Bi-Polar 17 Year Old Runaway

[Concern_Mom_in-Texas]

My question involves juvenile law in the State of: Texas

I had to retype this as it was turning into a book. I'll not go into the history.
She ranaway on Friday the 13th. It is spring break and i'm sure she is off partying. We have reported her and the police IM'ed with her, since she wouldn't answer either of the phones she had bought when she had a job for two months.

Just assume you know the history and we are stressed out by her presence in the home when she is here.

She will be 18 the end of October. What rights do we have if she tries to come back into our home? Do we have to take her back or let her back in as long as she is 17?

[cbg]

You are legally and financially responsible for her until her 18th birthday. On the day she turns 18, you can pack her bags, put them on the front porch, and change the locks. Until then, she is still your responsibility. I'm not saying you have to have her living at home but you are legally responsible for what she does and responsible for seeing that she has the basic necessities. It's not as easy to do that if you have given her permission to live where she wants.

[Concern_Mom_in-Texas]

So are you saying I can tell her she can go live where ever she wants? Because she says she doesn't want to live here. "She wants to live her own life."

[cbg]

She can live somewhere else IF you give her permission. However, you will still be legally and financially responsible for her until she is 18, whether you do or not. If you let her go live somewhere else and she trashes the place, you are legally and financially responsible. If she borrows a car and smashes it up, you are responsible. If she gets picked up by the cops for anything, that's right - Mom and Dad get the call. And even bi-polar adults, left to their own devices, often run amok because they start feeling good and decide they don't need their medication any more. Only you can decide if letting her live somewhere else is really a good idea or is only a pressure valve with the real explosion yet to come.

After she turns 18, you have no further responsibility. Until then, I know where I'd want my kid (and yes, I have two).

I'm not unsympathetic but until she turns 18 it's up to you. She cannot legally live outside the home unless you give her permission.

[cyjeff]

And, in some cases, criminally responsible.

[Concern_Mom_in-Texas]

Well, as far as we know she is not coming back. She has stated so. We love her and wish she was home, but not if she is not going to school (Junior in high school), going out during the week night and meeting men she has met on the internet. Coming home with hickeys up and down her body. Pregnancy tests in her purse (refuses to take birth control), myspace pages with her half nude and stating she is 21, and when she talks to us cussing the whole time, but demanding we buy things for her, which we don't unless it is a nesscessity at this point. We go on family trips and she doesn't participate and makes it as unpleasant as possible. We used to take her to church, but she would leave to meet men. She will not take her medication. It isn't that we don't love her and want the best for her, but that is not what she wants for herself.

[Concern_Mom_in-Texas]

She is not allowed on any of the computers at home and we change the passwords all the time.

[cbg]

It's your decision to make but nothing you have posted changes the fact that under the law, you are legally and financially responsible for her and everything she does until she is 18.

[Concern_Mom_in-Texas]

Thanks for your help.