If you had a son, would you let him be emancipated at 15 if he wanted to be on his own?

Question

I think the U.S. law is terrible on youth emancipation for males. You either have to get married, join the military, or have a court issued order to have him legally emancipate. I believe if a son is 15 he is old enough to make his own decisions and should be considered an adult. If a 15 year old son is emancipated, he will have all the legal rights of an adult including entering contracts, right to have a drivers license, right to purchase firearms, etc. The point is that at age 15, he should know right from wrong and have a good head on his shoulders. If he works hard he can drop out of school (his legal right), and be a step ahead of the other guys learning useless information the last couple of years of high school. I know girls shouldn't be emancipated until marriage, but with guys its different. They need to be given responsibility so they can become more mature. On the flip side, rebellious sons also should be emancipated at the father's order. He shouldn't have to put

up with that.

I should have rephrased this question differently --."If the U.S. law was different, would you let him be emancipated at 15...."

I am 28 years old.

Answer 1

Personally , no, they're still going through puberty!

Answer 2

I have 3 sons and I can tell you from experience that emancipating anyone at 15 is wrong on so many levels
At 15 your still not ready to make adult decisions, hell I'm not sure 18 is even the right age. I understand that some children are more mature but there are adults in this world ready and waiting for our youth to want to go out and try to make it on there own. Keep your children close. There is no hurry to be grown up. They need your guidance and experience so when they are ready they will have a good foundation for life.

Answer 3

Well, dear, my son is 14. He starts High School next year. He is going through that funky, oily adolescent stage. My partner, myself and his sister are constantly asking him to take a shower. He throws all his clothes, clean and dirty, on the floor. If he eats something the wrapper, dishes, container all remain stagnant next to the trash can and strewn about the room. He makes OK grades with improving effort, and likes to play playstation 24/7. He forgets to do his chores. He wants to dye his hair. (oh, my......) He doesn't have a job and he sleeps til 10 minutes before he has to go to school. He says the alarm didn't go off. So he has horrible alarm setting skills. Also, he eats like a horse. Constantly.

Key word in your paragraph, "at age 15, he SHOULD know right from wrong and have a good head on his shoulders."

I have to admit I do know men decades older than him with the same habits, so if you want to call him adult, I will not argue.

I will not emancipate my son. One of the conditions of emancipation is that you have to show that you can support yourself. This is not true of my son. (See paragraph above.)

Now would be a great time to say, "I'm done." It's a difficult time, and he strains my patience and my strength. However, that is not what a good parent does.

He is learning to do his own laundry, he can cook well, he knows how to clean, he just won't do it. He has a great sense of humor, appears to be happy, and is slowly, over the last 2 years, since my partner has been here, learning to be a man. This requires great effort on my son's part. I spent the time from his age 5 to age 12 single. No man in the house.

This was not the best plan when raising a son. Unfortunately, it is impossible to stand on the porch and go "Good husband and father needed." and get one. 7 years with no male role model caused a lot of developmental delay.

I will make a comment here: my partner has parented his son daily since he split with his wife (ex-wife) in '98. The boy is a year younger than my son. He excells in school, is taking a load of advanced (high school) courses during his 8th grade year next year. He has played baseball since he was 5. He attends all his practices, games, and hunts for a field with kids playing baseball in between. Maybe you could emancipate him at 15. Note, however, that his housekeeping skills match those of my son........his room is a Disaster area.

So, if the son is parented by an adequate role model ...father, if you will,......then yes, developmentally he should be capable of independence.

Without any role model, then no. Not happening. Mommies do not raise men. Men need to have had a male parent.

See any correlation with what is happening in our society today? Single mothers raising kids the best they can, but because the boys do not have fathers anymore, you get what I am raising.

I truely would never have thought I had done such a poor job, had I not met my partner and his son. The difference between the boys, is the difference between the sublime and the ridiculous.

So if you want to make a 15 year old a man, then you guys need to step up and parent your sons. Not 4 days a month, but every day. Be a man, so he can learn to be a man.

Answer 4

No, they have no Idea what they want and they are still going through stages of puberty where they really need parental guidence and help wether they act like they want or need it. Children need boundries set to grow and learn. Besides the fact that if these children are emancipated and are left out on there own they won't survive well and there you have more unemployed people and first thing they will do is get on welfare. Parents need to strive to help their children succeed in life and show them their value in life and that school reguardless that you think it is worthless information it is not. I wish I would have paid more attention in high school because the things I would like to do right now in my life require me to go back to school and get a Bachlors at the least. Which in turn requires me to learn all the information I failed in high school to pay attention to! As far as being tried as an adult in court, if you willingly and knowingly do something like commit murder you should be tried like everyone else because it is evil and wrong. (unless it is self defense) I would feel very uncomfortable with a hundreds of 15 year olds running around with guns the world would be a dissaster. As it is college age students can't handle the pressure and they are killing each other! Trust me unless your parents are abusive or of a neglecting nature or just don't care, your best bet is to stay at home until you at least turn 18 and really have an idea of the direction you want to go. Give it some time and you will prevail!

Answer 5

Actually emancipation laws vary state to state with some states forbiding emancipation completely. In truth, you usually have to be atleast 16 before you can get emancipated at all and usually emancipation is the product of child abuse. In any case a court would decide if the person is old enough/mature enough to live on his own..

Point: You have to be 16 to legally work anywhere thus a 15 year old could not LEGALLY support himself (and no under the counter work does not apply)

The MAIN requirement of emancipation is being able to support yourself which means being old enough to have a job and a license.

Answer 6

well i feel 15 is a bit tooo young but hey my son is only 13 and i would NOT allow him to be emancipated...learning useless things in school will help you get a better job than flipping burgers or mowing lawns for the neighborhood and if you think that will make a male mature faster you are oh so wrong it takes a good girl/woman to do that

Answer 7

NO! 15 is not an adult! a 15 yr old should be a teenager, having fun and being with his friends and going to school, not being an adult, he has his entire life to be an adult but the teenage years are short lived. 15 is not old enough or mature enough to know what the world and life is all about. so do you think 15 year olds should be having babies too? absolutely not! they are still KIDS!!1

Answer 8

NO! But if he was that set on being away from home, I would put him in military school, you ungrateful brat!


Even with your changes...NO! 15 is too young to be on his own. If I had a 15 year old son who wanted emancipated, I would give him the choice whether to stay and respect my rules or go to military school.

Wanting to move out at 15 is in itself a huge flag of immaturity.

Answer 9

Of course I wouldn't. At 15, he's 10 years away from having a fully developed brain. LOL

Answer 10

Its funny because I just finished a research paper on this subject for my college writing class. I would not allow my son to be emancipated at 15. This is purely setting him up for failure. He has not the physical or mental ability to be on his own. You as a parent should step up to the plate and let him know the responsibilites that he would hold as an adult.

Answer 11

Absolutely - and we should bring back the dowry, and arranged marriages (since dad should probably pick the man that will 'emancipate' his daughter)...

Idiot. Nobody is ready to live as an adult at 15. Most people aren't really ready at 18.