Is it possible to relinquish my parental rights?
My 15 year old daughter won't stay out of trouble and I don't want to be responsible for bringing her back into our home each time she is released from juvenile detention.
I've had to pay for her lawyer, court costs, probation fees, missed time from work, court appearances, etc.
I'm being punished for her wrong doing. Can I volunterily terminate my parental rights in Texas?

Sure. If you have someone lined up to adopt her, signing over your parental rights should be nice and easy.

How about instead you try to find a way to parent your child?

Frankly, you SHOULD be punished for her wrongdoing.

I, as a taxpayer, don't want to be responsible for YOUR offspring. I shouldn't have to be.

No, you can't just give up your kid when you're sick of being a parent. It doesn't work that way.

Why not look into ways to get help parenting her instead?

Well for one that's just mean.
And for another if you really want to know, you'd research your state laws instead of asking here.
Of course you could always just abandon her in some other state.

Many states have some kind of mechanism for deeming a child incorrigable to make him/her a ward of the state. You will need to ask one of the attorneys you paid about your state's laws.

I would strongly caution against it, however, she is a teenager, will one day be an adult and hopefully grow out of this rebellious phase, and then you might have no relationship with her. What about a residential treatment center instead, or at the very least a good family counselor?

I've been where you are with my 14 year old daughter about a year ago, and I guess the question is what have you done to help her? Your post doesn't really give any details on this option. I myself moved to a more remote location to eliminate access to bad influences, switched the school district she was attending, put her in counseling, and took her to the doctor where they diagnosed her with depression and put her on meds. Things are a lot better now. Hang in there and don't give up. Get creative instead.

There are a number of options for you to consider,
Help for Troubled Teens- About Us

Lifelines Family Services - Contact Us 24 hours a day 7 days a week

Options

There are others in your area, and they are only a phone call away. Google wayward teens in Texas.

Not really an answer, more of a comment to the people out there that think they know it all. We are having the same trouble with my husband's 14 year old. We've done the 'loving' parent thing, he's moved (broken leases mind you), changed her schools, done counseling, the whole nine yards. And when nothing worked he even sent her away to one of the ranches for 5 months. She came back even worse than when she left. So, don't think it's ALWAYS the parent's fault, sometimes there's just a random kid out there that doesn't give a about anyone, including herself and would rather go down the path of destruction with sex, drugs, skipping school, running away, etc. So, maybe the state WOULD be a better place for them. And, the authorities just keep slapping her on the wrist and sending her back home again. So, to the person that brought up taxes, we pay taxes, too. So, it would be nice if we got some help back with some of our own money instead of continuing to lose money (and sleep and possessions she steals, blah, blah, blah) because of her!

While I can appreciate the fact that you're feeling frustrated, 14 and 15 year olds are still just children. While they might be harder to control at this age, there must have been a whole lot of things that went wrong for a long time to get them to this point. All of those things, no matter how hard they were, and whether you like it or not, were entirely your responsibility.

If you give up on this child now, mind you for purely selfish reasons (all it seems you want to do here is protect your own behind from being held accountable as her mother), you will be making things much, much, much worse for her. She might find herself in positions from which she will never, ever recover. You are talking about a psychological tear in the deepest part of her emotional makeup. You want to abandon her when she really needs you the most.

Obviously, since you didn't describe the details that have brought you to even consider this option, it's impossible for us to know everything that has been going on. I think that, in the most extreme cases, I could potentially feel the same. But what you're talking about doing is not leagues and leagues away from telling her, "you're dead to me."

I think that for you to even consider doing something like this, you'd better have some really, really, really good reasons. If it does happen, you should fully accept the possibility that she might never, ever want to see or hear from you again. This could also mean never meeting your grandchildren. And if she grows up and matures into a good, responsible adult (and there are many "problem teens" that do), you might not ever have the chance to see her that way.

I am sorry if I sound overly harsh, but as someone who is hearing this very serious question without any background information, just the idea of a mother signing off her child as her own both makes me angry and breaks my heart.

I hope the best for your daughter, for you and for your whole family. If you would like to share more of her/your story, I'm sure there are many people (including me) who could try to help you brainstorm some less drastic (and permanent) solutions.

The OP hasn't been here since April of 2007.

If someone else needs help, they should start their OWN question.

Ugh. Blech. It's a little frustrating when people pull up old threads, and then you answer them just because they're back in the new pile. There are times when you just address the question without double checking the date. Anyway, the person who pulled it up is new here, so she's probably not familiar with how everything generally works.

Donewith69, if you want to talk about your situation, you might really want to take up that idea about making a new thread for it. You might find that getting other people's opinions, experiences and advice could really help to put some perspective on things.