Legal Question in Family Law in Minnesota
At what age is a child old enough to decide which parent they would like to live with? My granddaughter is 14 and she has been alternating weeks with each parent. She would like to live with her mother permanently, but her father is opposed. Last week a teacher contacted my granddaughter's mother that my granddaughter had written in her journal that she is contemplating suicide because she is so unhappy at her father's house. If she refuses to go back to her father's house, can her mother be arrested or is she old enough to choose where she lives.
Thank you.
2 Answers from Attorneys
A minor child never gets to decide where they will reside.
A change in custody requires a showing that the child is endangered in his/her current environment physically, emotionally and.or developmentally and that the benefit of a change outweighs any harm caused by the change. Once a threshold has been made the court may consider the wishes of a child but the child's wishes are generally not dispositive on the issue and are weighed as only one factor out of many. As the child matures, their opinions will carry greater weight.
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