My wife and I have been fortunate enough to work from home for the first three years of our daughter’s life. The pandemic has forced us to close the doors on our nonprofit, A Life Story Foundation. That means the world of childcare. That means a completely different life. It got us thinking about the future and if she’ll be a latchkey kid at some point. My vote, absolutely!
The definition of a latchkey kid is ‘a child who is at home without adult supervision for some part of the day. Especially after school until a parent returns from work.
If you’re at least 40-years old, there’s a good chance you’re very familiar with this term because you are officially a member of the latchkey generation. Your certificate is in the mail. I am a proud member and so is my wife. We traded stories over dinner the other night. Even though we are from opposite sides of the tracks, our experiences were very similar.
Here’s five reasons why every kid should be a latchkey kid.
Lord of the Key
I vividly remember the feeling of taking my first house key to school. It was a rush. The key chain was only to be able to find it easier in the front pocket of my backpack. It definitely wasn’t to hold all my other keys. There was just the one key but it was like an entry level pass to being a grown-up.
Being home alone was still very new and exciting. But this meant that I would be home, alone, everyday after school for at least three hours. It was life-changing. It came with a long list of rules, but damn it felt good. It was responsibility. But not the kind of shoulder-popping pressure that you get from additional responsibilities today. This is the fun kind!
You were in charge of the home for hours early everyday. You were the man of the house. Even if you were a girl, you were the man of the house. This was the eighties. There was no such thing as gender equality.
Chef Boyardee
With that new found responsibility came access to the kitchen. You were in charge of your own meal plan before that was a popular term. You had lunch at school, but that was ages ago. The fruit snacks and string cheese would only last for so long. It was time to fend for yourself. You had to actually make something to eat.
The idea of getting to actually eat what you wanted was another glimpse into grown-up ville. The idea of getting to use the stove was a fringe benefit to your new found role. You could always just make a sandwich with cold cuts from the fridge. But where’s the fun in that? After all, Camren took his dad’s Ferrari in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, and that worked out well.
Pasta seems to be the gateway cuisine for kids. Something about boiling the water seemed very substantial. You were really making something. Whether you were a Kraft Mac-n-Cheese or Veneta kid, it was your kitchen!
Queen of the Remote
The first time you close the front door behind you, a rush of freedom is sent through your growing body. The silence is a drastic difference that you’d never thought about. Your home is never quiet. The eerie feeling quickly disappears as soon as you realize that you can listen to whatever you want, as loud as you want. Within reason though. Your parents have definitely asked the neighbors to stay on alert.
Not only are you home alone for the foreseeable future, you get to decide what you eat, watch, and do every single day after school. You are the master of the remote. You get to surround yourself with the greatest people on daytime TV. Although times are very different now. Now every media source is on-demand and at teenagers’ fingertips.
When I was a latchkey kid, I walked home in the snow (that’s a lie. I grew up in Florida) and had to watch what was actually on TV. There was no DVR. There was a VCR, but absolutely no one knew how to record shows. Hell, no one even knew how to program the clock. It just flashed 12:00 all the time.
Social Chair
If you were lucky enough to be a latchkey kid, that also meant that your house was the place to be. It was even more so if your parents bought the good kind of snacks and soda. I remember having so many football games in the front yard that we started to kill the grass. I also remember how angry my dad used to get whenever he found the plastic from juice box straws laying around the garage.
Whether it was football or basketball with the guys or makeout sessions with a girl, having a house or a clubhouse, was awesome. There were always other kids that belonged to the same latchkey gang, but we had the good snacks.
Little Debbie and Ecto-Coolers for everyone. In fact, looking back, our parents should have been more worried about diabetes and not broken bones.
Character Builder
There’s no doubt that if you were a latchkey kid, you were tempted by the stuff they make after school specials about. Just say no! (to drugs) Or Don’t talk to strangers. But now, as a parent, I now see the huge amount of trust that my parents gave me. It presents the opportunity to get in real trouble.
Kids used to smoke at the bus stop, in the morning! Think about that! Think about seeing a couple of 14-year olds puffing away in the morning fog like they were heading into the salt mines. That was the norm. It came with the territory.
The question was, how would you do under the influence of peer pressure every day? The pressure to have friends of friends in the house. The pressure of smoking pot with your friend’s older cousin. The pressure and joy that would certainly happen if a certain girl came over to “watch a movie. “
The answers to those questions are very important. If you don’t know what your kid would do under those circumstances, it might be a good idea to keep your childcare arrangements in place for now. The times have changed, but I’m afraid that teenagers’ likelihood to make poor choices is still alive and well.
My parents both worked their assess off to make sure that I always had everything I ever needed or wanted. The time that I spent as a latchkey kid wasn’t even a few years long but it was a serious exercise in trust and temptation. I want to be able to give our daughter every benefit and life lesson that my parents gave me. If that means that I have to sacrifice time spent with her, I will proudly give her a house key and my trust.