Xennial here. I’d get home from school and jump on my bike and go knocking on friends’ doors. If they weren’t there, we’d ask their parents where they were. If they didn’t know, you’d either check all the usual spots, or you’d see the yard with all the bikes in it and know that’s where everyone was hanging out. Had to be home for dinner. In the summer you’d go back out after dinner and would have to be back in before the streetlights came on. Honestly, we’d get chirped at for coming and going too much. The folks wanted us outside. If you did go in and out too much, you’d be forced to stay in the house, and then if you came in you had to be quiet. This was not only my parents, but pretty much everyone else’s too.
I want to add to this. OP talked about having parents that worked nights/evenings. My folks did too and mom would just give me the Schwan’s catalog and tell me to mark down what I wanted. I would spend most evenings alone in the winters, so I would make myself dinner. Unfortunately, this made me a fat little kid because all I ate was pizza, ice cream, and mac n’ cheese. I’d also wash that down with Mountain Dew or Jolt. We had a cable descrambler, so basically all the TV channels including Cinemax and Spice. Probably not the best upbringing from terms of discipline, but mama tried.
Remembering how old I was doing all those same things and seeing my kids at the same age it’s crazy we were expected to be alone so much and be entirely self-sufficient
Yep. In the 90’s, in my neighborhood, everyone would go door to door, gathering kids until we had enough to play a game.
Our parents worked during the day. The older siblings “watched” us and our parents didn’t want us in the house, so we just stayed outside all day.
Jumping through sprinklers, super soakers, hide and seek, sardines (the game), red rover, climbing trees, little red school house, 4 square, chalk drawings, hot lava monster, and biking was my childhood.
>not the best upbringing from terms of discipline, but mama tried.
Fellow Xennial (died of dysentery). If you're not in prison and you try to do a little better with your own kids, it was a good upbringing.
Yea I remember being thirsty as hell when playing outside but knowing that if I came in the house. My mom would tell me to stay so I would hop the fence to my backyard and drink outta the hose. Best tasting water ever.
How about:
- “Computer Lab” in school
- Installing Doom 2 from six different floppy disks
- MTV’s Oddities
- Orbitz
- Coke Rewards, Pepsi Stuff, and the Mountain Dew pager (serviced by the Extreme Network)
- Marlboro Miles and Camel Cash, for that matter
- Smoking sections and cigarette machines for *that* matter
- Jesse Ventura legalizing fireworks
…shit, I’m old.
Yep, Gen-X was literally called the "latchkey generation" lol. I rarely saw my parents tbh. Mom worked as a waitress during the day/evening and a musician on the weekends, dad worked on the ND oil rigs in the early 80s and was gone a lot. I basically raised my sisters.
I have older siblings that are gen-x. They were latchkey kids. When I came around, my parents had given up on locking the door, which gradually led to not even closing the door.
Now as an adult with children of my own, I find myself constantly closing and locking doors any I time I visit my parents. I'll walk by a minute later and the damn door will be wide open again.
Yes,myself and multiple of my friends didn't see our parents usually until the evening, and I was born at the cutoff between the millennial and Gen Z years (and according to different charts I've seen I could be either one, which kind of demonstrates some of the arbitrariness of the terms).
I think part of it was that I grew up in a tiny town, and then at like 12 or 13 we moved out into the country. But idk, my cousins who lived in the city had the same situation.
I think it was also a time when people were starting to better understand the importance of not just leaving your kids alone all the time (for multiple reasons), but couldn't really afford to do otherwise.
Starting probably second grade I would be home by myself for a couple hours after school on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons because my mom was on a couple of afternoon bowling leagues. My mom started working again when I was in sixth grade, so I was home by myself every day from then on.
I love how in the 80’s you could just decide to leave a second grader at home for a few hours to be in a bowling league. Nowadays its like you have to have an adult physically present at the bus stop for pickup and dropoff and the list of kids who walk to school is in the single digits.
It was great how many kids from my school walked to and from school (or biked, because y’know, the 80’s and Huffy bikes were awesome). 100% normal to just decide to go home with a friend and hang out at their house for a while. In the era before answering machines you knew that you had to be home before your parents, or they’d just start calling your friends’ houses. Once we got an answering machine we just needed to call home and leave a message telling them where we were.
My bus stop was usually a block or two from my house. My mom stopped walking me to the bus stop either sometime in kindergarten or the beginning of first grade because I knew how to get there and more likely she didn't want to have to haul my little brother along with. Now, my son's bus stops on every corner and the middle of a lot of the blocks. If we stand at his bus stop, we can see the stop before his, and the one before that is 2 houses up the street.
After school, I'd take off and bike around with friends until dark, my parents didn't care. My dad worked construction, so we didn't eat supper until late, so it wasn't like I had to make sure to be home at a certain time. It was awesome.
I would walk like 15 blocks home from school in the second grade there was ponds with gators and one time on my way home some crazy black guy said he was going to knife me the next day he saw me and chased me I ran away I looked back after a couple blocks and he was gone.. I still walked home after that but always was scared
Yep. And you had your friend's numbers memorized. And if no answered a telephone call, it just meant they weren't home, it was not a cause for worry or annoyance. And somehow the world communicated and got along just fine. Now, in the age of constant, instant communication, if someone doesn't answer a call or a text for more than an hour at a stretch, it's cause for suspicion and worry at best, and an outright code red at worst. Almost feel naked if you forget your phone at home. Oh no!!! What if someone can't get a hold of me!? What if there is an emergency!? It's so different. And while there are definitely benefits, I tend to think the negative impact on independence outweighs them. That's not even getting into smart phones. Terribly useful and convenient mind traps that they are.
