I read this book to my kids and the whole time I am thinking, I can't believe these two little grade schoolers are taking the bus alone, walking to the zoo all by themselves throughout the book. Then they come home to an empty house and make themselves lunch.
We did. But I think the big difference was that even if your mom was not home, there were other moms at home. Other people's moms would rat you out to your mom so fast. I'd get busted at the time I had no idea how she found out. So people were watching, we just didn't know it.
There was none of this "not my kid" mentality either. Guilty until proven otherwise!