@805teresa - Note that the above question and answer is at least 2-3 years old and is for a 2016 tax return. The appear to be a post that was "migrated" from the old TurboTax Answer Exchange (AXE) that now has the date of the time of migration, not the original years old date. The rules for the 8615 are different for 2018 tax returns.
Ir regard to your question "what is a person to do" - The form is still required (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf). It does not matter if you resided with a parent or not See page 200 in Pub 17 for which parent to use.
Actually because for 2018, the parents income is immaterial, it makes no difference which parent is listed, but the instructions have not been revised to reflect that.
**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**