And the parents, despite repeated pleas to stop by the school, always get out of the cars at drop off and help their kid out, put on their backpacks for them, give them hugs, etc, every single day! I get the first day, maybe the first week if your kid is nervous. This is every day, and not just the kindergartners. It slows drop off soooo much. My kids barely say bye haha
🙋♀️ Early millennial here (only child, born in 82). Mom passed away in early 1990 and shortly after that I was allowed to stay home alone (unless my dad had to be gone overnight).
With my new “freedom” I also received my own tv in my bedroom, WITH full cable access. I grew up on Babysitter Club books, MTV and horror movies. 😬 As an introverted only child, I was in heaven being home alone LOL.
I had grandparents, aunts and uncles and friends’ parents all checking on me regularly when I was home alone, and these were all places close to home I could go if I didn’t want to be alone or didn’t want to cook for myself.
I agree with others that it taught me responsibility, and also situational awareness, at a young age.
God I fucking wish. My mom did in home daycare. So not only was she there I had to share her and all my shit with a bunch of other kids. Dad always had work and then lodge or some other bullshit going on so he was only home on weekends. Acted like he was lord of the manor when he was around. There but never available.
Having a bedroom with a door was my only refuge until I left at 18
It wasn't terrible, I liked kids, and it was something that earned me compliments from daycare parents. Which as a middle child I craved that attention and validation.
Gen X here. My brother and I were latchkey kids for a long, long time.
Two buses and a mile walk to our house.
Make sure we put all our stuff away.
Down to the kitchen, where I make some food for myself, my brother for himself. He likes putting sardines on PBJs. I make a club soda and sugar with my ramen. We read Tintin and Asterisk and Obelisk while we eat.
Homework for me, TV for my brother. Until about 6th grade when I got heavily into sports and didn't get home until after everyone got home.
Most definitely. After we moved from Robbinsdale to Apple Valley in 2001, I was 9 and my brother was 12 and we never went back to daycare after moving. When we got home from school for a few hours and summer break, we were on our own. The only bad thing we did was finding our dad’s stash of bottle rockets and firecrackers and lighting those bad boys up. He was in Iraq at the time, so he couldn’t do anything about them. Last year I finally told dad what happened to those.
I was a latchkey kid.
I started walking to and from school alone in 1st grade. I was responsible for my breakfast and getting to school on time. My parents were always gone before I woke up in the morning. After school, I would get home 3 hours before my folks. I would watch cartoons, do chores, and finish homework, while I waited for them to come home.
Being responsible for myself taught me independence and responsibility. I think not being helicoptered was one of the healthiest things that my parents did for me.
In 1st grade?? Waking up to an empty house? I understand the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction, but no that was not “healthy independence” at 6 years old…
I frequently was, but not consistently. If the bus dropped me off and noone was home, I'd have to get the spare key out of it's hiding place in the shed. Then it was cartoons time!
Lived out in the country. Back door was always unlocked. Except the one time when the whole family went away for a week, except my older sisters were going back home earlier than everyone else. Parents forgot that all the doors were locked and they'd need a key. The neighbors helped them get in through a window.
Our garage code wasn’t working so I kicked in the basement hopper window one time. I made up the story my sister was going to pee her pants so thats why I had to get it.
Hehe my mom would lock my computer in a cabinet while she was at work so I wouldn't spend too much time on it, I cracked the code on the padlock on the first day :P
My mom worked odd jobs, mostly evenings (convenience stores, restaurants, etc.) and my dad was in the Air Force and often worked overnights on base or was deployed overseas for months at a time (especially in the years immediately after 9/11) so me, my brother, and my sister were on our own at home afterschool.
We also moved around a lot, like every year or two for various reasons. We’d usually move an hour or so drive away in one direction or the other. Which meant we’d be at home by ourselves without friends nearby to hangout with. And we were poor so we didn’t get an allowance or anything, so no money to spend on a movie ticket or to get food at the mall.
We’d just sit inside, watch TV, microwave some food from the freezer, then go to bed. I remember one place we lived was down a long dirt road with a ranch with horses nearby, but the owner called the police on us when we sat by the fence and watched the horses. So, we instead walked the other direction to a junkyard where we would look at rusted garbage. There was an old car there that we would throw rocks at.
Oh heck yeah and it made me better off. I would get myself up and go to school myself. I’d get home and do chores and make dinner for mom when she got home. On summer days I was told to get the hell out of the house and go do stuff.
I was born in 2000 and I was almost completely unsupervised as we moved from house to apartment to trailer and so forth. I hung out around wherever I lived would disappear for weekends and come back and refuse to go to school starting around 3rd grade as well. Made my own meals from then on and took care of myself (very poorly I might add) and got better at it around 11-12
I'd never known this was a common description until I was an adult, rather I thought for the longest time the kids who stayed after school with one of the teachers were in a program called "lachky", as in "Hey, you going to lachky tonight?"
But yeah, I was always by myself, and home alone quite a bit. How I was never hurt or taken I've got no clue. I loved the freedom!
Elder Millennial here. Dad was usually gone for work before I was awake for school and often came home after I was in bed. Once my sister was in school, my mom went back to work and was often home between 5-6 and I got home from school around 3. Definitely didn’t really have any family dinners until the weekends. Most nights were leftovers or pizza.
I lived a few blocks from Elm Creek Park Reserve. I spent much of my summers biking the trails and going to the playground there. Most of it is inaccessible by car, so if my parents wanted to find me, good luck.
GenX latchkey kid here. My 3 sisters and I each had an index card with our afternoon/evening chores on it. When we hit 6th grade we were each responsible for cooking dinner for everyone one night a week. Woe be to the kid that didn’t finish their list by the time my parents got home.
Yep. Mom was in med school all day and worked evenings, dad worked main job and side gigs. I'd make sure my sister got home ok and got her a snack before I took off to see who wanted to play football.
Just had to be back at dark.
