Moving from my Mother's to my Father's

[Guest]

Hi, I'm 16 and currently live between my mother's house and my father's house. I absolutely hate it at my mother's. While I'm there, everything I do is an absolute mess that no one can fix and my mother uses threats about not seeing my father for a week and pulls the "I have full custody!" card. It's a mess there and I just want to get out and move in with my father.

[ccsmod15]

That sounds really tough. We’re so sorry that your mom treats you so harshly and threatens you about not being able to see your dad.

If your mom has full custody, it might take a few steps to change the situation into something better.

If what your mom is doing reaches the level of emotional abuse, you could consider child abuse reporting. You could call Child Help anonymously to explore your options without committing to anything. Their number is: 1-800-422-4453.

You may also have legal options to change the custody situation right now. We do have a database of legal resources who could provide some help for free. Since we don’t have your location, you’d have to call us, and we could give you those then. For something like that, the more you know about your status, and how things played out with your mom and dad, the more help it might be. So it might make sense to ask your dad, or both of them, as much about it as possible.

Also, if you don’t want to pursue any legal route, you might consider seeing if you can change the situation at your mom’s. You know your situation best, so you’d be the best person to gauge this. If she’s continually being harsh to you, consider if there’s a way for you to sit down and talk through things. Consider if it would help to tell her how her harshness affects you, or if she does it when she’s stressed, and there’s any way to change that. Sometimes people can adjust their routines, or how they communicate. We also have resources for family counseling, if that’s a help. If you call, we can provide those as well.

We’re so sorry that you’re not getting the support you need at your mom’s. But it’s great that your reaching out and trying to change the situation.