What am I under arrest for?
For reckless endangerment.
And how was I recklessly endangering myself?
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. A Georgia mother is facing jail because her nearly 11 year old son walked into town by himself. As a result, she was arrested, fingerprints and mugshots 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 alone in their small town of Mineral Bluff. Britney 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, Jesse 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, the 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, 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 make that into a crime is insane.
It seems like everyone has a take on Patterson's case. How much freedom for a kid is too much.
If we don't give our children opportunities 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 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 stuff where he said that parents are really miserable. Well, of course, if you're expected to be with your child every single second in parenting, never had to be 247 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 kid's 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 two 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, is a. Is 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 happened. And as soon as I learned more of the facts was clear to me. No crime was committed.
David delucas is the attorney representing Britney. He says she didn't do anything illegal. Britney has declined to sign a safety plan put forth by the Georgia Division of Family and Children's Services that included putting a GPS 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 first 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 Skenazi can relate to Britney's story back in 2008. She too divided the country when she let her nine 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 had happened?
Seventeen 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. That was the charge against me.
In retrospect, looking back at your son's childhood and now he's, 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.
Skenazi 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 gonna 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 and 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 begrudge 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 life. That's my goal as a mother.
A Georgia mom was arrested in front of her children, after her 10-year-old walked alone to the store. Subscribe to ABC News on ...