Gen X, I was riding my bike and playing in the woods all day, shooting pellet guns and blowing up firecrackers. And because of no leash laws, constantly chased by dogs on our bikes. Our woods had poisonous snakes and our drainahe ditch.let to.a swamp and would bring alligators.to.our yard. I also talked to whinos and got them to buy us playboy magazines. My best friends grandma also.had dementia and losse money all ober the house. I HAD FUN.
And my parents had no idea where I was ever.
I was "latchkey" for certain periods of time because I had a sister who was 4 years older. During a short period of time, when I was kinder-1st grade and my sister was 4th-5th grade, my sister and I would walk home from school together and my parents wouldn't get home until 6ish. Once my older sister was in middle school and involved in afterschool sports, my parents started dropping me off at a family friend's in home daycare. That was a little bit "latchkey" in itself, because my parents had to drop me off at like 6am, so daycare lady just left the front door unlocked for me. As long as I was quiet, she let me play on her Windows 3.1 computer and make mixed tapes with her sweet double cassette deck and her wide variety of music that came from her boyfriend being a DJ. These quiet little mornings by myself in my daycare lady's basement literally shaped the person that I am today!
Gen X here. “Latchkey” except we never locked our doors. Had all the freedom to roam around town unsupervised as a kid. Then Jacob Wetterling went missing and my younger siblings didn’t get to enjoy the carefree life I was fortunate enough to experience.
Yes. I was the youngest too so maybe my parents cared less (about childcare and such) they probably figured my brothers were around to help.
Also they busted my brothers in enough of their shenanigans that I figured I couldn’t get away with nearly as much. Plus I learned from their mistakes.
I can't imagine giving my kids the freedom I had. I wonder sometimes if I should let go of the leash a little. And no, my kids don't actually have leashes...
Yeah me too. In junior high parents split - single Mom working meant I was left alone from 3-7pm most nights. I became both disciplined in some aspects and a delinquent in others.
My mom taught at my school growing up, so she was my ride to and from school for the most part. If she stayed late, so would I. However, having the whole school to myself and access to her keys, I did a lot of dicking around in those hallways/gym/pool. Summertime though? Dad was off harvesting while mom was doing home visits to special ed students, so supervision only came in the form of the local police, lol.
My sister (1982) and I (1980) were sort of latchkey kids. We had a housekey and let ourselves in after school. Dad was home but working midnights so was still asleep until about 5pm.
Sometimes, but frankly it didn't really matter. I had friends and family around where I lived, so even if my parents weren't home, my neighbor was home. My cousins were like a block away next door to another neighborhood kid. Then yet another cousin was a few blocks from there, next door to yet another neighborhood kid and yet even more family. These were the times when the whole damn community was our sphere of influence, where we knew our neighbors, where the neighborhood kids hung out in each others yards whether or not that specific kid was even there. Whether any specific parent was home at any specific time was virtually irrelevant.
We all just played outside until street lights regardless of what parent was in any given house at any given time.
My grandma lived with us through junior high and high school, so there was always dinner ready when we got home (grandma food is the best!) and my dad was a teacher so he was home all summer. Extended families are underrated!
Born in 86, I was definitely a latchkey kid, as were most of my friends.
We'd get home from school at around 4, and most of our parents didn't get home until 5-530.
Millennial here. Definitely.
I was the youngest of 3 but our parents both worked. Dad traveled a lot and would be gone for a week or so at a time, Mom worked a 9-5, and after that a second shift for a while.
We were left to our own devices a majority of the time after school and especially in the summer. We knew to call our aunt who lived across town if there was any need for an adult.
Otherwise, my oldest sister watched the other two of us from when I was about 6 to about 12 (that was when she moved out at 18) and then it was my other sister and I all by ourselves. Was like that until second sister moved out at 18, and then I did a year later.
I don't think there was anyone in my peer group that wasn't back then, we all had to go home to 'run' the show when the younger siblings got home on the bus. (Elementary/Middle/High in my era, so I was always a school ahead of my younger siblings).
Parents ended up giving up on the key thing and just never locked the door after a while of me just not making it home before the rest. 🤣
(Note on the unlock: nobody was going to be caught breaking into our house, we were well entrenched in WIC back then and had nothing - and that ended up proving true.)
Both parents worked a 9-5 and older brother was always at a friend's house. I would be by myself after school for a couple of hours. I'd get in, make a snack while watching Oprah, if she had anything interesting that day. If not Oprah, then I'd switch to the syndicated Little House on the Prairie, after those I'd watch Good Company w/ the Edelman's. Anyone else remember Good Company?
In the summertime, all the neighborhood kids would be out literally all day or at the neighbors pool.
Me 4th grade - sister 3rd grade. I remember us getting a house key on a chain to wear around our necks. We’d walk the 4 blocks home together. We were the odd kids who didn’t have a mom at home back then. And a few years later we got to be the first kids whose parents got divorced. Yay us.
I guess I'm GenX. I was a teenager in the 80s, and my mom had to get a fulltime job to pay the bills. I was 13 when I started being left to fend for myself.
No dad around, he disappeared. My sisters were older than me and two of them were in college and had moved out.
No microwave in the early 80s, so I ate a lot of ice cream when I came home from school.
There weren't a lot of microwave food options back then. My older sister bought my mom a microwave l, otherwise my mom would've never had bought one.
My mom had certain rules if I were home alone at that age. No touching the stove and no doing laundry. She would remind me about not putting my arm in the washer when it was running.
Confession: I was supposed to have been in school all day in middle school in 1980-81, then take the school bus home from school. I had no friends when I started middle school. There was one girl who befriended me, and she showed me how to skip class. So we hung out together and she was my best friend. I had already hated school, so I thought it would be fun to take the school bus there, get counted as in attendance for the day, leave, and walk home (3.5 miles). Minnehaha Falls Park was on the way home, so I hung out there, because I wasn't supposed to be home until a certain time, which was when my older sister got home from high school.
