child custody

[Court]

I am 16 years of age, almost 17. I am the 3rd of 4 children and I live with my father. I've been here for almost 3 years but before that I was back and forth between my father, my mother, and family. My mother has had a lot of issues with substance abuse but has gotten help for her issues. The youngest of us children is 13 but yet we are forced to live with our father. We do not like it here, we live in a small trailer, in a small town, we have 17 inside cats and it is just unexceptable now. Our father was never a part of our childhood growing up. My mother is my best friend and I want nothing more than to live wih her. I hate it here, I dread waking up to face the world some days and I was just reaching out trying to find people who could point me in some direction to help, or actually give me some advice. I am from Illinois and for the fact we are all of "age" I don't see why we can't chose who we want to live with. thanks for any help

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Why can't you live with your mother? Is there a court involved? It also seems that your father has created questionable living conditions... we need some more information.

 

[Court]

yes there's a court involved, after 5 years they put us with our father. He plays games and he's a control freak and wont let me go to my mothers. My mother is a fit parent and it's just dumb. I am not currently with my mother since conditions have changed he ended up grabbing me and i was placed in foster care for a week and went to court to get an order of protection against him.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

My guess? Your best bet is to call the local child services office and have them get involved. The next thing to do would be to immediately petition the court, perhaps for an emergency order. I cannot expect you to do all of that yourself but the call or visit to child services should help you out. You would likely want to make all of your horrible living conditions clear to the case worker and make sure she knows that time is of the essence...