Posted on 03/15/2025 12:11:33 PM PDT by DallasBiff
Coming home to an empty house, managing homework without reminders, and making your own snacks wasn’t just part of the routine—it was the training ground for life. Boomer latchkey kids didn’t have helicopter parents hovering over every decision, which meant they developed character traits that today’s hyper-scheduled kids might never experience. Independence wasn’t a choice; it was the default setting.
While some might call it “neglect,” those solo afternoons shaped resilient, resourceful adults with a unique blend of grit, adaptability, and unshakable confidence.
(Excerpt) Read more at retirely.co ...
It used to be to 1959.
Whatever it is not after mid Sirius. Not in the 90s
Microwave snacks, VCRs ( they weren't available until the the mid 1970s! ), etc. all HOGWASH!
Sadly, many Boomer kids were raised using the idiotic Dr. Spock Method. So a lot of them were coddled to some degree or another.
The kids that grew up in the "SILENT" and "War Baby" generations fit all of the superlative attributes given to the Boomers!
Girls had Home Ec in school, boys had shop, and in many schools, both had at least one year when they all had both.
Life was somewhat regimented, in that there were set meal times, set homework times ( always after dinner! ),set bed times.
Kids played games ( that had been taught them by parents, grandparents, and older kids ), had art in school, actually read books and listened to the radio, which also stretched the imagination.
And they were taught to save AND be responsible!
Ride Bikes
Work on Bikes
Steal’em strip’em
Yes I’m a Rebel Dottie.
For the early boomers and the WWII generation the martial art was “Judo”, I don’t remember when Karate became widely known.
War Babies were NOT anything at all like Boomers; though sadly, a very few fell for the stupid COMMIE Hippy crap!
The label “Latch Key Kids” originated during WWII because of the kids coming home to empty houses while mom was at work and dad away.
The article does suck.
NO!
And and there have ALWAYS been some kids who were latchkey kids. There were a lot of them during the Great Depressions, when a LOT of moms had to work to help sustain the family; also during WW II, when dads were off fighting and many mothers took jobs to replace the men who were no longer in America.
If you look at the youth leaders of the 60s, from music to politics, the bands, the activists, the hippie icons and hippie celebrities, they were almost entirely the Silent Generation, and of course that was also the generation that morphed from the Beatniks into the Hippies.
My mom was home until I started school. Then she went back to college and got her degree. Then, we became latchkey kids. My Dad was out of work by 3:30, so we were not alone very long.
I was usually back out playing with friends until 6 when we would have to be home for dinner. Or when the sun went down in winter.
Gen X begins with babies born in 1967.
I don’t know what you mean by saying 1959, it wasn’t a generation of 14 years.
Gen X begins in 1965.
We gen x’ers are the new boomers.
“…some sources, like Deborah Carr, consider baby boomers as those born between 1944 and 1959”
It was always 1959
I don’t care. Whatever. It’s not into the 90s. That’s all
Definitely not Boomers. This Gen-X thinks its Gen-Y/Millenial phenomenon
In my neighborhood in the 1970s and early 80s, moms were mostly at home. After school all of us kids gathered in the street to play as a large group. And any one of the moms on the street was allowed to kick our butts if they saw any of us misbehaving.
And Gen X starts in 1967, so some War Babies raised late Boomers.
The neighbor my mother cleaned house for, her husband had his own electrical business. They had at least two cars, and a van he used for his company. Their only daughter was my best friend growing up. Even though they were better off than most of the families on the street, they were very down to earth. My friend's grandparents lived right next door to them. The grandparents were from Italy. Very nice people too. Me and my siblings spent a lot of time at my friend's house playing card and board games. I learned how to play canasta there, although I can't remember a darn thing about the game now. They got the first color TV on the street. I remember watching The Wonderful World of Disney for the first time in color at their house. They had an above-ground pool that we used, and a finished basement with a bar that we hung out in. The house had been modernized, especially the kitchen. They had the in-wall vacuum system, and on the counter, they had a built in blender mechanism. As a kid, I found that kitchen fascinating.
Here's a video of the same blender/mixer they had installed:
1950s NuTone In-Built Blender Mixer for the Kitchen of the Future
I don’t know who she is, but the accepted date for boomers and the boomer generation defined by the Census Bureau is 1946 to 1964.
Gen X follows them in 1965, there isn’t a missing 2 years.
Guess again. I'm a boomer, and *coddled* was NOT a term that could have been applied to me and my friends where we grew up.
Some were too privileged, but not overall.
This sounds like GenX generation envy of the Boomers.
The Boomers ruined our lives..... WAHHHHH!!!!!
War Babies begin in 1942 and go until late 1946; they are THE smallest generation ever and sometimes gets lumped in with the SILENT generation, which would be wrong to do; though they do share some of their attributes and circumstances.
Boomers begins in late 1946, or very early 1947 and go until 1967!
Gen X begins in 1967.
Gen X begins in 1967!
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