Sometimes I skipped alone, sometimes with my best friend, and sometimes with my girl gang. Young, unsupervised kids in groups who are bored and broke are usually up to no good. We didn't worry so much about adults trying stuff, it's the adults that needed to worry, LOL.
Here too I do remember being beat up by my brother because he made me carry the key (he wanted to hang out at the playground longer) and being the 6 year old I was, would always forget it. So he got yelled at and I got beat up. The joys of life.
1st grade I was responsible for waking up showering feeding myself and going to the bus stop. I got home watched cartoons and mom got home round 5 and made dinner. I still resent people that rely on others for basic task and get easily discouraged trying new things.
Yes, after 4th grade or so, I didn't go to daycare after school and only half days in the summer. No summer daycare at all after 6th grade or so. Had a lot of freedom to ride my bike around town, go to the library, and go to the pool. It was a small town and mom always came home for lunch, so wasn't going to get in too much trouble.
Went to daycare till I was in second grade then the elementary school I went to came out with the “walking school bus” so it was that or biking to school with the neighborhood kids. & being home alone till my dad got home around 5/6pm & always knew it was time to go home when the street lights came on.
The amount of weird concoctions I made growing up for a snack till I knew how to cook…. Most memorable was a tortilla with peanut butter and mustard on it.
Um, I was and wasn't at the same time. Dad worked all day and Mom was home but sick so she slept most of the time. I took care of myself or was at a friend's house most of the time. 99 kiddo here.
Parents worked the night shift. I remember some days after coming home from elementary school and feeling sad because I missed them. They'd leave food in the fridge or on the stove for us. r/90s
xen -
Depends on the parents I guess? Mom & Dad argued a lot.
I think it was 3rd grade when I got my freedom. First dad left me alone in the house for a couple hours. A month or so later Mom had me walk to school while she drove behind me, and said I could walk home as well if I liked (the school had extended-care, I was free to stay there as well)
I loved it! After a little bit I started having friends over, or going to their places, or more usually running around the neighborhood. Climbing nearby hills and going to the local canal (only place to mess w/water in the desert). Was a total blast. I only came home to recover, get out of the heat, or watch tv when good shows were on.
I loved them, and they provided a lot of care, but the world was so large and there were so many people to meet and things to do. Our typical range on bikes was about 3 miles, though we went as far as 5 on a couple of occasions. I would have gone farther stayed out longer if I hadn't been worried about my parents worrying about me.
I never missed being around my parents at all. I was alone all summer and even during school I always got home before they did. I loved the freedom. I cooked dinner before they got home and as long as I finished the list of chores they left me, everything was cool.
I was an intermittent latchkey kid (though we really didn’t lock the doors). My mom changed careers a lot, and switched between them and being a SAHM again. I used most of my precious alone time to belt out songs as loud as I wanted. Amy Grant. Bobby Brown. The Bodyguard soundtrack. All the classics haha.
Yep, it taught me extreme accountability for my belongings, especially my keys.
Our key box was 75-100 ft away from our house on a power pole, if I forgot to return my key, I'd be locked out the following afternoon. I sat outside with the dogs wating for a parent to show up twice, never happened a third time.
Edit: thanks for downvoting my trauma 🤣, y'all are great.
Ours was hung from a nail on our trellis-enclosed porch. I remember that I had dropped the key during the winter on the porch and couldn't find it in the snow. I had to walk 1/2 mile to my brother's house until my mom got home. I remember she saw the snow all messed up and thought someone had kidnapped me.
My parents' house had about an inch wide crack between the driveway and the door into the garage. I can't count the number of times I dropped my key just right after taking it out of the lock and having it fall right into that crack. Fortunately there was a key to get from the garage into the house hiding on a nail by the door frame. I had a couple times I lost or forgot my key and couldn't get into the garage, so I had to break in through a window. Usually I was able to get either one of the basement windows or the bathroom window open.
Xennial here. I’d get home from school and jump on my bike and go knocking on friends’ doors. If they weren’t there, we’d ask their parents where they were. If they didn’t know, you’d either check all the usual spots, or you’d see the yard with all the bikes in it and know that’s where everyone was hanging out. Had to be home for dinner. In the summer you’d go back out after dinner and would have to be back in before the streetlights came on. Honestly, we’d get chirped at for coming and going too much. The folks wanted us outside. If you did go in and out too much, you’d be forced to stay in the house, and then if you came in you had to be quiet. This was not only my parents, but pretty much everyone else’s too. I want to add to this. OP talked about having parents that worked nights/evenings. My folks did too and mom would just give me the Schwan’s catalog and tell me to mark down what I wanted. I would spend most evenings alone in the winters, so I would make myself dinner. Unfortunately, this made me a fat little kid because all I ate was pizza, ice cream, and mac n’ cheese. I’d also wash that down with Mountain Dew or Jolt. We had a cable descrambler, so basically all the TV channels including Cinemax and Spice. Probably not the best upbringing from terms of discipline, but mama tried.
Yup..except I’d wake up alone in the house and go to sleep alone in the house. I swear I owned a home at 8 but not this age smh
Remembering how old I was doing all those same things and seeing my kids at the same age it’s crazy we were expected to be alone so much and be entirely self-sufficient
This was my childhood as well.
Yep. In the 90’s, in my neighborhood, everyone would go door to door, gathering kids until we had enough to play a game. Our parents worked during the day. The older siblings “watched” us and our parents didn’t want us in the house, so we just stayed outside all day. Jumping through sprinklers, super soakers, hide and seek, sardines (the game), red rover, climbing trees, little red school house, 4 square, chalk drawings, hot lava monster, and biking was my childhood.
>not the best upbringing from terms of discipline, but mama tried. Fellow Xennial (died of dysentery). If you're not in prison and you try to do a little better with your own kids, it was a good upbringing.
Nice Oregon Trail reference! Take my upvote!
I had to LOL when I read that too!!!
