A mother in Georgia got arrested in front of her kids after her 10-year-old son was found walking home alone. Brittany Patterson was charged with child endangerment, and she’s now heavily advocating for free-range parenting. She believes parents should be free to let their kids function independently without suffocating supervision.
Brittany Patterson was arrested after letting her son walk home alone
Police arrested Brittany Patterson from her home after her son Soren left home alone. Soren was found walking alone in their small town of Mineral Bluff. “I was shocked, surprised, disbelief,” Brittany said. “Couldn’t really understand what was going on or why. They told me to put my hands behind my back and then I had to ask to tell my children goodbye.”
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Brittany was charged with child endangerment
Brittany was charged with reckless conduct, which got people all over the country talking about whether or not kids should have more independence. As soon as she got arrested, the Georgia mother of four was all over the news. The warrant claims she “…willingly and knowingly endangered her juvenile son’s bodily safety.”
The arrest was traumatizing for Brittany’s children
“It’s definitely been a little traumatizing,” Patterson said about her kids’ reaction. “Their first encounter with police or law enforcement is to see them taking their mother out of their home in handcuffs, I think was pretty traumatizing.” It was definitely tough on her little kids.
Brittany’s 10-year-old son was walking alone for less than a mile
Her son, Soren, was walking a day before Halloween. And he actually never asked for permission, but Brittany later said she would’ve likely let him go if he did ask. The Fannin County Sheriff’s Office later reported that Soren walked less than a mile to visit the local Dollar General store.
The sheriff’s deputies called Brittany when they found her son
Sheriff’s deputies spotted Soren near the North Carolina border and reached out to Patterson to let her know. She was at a doctor’s appointment with one of her other kids at the time, so she couldn’t pick him up immediately.
After a concerned neighbor called the police, authorities found Soren walking alone and took him, unharmed, back home.
Deputies arrested Brittany later that day in front of her family
Deputies brought Soren home, but later returned to arrest Brittany right in front of her children. They described this moment as deeply upsetting for the whole family, particularly the younger kids.
Authorities suggested a deal involving a GPS tracker for her son
Officials suggested Brittany’s charges could be dropped if she agreed to put a GPS tracker on her son’s phone, But she said this was never actually formally offered — just vaguely mentioned in conversations.
Brittany also refused to sign a “safety plan” from Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services, which included using a GPS app on her son’s phone. “If you call a document a safety plan, maybe what’s in it ought to make the child more safe,” her lawyer David DeLugas said.
“And by the way, that assumes he was unsafe in the first place, which he was not. Part of why Brittany declines to sign it is he wasn’t unsafe.”
Her lawyer pointed out the irony of the situation
“The irony here too is that the next day was Halloween, where kids walk often without their parents door-to-door in the dark and knock on the doors of strangers,” DeLugas, said. He pointed out that Soren’s walk was in broad daylight and only a short distance — less than a mile.
The arrest sparked a wider discussion about government control over parenting
Brittany’s arrest triggered a huge debate on how much control the government should have over parenting and what it means to be a “free-range” parent without interference. Talk shows, social media, and news networks buzzed with discussions about when kids should be allowed to do things on their own.
Experts shared how parenting norms have changed
Parenting expert Dawn Friedman said, “If any parent has read any of the Beverly Cleary books Ramona or Henry Huggins, those kids were roaming the neighborhood in a way that we would call free range now. We used to allow children some freedoms that we no longer allow them. And I don’t think that’s to their benefit or to ours.”
The culture of constant parenting was also criticized
Lenore Skenazy, blogger and co-founder of ‘Let Grow,’ added, “The crime was that she didn’t know where her kid was for a little while because she’d left them at home. And to her surprise, he didn’t stay home. It’s just so normal. And to make that into a crime is insane.”
She also said, “I mean, parenting never had to be 24/7 until now. I don’t blame the parents. I blame this culture that talks endlessly about the impact of every parenting decision in every atom of their kids being.”
Brittany stated that parents should have autonomy over decisions regarding their children
Patterson thinks parenting decisions should be left to the family, not the government. “The reality is as parents we should have that autonomy…whether we want to wrap our kids in bubble wrap or give them a little more freedom and autonomy,” she said, stressing the importance of personal choice.
Skenazy also agrees, saying, “If you actually let your kid do something by themselves: you let them walk to the store, you let them walk the dog, you let them make the pancakes. You’re allowed to be imperfect if that’s what we’re going to call it because perfection has never been a requirement for being a parent or a kid.”
I truly believe every parent has to decide what feels right for their family, and that’s not something anyone else can dictate.
