother. The day to day stress is getting to much for me to handle and its effecting my school and social life. Its gotten to the point to where sometimes i get suicidal thoughts and feelings because i feel so hopeless about my situation. My boyfriend whom i have been dating for two years now, has been trying to help me with this and would like to move me in with him. His parents are more then willing to help and i have already had a job offer by his house. I own my own car and make my own payments. I would be going to school in his area and i'm a dual enrollment student at that. He turns 18 in a month and is fully capable of supporting me in case anything came up. But my parents are very intimidating and i'm afraid of more emotional abuse. i was wondering if they could legally take me back home and if i could get into trouble for leaving. This is an extremely important issue for me and i need help.

[ccsmod14]

Re: 16 wants to runaway to stay with boyfriend and his parents because of mental abus

Hi there,

Thank you so much for reaching out to us here at National Runaway Safeline. It sounds like you have been having a really hard time at home and we are sorry to hear that. No one deserves to be abused in any way. You mentioned that it has gotten to the point where you are having suicidal thoughts sometimes. Have you ever talked to anyone about this? When you are having these thoughts, what helps you get through them? We want to let you know that we are here 24/7 to talk at 1 800 RUNAWAY, but we also want to give you the National Suicide Hotline: 800 273 TALK. That line is also available 24/7.

So it sounds like you are thinking of leaving your house and staying with your boyfriend and his parents. We are really happy to hear that you have a good support system. We want to let you know that running away is defined as leaving home without your guardian's permission. Running away is not illegal, it is considered a status offense which is most similar to a parking ticket. If your guardians made a runaway report, and the police found you, they would just bring you back home. However, it is possible that anyone that you stay with would get charged for harboring a runaway.

It sounds like you are really intimidated by your parents, and hesitant to communicate your feelings to them. This is totally understandable. Here at NRS, we offer conference calling with youth and guardians. This means that if you were to call into our hotline at 1 800 runaway, we could make a call out to one of your guardians and act as a mediator to facilitate a conversation between the two of you, and make sure that you are being heard in everything that you want to communicate to them.

If you would like to talk more about possible options, resources or just your situation in general please feel free to call into our 24/7, anonymous and confidential hotline at 1 800 runaway (786 2929). We also have a chat option if you prefer talking online, which is open 4:30pm to 11:30pm CST through our website at 1800runaway.org. We are here to support you in whatever way that we can.

Good luck and stay safe,
NRS