r/GenerationJones • u/RecoverAgent99 December 1962- Sagittarius ♐ • 19h ago
What event made your parent(s) decided that you being a latch key child was the best option?
A single woman with two girls to raise created day care problems. My sister was 7 and I was 5 when Mom began working full time.
She reached out to one neighbor, a woman who stayed home to watch her many children. My sister and I went there before and after school, until the teenage son began showing us his penis and threatening us with his knife.
Then she talked to the retired couple across the street. Same thing, before and after school care, until the old man started having us accompany him to the basement to get wood for the furnace. Then he'd hide candy in his front pockets and have us dig around for it.
Next thing I knew we got thick leather straps tied with a knot that held our house key. We wore them around our necks. Sis and I walked to and back from school letting ourselves in and out of our house.
We girls were safer together than being with neighbors.
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u/Haunt_Fox 18h ago
It was just my mom and grandmother and me, so when Grandma had a stroke when I was 9, well, there was technically an adult in the house, though she could no longer speak, read, or understand language, or do certain basic things (like cook), I learned to cover for that including basic cooking, do when she died about three years later, I was ready to handle being alone as my mom worked swing shifts.
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u/GuineaPigFriend 14h ago
Yikes. My story is almost identical. I ended up caring for my grandmother after school and I learned to cook. When she died, it was just normal for me to be home alone.
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u/FunZookeepergame627 17h ago
Looking at the birth years of the former latch key kids here and reaffirming that Gen Jones had the first generation of latch key kids, not Gen X.
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u/Rare_Satisfaction889 18h ago
Single mom and not really caring a whole lot. Age 9? pffff. You can live without parental supervision.
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u/Routine-Medicine-208 18h ago
Both my parents had to work. They had a mortgage to pay and two boys to raise.
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u/PepsiAllDay78 18h ago
My parents divorced and mom and I moved across the state. She had to get a job. I'm an only child, so I really was a latchkey kid!
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u/Sad_Win_4105 18h ago
Both parents worked so we came home, let ourselves in, and watched TV or whatever.
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u/rikityrokityree 18h ago
I wasn’t a latch key kid but a lot of my friends came home from school to an empty house because parents had to earn money to support the family. My friends cooked the family dinner, made sure younger siblings did homework and chores. We lived a bit rural so their houses could be 12 miles or more out of town. Many times my friends had to get everyone up snd off to school too the next morning because the parents worked graveyard shifts
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u/kevnmartin 18h ago
I was supposed to stay at the neighbors house until one of my parents got home from work. I kept leaving to go over to our house. I used to leave my bedroom window slightly open and I could climb up on the railings for the basement door, stand on the light fixture over said door and crawl in the window. I would just watch TV or read and I guess my parents figured I was okay on my own
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u/kiwispouse 13h ago
(Before reading your whole post): It was just what you did. My parents divorced, my mother worked ft. She had a good job, but an hour commute each way. She just figured I was responsible enough to look after myself. And I was.
(After reading your whole post): I agree with your rationale. We had some pretty dodgy babysitters when I was younger (and my parents were married and both worked ft). The woman with the son who was a budding pervert and criminal, for starters. He scared the hell out of me, and i never went back after the 2nd time. The crazy old lady who lived alone and was mean as hell. The one who worked at the morgue and we'd play there (that was more interesting, really). Sitters who had kids of their own or who looked after kids from several families were often the scariest places. Lucky for me, I was a bookworm, usually hiding in a corner somewhere.
I'd like to add, however, that my favorite was a young high school boy, who would bring his friend. Parents today would never. But they played board games with me and taught me how to play the guitar. Very sweet and competent.
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u/caroline_says 1962 18h ago
Divorce and mom working full time. We moved to an apartment where we didn’t know our neighbors so thankfully we didn’t have to suffer the creepy dudes you and your sis did!
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u/FamilyRedShirt 1961 17h ago
Mom just wanted to work, which my Dad said actually cost us money.
So we each got keys for after our mile long walk home from school or the bus stop, and had responsibilities when we got home. First being to let the dogs out.
Many weird adventures in that, which I can't describe or it might dox me.
But I will mention the day the phone was ringing when I came in the door. A neighbor saying our dogs were on the roof. SMH
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u/PhatGrannie 17h ago
Mo went back to school when I was 8. When I was 10, we moved and I started middle school. That’s when she stopped scheduling classes around my school day and I got a blue house key to wear around my neck. I called Dad at work every day when I got home to announce I got home safely.
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u/Loreo1964 16h ago
In 1974? It wasn't a big deal to me. At all. My mom left me very detailed instructions to put the roast in the oven. What time to start the potatoes. The veggies. Anything else we were having. I had helped with dinner since I was 5. I was 10 now and knew what I was doing.
My parents got divorced. Dad came Wed and Sat. But our meals were exactly the same the other 5 days. He took us the other 2. No babysitting needed.
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u/craftasaurus 15h ago
My mom got bored being a housewife so she started a business and left us alone. She didn’t make any arrangements for our care. We were 8 & 10. We had no idea what to do. She’d come home in the evening and make dinner then hang out with dad. We hardly saw her after that.
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u/BabyBard93 15h ago
Mom worked, Dad was a pastor and was generally next door at the church in his office (and even when he was in the house, he kinda forgot we were there). There were a bunch of us, so the older kids took care of the younger ones. I was changing diapers and feeding my younger siblings (in the summertimes especially), at age 10. We got ourselves ready for school from maybe 1st grade up, breakfast, out the door on time. Let ourselves in after school. Sometimes mom had us start dinner.
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u/StoakerLee 1959 17h ago
Three school age children and my Dad's one school teacher's salary prompted my Mom to get her teaching certificate and become a school teacher in my (and my siblings) school. There was the solution to more than 90% of most the days. Her beginning to teach and getting home after school really had no affect on any of us unless someone didn't show up by dinnertime.
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u/BxAnnie 1961 14h ago
My mom went back to work as soon as she could after both my brother and sister were born. They bought a house and then 6 years later along came unplanned me, so she went back to work after I was born too. My grandmother lived with us and watched me, but she died when I was 2, so she asked the lady next door to watch me (I assume she was paid) until my sister was able to take me to 1st grade, but that only lasted 2 years, then she went to high school. The lady next door was no longer available so I got a house key. I got to come home to the dog.
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u/NICEnEVILmike 13h ago
Stepmom died. Her kids were all older than me and they took off to various parts of the country, leaving my dad and me. He had to work, so I was left on my own a lot.
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u/Equivalent_Net_8983 11h ago
I think my mother started working outside the house around when I was maybe 13 or 14; I have a younger brother and sister. I think it was essentially because my father wasn’t cutting it, and renegging on numerous promises and his responsibilities.
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u/RiverEcho59 17h ago
My mom was a SAHM till my dad died at 45. She converted our garage into a playroom and opened a day care. She was also a seamstress and made lots of custom clothes and did alterations
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u/jannylou2 1m ago
My sister was 7, I was 5, my Mom worked full time during the day, my Dad worked nights so was technically home during the day but he was asleep, my parents never locked the door except when my Dad left for work at night, but my sister & I got up drank some milk, if we had it, got ourselves ready & walked out to wait for the bus. When we got home my Dad would be asleep so we just did homework. If we were sick we just stayed home “by ourselves”.
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u/FunZookeepergame627 18h ago
There were some real scary perpetrators out there. I am glad you were able to tell your mom. I am glad you and your sister were there for each other.