How to Un-Adopt a Child?

[VANTAPURPLE]

If I adopt a kid and then change my mind, how do I get rid of them without killing them?

[steventirey]

You don't. And you can't normally kill them or harm them in any way.

[alexander_dougherty]

Um.... Mods perhaps....

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by steventirey:

You don't. And you can't normally kill them or harm them in any way.

Wouldn't help if you could, they would still be counted towards the limit of children you can adopt.... just dead...

[Neo]

Reload the save before adopting.

[Death Approaches]

oy why do people answer when they have no idea what they're taking about? Never understood that... at least be funny or snarky. sheesh.

From the console you can disown them, but there's a 2 caveats. Also sometimes lowering a faction rank doesn't work, no idea why, so it's just more thorough to remove then re-add them. That always works.

So, remove them from the player faction, remove them from the can-be-adopted faction, add them back at one of the unadopted ranks, and recycleactor to pop them back where they started. While we're at it we can reset their disposition rank so they don't love us, make them acquaintance only. ( note: most have removefac, either provided by skse or a recent version, not all games do, if removefac fails, the original way is: addfac <factionID> -1 )

Tag the kid in your house, you'll see your Hearthfire load order then, if it's not 03, replace it:

removefac db1
removefac 03004290
addfac 03004290 1
setrelationshiprank player 0
recycleactor

The 1st caveat is, if you disown them right after adopting them, when they're saying their goodbyes and getting their things, before they greet you at your home you sent them to, they'll still go there and greet/thank you for adopting them; you might be able to stop the scripting mid-execution, but that's on you to figure out.

The 2nd caveat, they may still squat at your place, sleeping ides, playing idles, etc. The scripting for Hearthfire adoption is one-way, so once the actor's package stack changes to the "hey you're adopted" part, it doesn't go back, and AFAIK there's no console command to manipulate that. You could write a little papyrus script for it de-adopt or something (one might already exist), or I'm guessing here, you could fire up xEdit or CK and add a condition to check if they're still adopted, and reset the package stack if not.

I haven't tested this, but it happens on every other actor, so... imagine it's nighttime, and the previously adopted kid is on PACK: BYOHAdoptionStd_Child1SleepPackage21x11 and not PACK: BYOHUrchin_(name)Sleep24x8, or whatever an unadopted kid is on, you might find them sleeping in the house you sent them to... but again they're not adopted, just squatting.

I guess it will depend on why you want to dismiss your adopted child how much this matters to you. I mean if you truly don't care, just 'disable' them after disowning them, poof! You can roleplay what happened to them is what happens to most homeless children in a world where war reigns, evil runs unchecked, and dragons roam the skies.

You monster.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by Death Approaches:

The 2nd caveat, they may still squat at your place, sleeping ides, playing idles, etc. The scripting for Hearthfire adoption is one-way, so once the actor's package stack changes to the "hey you're adopted" part, it doesn't go back, and AFAIK there's no console command to manipulate that.

And it will probably cause bugs because the NPC now exists as both adopted and not adopted..... Which is why we didn't suggest that method.

[Insomniac Jack]

www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1108

You're welcome.

[Altbert]

Originally posted by Death Approaches:

oy why do people answer when they have no idea what they're taking about? Never understood that... at least be funny or snarky. sheesh.
Tag the kid in your house, you'll see your Hearthfire load order then, if it's not 03, replace it

In Skyrim SE (or AE if you like) the Hearthfire load order number is always 03!

removefac db1
removefac 03004290
addfac 03004290 1
setrelationshiprank player 0
recycleactor

There is a console command "removefac". The original command was "removefromfaction", but that's now available as a Papyrus function in scripts. You have to use "addfac" or "addtofaction" with -1 after the faction ID to remove an NPC from the faction, and not using the old console command. The faction "db1" does not exist! Command "removefac 03004290" should be "addfac 03004290 -1". Also, be sure to select an adopted child before executing these commands,
[/quote]
I don't want to be funny or snarky, but try at least to know what you're talking about!

[Luminary]

what an awful cold hearted person you are, kicking those poor children out of your heart and home into the cold white north. At least buy them a sweet roll for the road

[Nabinkemper]

Originally posted by Luminary:

what an awful cold hearted person you are, kicking those poor children out of your heart and home into the cold white north. At least buy them a sweet roll for the road

IKR - Could you imagine kicking Sofie out to go sleep on the cold stone in Windhelm again after giving her the hope of a warm secure place?!?!

[chemsynthfoodfromthfuture]

I'm looking for a way to fix a problem where something got bugged and I have the same kid adopted twice. There is only one of her but she occupies two of the six available slots (Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions) Need to free up one of those slots so I can adopt my sixth and last kid (and rescue Sissel from her horrible father and sister) There should be a way to do this with the console. In New Vegas you can directly modify values for quest variables. Not so easy in Skyrim unfortunately.

[VANTAPURPLE]

You say you're adopting your sixth kid, but I thought you could only adopt two, even if your have multiple houses. Sorry, but I can't help with the bug. I've never had that issue.

[Arondil]

Originally posted by V4NTAPURP13:

You say you're adopting your sixth kid, but I thought you could only adopt two, even if your have multiple houses. Sorry, but I can't help with the bug. I've never had that issue.

They're most likely talking about this mod https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/3862

@chemsynthfoodfromthfuture - Have you searched or asked on the mod's forum?

[Perplex]

Originally posted by V4NTAPURP13:

If I adopt a kid and then change my mind, how do I get rid of them without killing them?

Mods. If you have them and don't want to be bothered by them just send them to a home you rarley if ever visits. That way they wont interrupt you as soon as you get home.

[Spirit3057]

Safest thing to do is probably rolling back to a save before you adopted the kid(s). Know that might be a problem if you did a lot since the adoption but that is your decision to make. Good luck.