Brittany Patterson, 41, from Georgia, was arrested in front of her children on October 30.

She was taken into custody and handed charges related to child endangerment by the Fannin County Sheriff’s Department after her 10-year-old son, Soren, ventured less than a mile away into town the day before Halloween.

Patterson was arrested in front of her family. (stock image) Credit: Arman Zhenikeyev/Getty Images

Soren, 10, had walked less than a mile away into town on October 30, and while he hadn’t asked his mother’s permission, Patterson says she probably would have allowed him to go even if he had.

Sheriff’s deputies spotted Soren wandering through the town, close to the North Carolina border, and called the mom-of-four to let her know where he was.

She appeared on Fox & Friends Weekend with her lawyer to share her experience, explaining: “It’s definitely been a little traumatizing. My kids have never seen anything like that or been exposed to anything like that, so really 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.”

Her lawyer, David DeLugas, added: “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, and yet [Soren] was in the middle of the day just walking down the street not a tenth of a mile [away].”

The arrest has also sparked a debate about free-range parenting and the government’s control over the way in which parents can raise their children.

Patterson said: “The reality is as parents we should have that autonomy whether we want to wrap our kids in bubble wrap or whether we want to give our kids a little more freedom and autonomy.

People took to social media to defend Patterson, writing: “The cop said that there was a law that a 10yo could not walk down the street by himself. There is no such law. They are trying to bully her into letting the govt track her child. I hope she sues the c**p out of them.”

Another wrote: “Remember when, as a kid, you could ride your bike, walk, play or explore until the streetlamps went out? Apparently that’s illegal in Georgia. Brittany Patterson caught a reckless conduct charge after police said her son who was 10 walked about a mile to the corner store. She plans to fight her case.”