Brittany Patterson lives in a rural part of Georgia with her four kids. Her husband is a superintendent at a school in Montana and is away much of the time. Last month, Patterson had to take one of her children to the doctor’s office. She left her 10-year-old son Soren (he’s nearly 11) at home with her father, the boy’s grandfather.
At some point, Soren decided to go for a walk to a local gas station where he knew his best friend’s grandmother was working. He didn’t ask permission, he just went. Someone saw him walking along the road and called police.
Lenore Skenazy, a parenting advocate who runs the nonprofit Let Grow and first reported Patterson’s story, told me that her case shouldn’t have even required police involvement.
The female stranger who first saw Soren walking down the road asked if he was okay, and was told yes, but the stranger called 911…
