Latchkey Children

I recently heard, purely anecdotally, about a case where a neighbor called Child Protective Services when a ten-year old boy came home and his mother wasn’t there. His mother was out shopping or something, and had given him a key.

I don’t know if this really happened or not, but it seems like an extraordinary shift from when I was a kid. When I was ten, my parents put the key to our apartment building on a string around my neck. After school I walked home and used the key to get in. We lived across the street from the school, so this was not a big deal. There was a whole social phenomenon at the time: latchkey children.

I remember how annoying the string was, especially in gym class. When I got older I graduated to keeping the key in my pocket.

I guess that latchkey children must be rather less common now. Perhaps children with working parents now go to afterschool programs. I don’t know if this is good or bad, but it certainly seems different, as is true of many aspects of childhood today.