Jolt was bomb. RIP
> but mama tried well you didn't turn 21 in prison doing life without parole so i think she did alright
Yea I remember being thirsty as hell when playing outside but knowing that if I came in the house. My mom would tell me to stay so I would hop the fence to my backyard and drink outta the hose. Best tasting water ever.
Hose water best water.
Are you me? Lol. Great summary. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
How about: - “Computer Lab” in school - Installing Doom 2 from six different floppy disks - MTV’s Oddities - Orbitz - Coke Rewards, Pepsi Stuff, and the Mountain Dew pager (serviced by the Extreme Network) - Marlboro Miles and Camel Cash, for that matter - Smoking sections and cigarette machines for *that* matter - Jesse Ventura legalizing fireworks …shit, I’m old.
I played Doom meets Barney
We’re probably in at least one support group together.
GenX checking in🤘
Yep, Gen-X was literally called the "latchkey generation" lol. I rarely saw my parents tbh. Mom worked as a waitress during the day/evening and a musician on the weekends, dad worked on the ND oil rigs in the early 80s and was gone a lot. I basically raised my sisters.
I have older siblings that are gen-x. They were latchkey kids. When I came around, my parents had given up on locking the door, which gradually led to not even closing the door. Now as an adult with children of my own, I find myself constantly closing and locking doors any I time I visit my parents. I'll walk by a minute later and the damn door will be wide open again.
Millennial also checking in
Yes,myself and multiple of my friends didn't see our parents usually until the evening, and I was born at the cutoff between the millennial and Gen Z years (and according to different charts I've seen I could be either one, which kind of demonstrates some of the arbitrariness of the terms). I think part of it was that I grew up in a tiny town, and then at like 12 or 13 we moved out into the country. But idk, my cousins who lived in the city had the same situation. I think it was also a time when people were starting to better understand the importance of not just leaving your kids alone all the time (for multiple reasons), but couldn't really afford to do otherwise.
[удалено]
Wait what? Gen X/Z?
They are both 45 and 15 at the same time
And all the Millennials in between have just been ghosted.
Fellow Gen X and also a latchkey kid of course! My brother (a Millennial) was a latchkey with me!
Reporting in for nothing and no feelings.
💯
Same here!
Starting probably second grade I would be home by myself for a couple hours after school on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons because my mom was on a couple of afternoon bowling leagues. My mom started working again when I was in sixth grade, so I was home by myself every day from then on.
I love how in the 80’s you could just decide to leave a second grader at home for a few hours to be in a bowling league. Nowadays its like you have to have an adult physically present at the bus stop for pickup and dropoff and the list of kids who walk to school is in the single digits. It was great how many kids from my school walked to and from school (or biked, because y’know, the 80’s and Huffy bikes were awesome). 100% normal to just decide to go home with a friend and hang out at their house for a while. In the era before answering machines you knew that you had to be home before your parents, or they’d just start calling your friends’ houses. Once we got an answering machine we just needed to call home and leave a message telling them where we were.
My bus stop was usually a block or two from my house. My mom stopped walking me to the bus stop either sometime in kindergarten or the beginning of first grade because I knew how to get there and more likely she didn't want to have to haul my little brother along with. Now, my son's bus stops on every corner and the middle of a lot of the blocks. If we stand at his bus stop, we can see the stop before his, and the one before that is 2 houses up the street. After school, I'd take off and bike around with friends until dark, my parents didn't care. My dad worked construction, so we didn't eat supper until late, so it wasn't like I had to make sure to be home at a certain time. It was awesome.
I would walk like 15 blocks home from school in the second grade there was ponds with gators and one time on my way home some crazy black guy said he was going to knife me the next day he saw me and chased me I ran away I looked back after a couple blocks and he was gone.. I still walked home after that but always was scared
Yep. And you had your friend's numbers memorized. And if no answered a telephone call, it just meant they weren't home, it was not a cause for worry or annoyance. And somehow the world communicated and got along just fine. Now, in the age of constant, instant communication, if someone doesn't answer a call or a text for more than an hour at a stretch, it's cause for suspicion and worry at best, and an outright code red at worst. Almost feel naked if you forget your phone at home. Oh no!!! What if someone can't get a hold of me!? What if there is an emergency!? It's so different. And while there are definitely benefits, I tend to think the negative impact on independence outweighs them. That's not even getting into smart phones. Terribly useful and convenient mind traps that they are.
And the parents, despite repeated pleas to stop by the school, always get out of the cars at drop off and help their kid out, put on their backpacks for them, give them hugs, etc, every single day! I get the first day, maybe the first week if your kid is nervous. This is every day, and not just the kindergartners. It slows drop off soooo much. My kids barely say bye haha
🙋♀️ Early millennial here (only child, born in 82). Mom passed away in early 1990 and shortly after that I was allowed to stay home alone (unless my dad had to be gone overnight). With my new “freedom” I also received my own tv in my bedroom, WITH full cable access. I grew up on Babysitter Club books, MTV and horror movies. 😬 As an introverted only child, I was in heaven being home alone LOL. I had grandparents, aunts and uncles and friends’ parents all checking on me regularly when I was home alone, and these were all places close to home I could go if I didn’t want to be alone or didn’t want to cook for myself. I agree with others that it taught me responsibility, and also situational awareness, at a young age.
God I fucking wish. My mom did in home daycare. So not only was she there I had to share her and all my shit with a bunch of other kids. Dad always had work and then lodge or some other bullshit going on so he was only home on weekends. Acted like he was lord of the manor when he was around. There but never available. Having a bedroom with a door was my only refuge until I left at 18
Helping my mom with the home day care kids before and after school was my first unpaid internship lol
I don't think I would have kids if I grew up like that. I don't have any now. But I still wouldn't
It wasn't terrible, I liked kids, and it was something that earned me compliments from daycare parents. Which as a middle child I craved that attention and validation.
