What am I under arrest for?
For a reckless endangerment?
And how was I recklessly endangering my child?
Brittany Patterson never imagined that she could end up arrested
for something like this.
I was shocked, surprised, disbelief, 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.
Recently, the Georgia mother of four making national headlines.
The Georgia mother is facing jail time because her nearly
11 year old son walked into town by himself.
As a result, she was arrested.
Fingerprints and mug shots taken.
She says he was never in any danger.
Taken into custody after her 10 year old son left
home by himself and was found walking in their small
town of Mineral Bluff, Brittany.
Charged with reckless conduct, sparking a nationwide debate over what's
right and wrong when it comes to a child's independence.
In the comments, you see, half was for her, half
was against her.
People everywhere weighing in on all sides.
And who are we kidding y'all?
I've probably let my kids do way worse things even
on talk shows.
I say please drop the charges for this mom.
She doesn't deserve to be arrested for this.
If any parent has read any of the Beverly Cleary
books, Ramona 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 crime was that she didn't know where her kid
was for a little while because she'd left him at
home, and to her surprise, he didn't stay home.
It's just so normal and to to make that that
into a crime is insane.
It seems like everyone has a take on Pattersons case.
How much freedom for a kid is too much?
If we don't give our children opportunities to to be
more independent, they don't get to exercise those muscles and
think of them as someone who is capable of being
independent.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children are generally
ready to walk alone safely without adult supervision at around
10 years old.
Parents watching this story who are kind of thinking to
themselves, what would I do in my own scenario?
No parent always knows where their kid is, you know,
and it's not a crime that that kids are human
beings and sometimes make bad decisions, sometimes don't tell you
where they are.
That doesn't mean you're a bad parent.
That means you're a human being with a fellow human
being who's younger than you.
Recently, the Surgeon General issuing an advisory about parents feeling
high levels of stress, highlighting that 41% of parents say
that most days they are so stressed they cannot function
and 48% say most days their stress is completely overwhelming
compared to other adults and that time demands and concerns
about children's safety can contribute.
The Surgeon General just did this big study where he
said that parents are really miserable.
Well of course if you're expected to be with your
child every single 2nd and parenting never had to be
24/7 until now.
But I don't blame the parents.
I blame this culture that talks endlessly about the impact
of every parenting decision on every atom of their kids
being.
If you are anxious, I guarantee your kid is catching
it.
If your kid is anxious, I guarantee that you are
catching it.
What happens is we pass that anxiety back and forth
and we start creating anxious patterns in our family that
actually make anxiety worse.
It was just a normal day for us.
Brittany Patterson's ordeal began when she says she left home
late October to bring one of her older kids to
the doctor.
Her younger son, Soren, who was nearly 11 at the
time, stayed home.
My dad is there all the time, so there's always
an adult in the home.
And so off I went to go take my other
son to his doctor's appointment.
Sometime later that day.
According to a Fannin County Sheriff's Office report, her son
Soren, who has since turned 11, walked less than a
mile into town to go to the Dollar General.
There's a little tiny post office, little tiny fire station,
a Baptist Church, a gas station and a Dollar General.
Authorities discovered him walking alone after getting a call from
a concerned resident.
Police dropping him off at home.
According to the report, he was not missing.
I had just seen him 2 minutes before so I
knew he was on the property and I was not
concerned.
So the whole idea that he was missing, I feel
like it's a it's not accurate.
But a few hours later, police returned, arresting Brittany in
front of her kids.
The warrant claiming she willingly and knowingly did endanger the
bodily safety of her juvenile son.
Her attorney disputes this.
I was not in disbelief because this happens and as
soon as I learn more of the facts was clear
to me.
No crime was committed.
David Delugas is the attorney representing Brittany.
He says she didn't do anything illegal.
Brittany has declined to sign a safety plan put forth
by the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services that
included putting AGPS tracking 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.
And by the way, that assumes he was unsafe in
the 1st place, which he was not.
Part of why Brittany declines to sign it is he
wasn't unsafe.
What would you say to Brittany Patterson?
Right on.
Who hasn't had that experience?
What parent in the world has not had some time
when they thought their kid was one place and it
turned out they were another?
Lenore Skenazy can relate to Brittany's story.
Back in 2008, she too divided the country when she
let her 9 year old child take the subway by
himself in New York City and published an article about
it.
So I think one of the first questions as parents
we might have is did he have a phone or
a watch, any communication device to get in touch with
you?
God forbid, were you worried about that?
If I was worried about his safety, I wouldn't have
done it.
She didn't expect the backlash that followed, at times dubbed
on TV as America's worst mom.
What if something, you know, God forbid it happened?
17 years later, I finally realized that that was my
real crime, was trusting my kid to do something without
me being independent, being out in the world.
But that was the charge against me.
In retrospect, looking back at your son's childhood and now
he's at he's grown up, do you stand by your
decision to prioritize his independence even in the face of
all that backlash you received?
I do.
And I stand by anyone's decision to prioritize their children's
independence because independence is trust.
Skenazy is now the president of the nonprofit Let Grow,
an organization that promotes so-called free range parenting.
How important is this conversation 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.
As for Brittany, she says she just hopes to be
the best mom, an example for her kids to the
critics.
That's, I mean, that's fine for them to have that
opinion of this.
If that's how they choose to raise their children.
I don't regret them for that.
I want my kids to be independent, contributing members of
society.
I want them to have jobs.
I want them to be respectful, all of the things
so that they can have a good life.
That's my goal as a mother.