Legal Question in Family Law in North Carolina

Divorcing a Parent

My Goddaughter and her brother were going through a messy divorce in Wyoming. Their Father passed away in December from a heart attack. Their Father had custody with his wife seeing them every other weekend, unsupervised. His wife cheated on him, got pregnant and left him before he passed away. The children do not get along with their Mother and their new Step-father. There are extremely unhappy. They are now living in North Carolina. My Goddaughter is 14 and her brother is 11. They came and stayed with me and my Fiancee for a week at the end of June. I have no knowledge of physical abuse, but there may be some verbal abuse. They are extremely unhappy and can't wait until they are of legal age to leave. My Goddaughter asked about the legal issue of divorcing your parent. My 2 questions are, can she divorce her Mother, if not, what is the legal age that she can leave home? Also, is there anything else I can do? I'll give more info if you need it.

Thanks.


Asked on 7/07/04, 12:49 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: Divorcing a Parent

Godmothers, as far as I know,(at least under the Code of Virginia) are not accorded any special legal status with respect to their baptismal charges. Therefore, the answer to your last question is, probably, not much (with respect as to what you can do.)

In regard to your first question, the answer is

no, one may not divorce one's mother(or father). And, children, generally, do much better if they

don't leave their parent's home before age 18 or first graduating from high school.(I deliberately choose not to discuss the issue of emancipation under these circumstances.)

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Answered on 7/07/04, 1:10 am


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