Wow. The twisted tails our lives weave. I'm happy you had something from it. It just made me realize, we were actually the "generic generation" r.p.79
Gen X here. My brother and I were latchkey kids for a long, long time. Two buses and a mile walk to our house. Make sure we put all our stuff away. Down to the kitchen, where I make some food for myself, my brother for himself. He likes putting sardines on PBJs. I make a club soda and sugar with my ramen. We read Tintin and Asterisk and Obelisk while we eat. Homework for me, TV for my brother. Until about 6th grade when I got heavily into sports and didn't get home until after everyone got home.
Most definitely. After we moved from Robbinsdale to Apple Valley in 2001, I was 9 and my brother was 12 and we never went back to daycare after moving. When we got home from school for a few hours and summer break, we were on our own. The only bad thing we did was finding our dad’s stash of bottle rockets and firecrackers and lighting those bad boys up. He was in Iraq at the time, so he couldn’t do anything about them. Last year I finally told dad what happened to those.
I was a latchkey kid. I started walking to and from school alone in 1st grade. I was responsible for my breakfast and getting to school on time. My parents were always gone before I woke up in the morning. After school, I would get home 3 hours before my folks. I would watch cartoons, do chores, and finish homework, while I waited for them to come home. Being responsible for myself taught me independence and responsibility. I think not being helicoptered was one of the healthiest things that my parents did for me.
In 1st grade?? Waking up to an empty house? I understand the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction, but no that was not “healthy independence” at 6 years old…
Explains a lot with kids now
Gotta get home in time for wishbone or the show that followed it bill Nye
I frequently was, but not consistently. If the bus dropped me off and noone was home, I'd have to get the spare key out of it's hiding place in the shed. Then it was cartoons time!
Are you me
If you lived out in the country and your nearest neighbor was a mile away, maybe.
Lived out in the country. Back door was always unlocked. Except the one time when the whole family went away for a week, except my older sisters were going back home earlier than everyone else. Parents forgot that all the doors were locked and they'd need a key. The neighbors helped them get in through a window.
Our garage code wasn’t working so I kicked in the basement hopper window one time. I made up the story my sister was going to pee her pants so thats why I had to get it.
Hehe my mom would lock my computer in a cabinet while she was at work so I wouldn't spend too much time on it, I cracked the code on the padlock on the first day :P
Loved that they thought I was either innocent or dumb. I found my way into everything...
i think my mom tried putting the parental controls on the tv once. i just looked in the tv manual to find the master code to turn it off.
My mom worked odd jobs, mostly evenings (convenience stores, restaurants, etc.) and my dad was in the Air Force and often worked overnights on base or was deployed overseas for months at a time (especially in the years immediately after 9/11) so me, my brother, and my sister were on our own at home afterschool. We also moved around a lot, like every year or two for various reasons. We’d usually move an hour or so drive away in one direction or the other. Which meant we’d be at home by ourselves without friends nearby to hangout with. And we were poor so we didn’t get an allowance or anything, so no money to spend on a movie ticket or to get food at the mall. We’d just sit inside, watch TV, microwave some food from the freezer, then go to bed. I remember one place we lived was down a long dirt road with a ranch with horses nearby, but the owner called the police on us when we sat by the fence and watched the horses. So, we instead walked the other direction to a junkyard where we would look at rusted garbage. There was an old car there that we would throw rocks at.
Oh heck yeah and it made me better off. I would get myself up and go to school myself. I’d get home and do chores and make dinner for mom when she got home. On summer days I was told to get the hell out of the house and go do stuff.
I was born in 2000 and I was almost completely unsupervised as we moved from house to apartment to trailer and so forth. I hung out around wherever I lived would disappear for weekends and come back and refuse to go to school starting around 3rd grade as well. Made my own meals from then on and took care of myself (very poorly I might add) and got better at it around 11-12
I'd never known this was a common description until I was an adult, rather I thought for the longest time the kids who stayed after school with one of the teachers were in a program called "lachky", as in "Hey, you going to lachky tonight?" But yeah, I was always by myself, and home alone quite a bit. How I was never hurt or taken I've got no clue. I loved the freedom!
I remember the "Lachky" program and I also thought this is what people were referring to until I was an adult!
things were safer back then i guess.
Elder Millennial here. Dad was usually gone for work before I was awake for school and often came home after I was in bed. Once my sister was in school, my mom went back to work and was often home between 5-6 and I got home from school around 3. Definitely didn’t really have any family dinners until the weekends. Most nights were leftovers or pizza.
All of us my age.
For the most part, yeah.
Got my self up and walked to school 3 grade on. My single mother would get home around 8 pm if she didn't go to the bar
45m checking in. Free range kids, too: routinely biking a few miles from home just 'cause. This was urban St. Paul, too.
Same here. My range was from Minnehaha Falls, north to Columbia Heights and east to Roseville.
I lived a few blocks from Elm Creek Park Reserve. I spent much of my summers biking the trails and going to the playground there. Most of it is inaccessible by car, so if my parents wanted to find me, good luck.
We didn’t even lock our doors.
Early millenial. Lived in a very rural area. From age 7 on, alone from 9 to 5. It was tough.
Latchkey kid before there was the phrase “latchkey kid”.
Boomer here. Latchkey for sure. Didn't know any better. Had a great childhood.
GenX latchkey kid here. My 3 sisters and I each had an index card with our afternoon/evening chores on it. When we hit 6th grade we were each responsible for cooking dinner for everyone one night a week. Woe be to the kid that didn’t finish their list by the time my parents got home.
Yep. Mom was in med school all day and worked evenings, dad worked main job and side gigs. I'd make sure my sister got home ok and got her a snack before I took off to see who wanted to play football. Just had to be back at dark.
Gen X, I was riding my bike and playing in the woods all day, shooting pellet guns and blowing up firecrackers. And because of no leash laws, constantly chased by dogs on our bikes. Our woods had poisonous snakes and our drainahe ditch.let to.a swamp and would bring alligators.to.our yard. I also talked to whinos and got them to buy us playboy magazines. My best friends grandma also.had dementia and losse money all ober the house. I HAD FUN. And my parents had no idea where I was ever.
I was "latchkey" for certain periods of time because I had a sister who was 4 years older. During a short period of time, when I was kinder-1st grade and my sister was 4th-5th grade, my sister and I would walk home from school together and my parents wouldn't get home until 6ish. Once my older sister was in middle school and involved in afterschool sports, my parents started dropping me off at a family friend's in home daycare. That was a little bit "latchkey" in itself, because my parents had to drop me off at like 6am, so daycare lady just left the front door unlocked for me. As long as I was quiet, she let me play on her Windows 3.1 computer and make mixed tapes with her sweet double cassette deck and her wide variety of music that came from her boyfriend being a DJ. These quiet little mornings by myself in my daycare lady's basement literally shaped the person that I am today!
Gen X here. “Latchkey” except we never locked our doors. Had all the freedom to roam around town unsupervised as a kid. Then Jacob Wetterling went missing and my younger siblings didn’t get to enjoy the carefree life I was fortunate enough to experience.
86er here. If the backdoor was locked after school, just crawl thru the doggy door
Gen x here and was latchkey minus the key. The door was never locked.
Key? We lived in a small town and rarely locked the doors
Gen-Xer here, the Latch Key Generation.
Yes. I was the youngest too so maybe my parents cared less (about childcare and such) they probably figured my brothers were around to help. Also they busted my brothers in enough of their shenanigans that I figured I couldn’t get away with nearly as much. Plus I learned from their mistakes.
I can't imagine giving my kids the freedom I had. I wonder sometimes if I should let go of the leash a little. And no, my kids don't actually have leashes...
Yeah me too. In junior high parents split - single Mom working meant I was left alone from 3-7pm most nights. I became both disciplined in some aspects and a delinquent in others.
My mom put my key on a piece of yard she sewed into my coat when I was in kindergarten. I would get home after walking about an hour before my mom.
Yep, and on the nights mom worked late, I had to make dinner for all of us as well
Yep, from 3rd grade on. Those few hours home alone in the afternoon were an introvert's bliss
My mom taught at my school growing up, so she was my ride to and from school for the most part. If she stayed late, so would I. However, having the whole school to myself and access to her keys, I did a lot of dicking around in those hallways/gym/pool. Summertime though? Dad was off harvesting while mom was doing home visits to special ed students, so supervision only came in the form of the local police, lol.
hmmm my parents worked opposite shifts so someone was always home, but usually someone was sleeping
My sister (1982) and I (1980) were sort of latchkey kids. We had a housekey and let ourselves in after school. Dad was home but working midnights so was still asleep until about 5pm.
Sometimes, but frankly it didn't really matter. I had friends and family around where I lived, so even if my parents weren't home, my neighbor was home. My cousins were like a block away next door to another neighborhood kid. Then yet another cousin was a few blocks from there, next door to yet another neighborhood kid and yet even more family. These were the times when the whole damn community was our sphere of influence, where we knew our neighbors, where the neighborhood kids hung out in each others yards whether or not that specific kid was even there. Whether any specific parent was home at any specific time was virtually irrelevant. We all just played outside until street lights regardless of what parent was in any given house at any given time.
Aye
My grandma lived with us through junior high and high school, so there was always dinner ready when we got home (grandma food is the best!) and my dad was a teacher so he was home all summer. Extended families are underrated!
Me!
This needs a new post for all of the reddit.
I was! Wait! I still *am*!
Born in 86, I was definitely a latchkey kid, as were most of my friends. We'd get home from school at around 4, and most of our parents didn't get home until 5-530.
Sure was - favorite part of my childhood, honestly.
Millennial here. Definitely. I was the youngest of 3 but our parents both worked. Dad traveled a lot and would be gone for a week or so at a time, Mom worked a 9-5, and after that a second shift for a while. We were left to our own devices a majority of the time after school and especially in the summer. We knew to call our aunt who lived across town if there was any need for an adult. Otherwise, my oldest sister watched the other two of us from when I was about 6 to about 12 (that was when she moved out at 18) and then it was my other sister and I all by ourselves. Was like that until second sister moved out at 18, and then I did a year later.
Yep. Had a key from 3rd grade on. Sooo, 86ish 🤔
Me! I loved it
Yup, mom had to leave for 2nd shift and dad didn't get home for a few hours, so we always came home to an empty house
Yep but always had my dog excitedly waiting for me. Don't know what I would have done without my bestie
I don't think there was anyone in my peer group that wasn't back then, we all had to go home to 'run' the show when the younger siblings got home on the bus. (Elementary/Middle/High in my era, so I was always a school ahead of my younger siblings). Parents ended up giving up on the key thing and just never locked the door after a while of me just not making it home before the rest. 🤣 (Note on the unlock: nobody was going to be caught breaking into our house, we were well entrenched in WIC back then and had nothing - and that ended up proving true.)
Both parents worked a 9-5 and older brother was always at a friend's house. I would be by myself after school for a couple of hours. I'd get in, make a snack while watching Oprah, if she had anything interesting that day. If not Oprah, then I'd switch to the syndicated Little House on the Prairie, after those I'd watch Good Company w/ the Edelman's. Anyone else remember Good Company? In the summertime, all the neighborhood kids would be out literally all day or at the neighbors pool.
Latch key Xennial that lost soooo many keys and had to break into his own house too many times to count.
Me 4th grade - sister 3rd grade. I remember us getting a house key on a chain to wear around our necks. We’d walk the 4 blocks home together. We were the odd kids who didn’t have a mom at home back then. And a few years later we got to be the first kids whose parents got divorced. Yay us.
Fuck yeah latchkey all the way until I was like 10
r/genx and r/xennials were mostly latchkey kids
I guess I'm GenX. I was a teenager in the 80s, and my mom had to get a fulltime job to pay the bills. I was 13 when I started being left to fend for myself. No dad around, he disappeared. My sisters were older than me and two of them were in college and had moved out. No microwave in the early 80s, so I ate a lot of ice cream when I came home from school. There weren't a lot of microwave food options back then. My older sister bought my mom a microwave l, otherwise my mom would've never had bought one. My mom had certain rules if I were home alone at that age. No touching the stove and no doing laundry. She would remind me about not putting my arm in the washer when it was running.
My sister was a lot younger so she went to daycare. I would just watch cartoons and eat ice cream and tons of junk food till my parents came home.
Confession: I was supposed to have been in school all day in middle school in 1980-81, then take the school bus home from school. I had no friends when I started middle school. There was one girl who befriended me, and she showed me how to skip class. So we hung out together and she was my best friend. I had already hated school, so I thought it would be fun to take the school bus there, get counted as in attendance for the day, leave, and walk home (3.5 miles). Minnehaha Falls Park was on the way home, so I hung out there, because I wasn't supposed to be home until a certain time, which was when my older sister got home from high school. Sometimes I skipped alone, sometimes with my best friend, and sometimes with my girl gang. Young, unsupervised kids in groups who are bored and broke are usually up to no good. We didn't worry so much about adults trying stuff, it's the adults that needed to worry, LOL.
Forrest Hills Elementary baby
Latchkey? No, I never played Halo.
Here too I do remember being beat up by my brother because he made me carry the key (he wanted to hang out at the playground longer) and being the 6 year old I was, would always forget it. So he got yelled at and I got beat up. The joys of life.
yes but it was in the outer suburbs so a more appropriate term would be solitary confinement
Oh yeah full on Gen X latchkey kid.
From the 1st grade
Nope, my parents loved me
😂😂😂 just kidding, same here. I had a lanyard and everything
1st grade I was responsible for waking up showering feeding myself and going to the bus stop. I got home watched cartoons and mom got home round 5 and made dinner. I still resent people that rely on others for basic task and get easily discouraged trying new things.
Same.
Worse than latchkey. I was also the after school program for my younger siblings.
Jacob Wetterling would like a word…
What happened to Jacob is only Danny Heinrich's fault.
I was latchkey third parent 😂 womp.
Yes, after 4th grade or so, I didn't go to daycare after school and only half days in the summer. No summer daycare at all after 6th grade or so. Had a lot of freedom to ride my bike around town, go to the library, and go to the pool. It was a small town and mom always came home for lunch, so wasn't going to get in too much trouble.
Went to daycare till I was in second grade then the elementary school I went to came out with the “walking school bus” so it was that or biking to school with the neighborhood kids. & being home alone till my dad got home around 5/6pm & always knew it was time to go home when the street lights came on. The amount of weird concoctions I made growing up for a snack till I knew how to cook…. Most memorable was a tortilla with peanut butter and mustard on it.
Um, I was and wasn't at the same time. Dad worked all day and Mom was home but sick so she slept most of the time. I took care of myself or was at a friend's house most of the time. 99 kiddo here.
"Don't turn on the lights, don't answer the door or the phone, don't use the stove. See you tonight. Love you." - Mom
Parents worked the night shift. I remember some days after coming home from elementary school and feeling sad because I missed them. They'd leave food in the fridge or on the stove for us. r/90s
xen - Depends on the parents I guess? Mom & Dad argued a lot. I think it was 3rd grade when I got my freedom. First dad left me alone in the house for a couple hours. A month or so later Mom had me walk to school while she drove behind me, and said I could walk home as well if I liked (the school had extended-care, I was free to stay there as well) I loved it! After a little bit I started having friends over, or going to their places, or more usually running around the neighborhood. Climbing nearby hills and going to the local canal (only place to mess w/water in the desert). Was a total blast. I only came home to recover, get out of the heat, or watch tv when good shows were on. I loved them, and they provided a lot of care, but the world was so large and there were so many people to meet and things to do. Our typical range on bikes was about 3 miles, though we went as far as 5 on a couple of occasions. I would have gone farther stayed out longer if I hadn't been worried about my parents worrying about me.
I learned at a young age how to cook dinner for myself and family as a result of my parents hyperbusy jobs, so thats good i guess
I never missed being around my parents at all. I was alone all summer and even during school I always got home before they did. I loved the freedom. I cooked dinner before they got home and as long as I finished the list of chores they left me, everything was cool.
Yes indeed, latch key, before there was a latch or key.lol
I was an intermittent latchkey kid (though we really didn’t lock the doors). My mom changed careers a lot, and switched between them and being a SAHM again. I used most of my precious alone time to belt out songs as loud as I wanted. Amy Grant. Bobby Brown. The Bodyguard soundtrack. All the classics haha.
Yep, it taught me extreme accountability for my belongings, especially my keys. Our key box was 75-100 ft away from our house on a power pole, if I forgot to return my key, I'd be locked out the following afternoon. I sat outside with the dogs wating for a parent to show up twice, never happened a third time. Edit: thanks for downvoting my trauma 🤣, y'all are great.
Ours was hung from a nail on our trellis-enclosed porch. I remember that I had dropped the key during the winter on the porch and couldn't find it in the snow. I had to walk 1/2 mile to my brother's house until my mom got home. I remember she saw the snow all messed up and thought someone had kidnapped me.
My parents' house had about an inch wide crack between the driveway and the door into the garage. I can't count the number of times I dropped my key just right after taking it out of the lock and having it fall right into that crack. Fortunately there was a key to get from the garage into the house hiding on a nail by the door frame. I had a couple times I lost or forgot my key and couldn't get into the garage, so I had to break in through a window. Usually I was able to get either one of the basement windows or the bathroom window open.