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11 Boomer Character Traits That Were Developed as Latchkey Kids
Retirely ^ | 2/5/25 | Ron Clendenin

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 ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: boomers; generationx; latchkeykids; traits
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To: mass55th
The house my parents purchased in early 1963 had that very same NuTone built-in mixer. I made many milkshakes using that blender. It was still functional when my mom sold the house in 2005.
221 posted on 03/15/2025 5:48:42 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: A_perfect_lady

It is an X thing. A few Boomers maybe but we ended in ‘65. Some were latchkey kids but few.


222 posted on 03/15/2025 5:50:25 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Donald John Trump. First man to be Elected to the Presidency THREE times since FDR.)
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To: CodeToad

Kids are ignorant because they don’t know much or have much experience. It is always that way.


223 posted on 03/15/2025 5:52:51 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Donald John Trump. First man to be Elected to the Presidency THREE times since FDR.)
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To: Myrddin

I should have thought about late Boomers. My parents met on VE Day.


224 posted on 03/15/2025 5:53:26 PM PDT by Thud
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To: nopardons
War Babies lived through rationing, but don't remember it. They remember paper drives at school, to help the War effort during the Korean War; Boomers have NO idea what that even was.

My father tried to fight in WWII, but was too young. He served in the Korean War as the port 5 inch gunnery officer on USS Iowa. On Sept 22, 1952, his gun crew wiped out the entire Winter ammunition stores of the communists at Won San Harbor.

I'm a boomer and quite cognizant of my father's contribution to the Korean and Viet Nam wars. Both of my parents endured rationing during WWII. You have a lot of misinformation about "boomers". It's a broad brush that does not fit reality.

225 posted on 03/15/2025 5:57:41 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: Myrddin

Yuppers...
Boomer.
Latch Key.
Cabbage Patch.
I don’t see the issue
We all are Bizzare critters
With an overdue
“Best Buy Date”


226 posted on 03/15/2025 6:20:38 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (ALL Things Will be Revealed !)
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To: SamAdams76
The channel indicator in my parents TV appeared in a window between the on/off (left) button and channel up (right button). Inside, the tuner shaft was oriented vertically with the channel indicated on the edge of a wheel visible between the buttons. Very definitely mechanical and motor driven. I was allowed to forage for parts in that TV before it went away. Lot of resistors, caps and inductors for my parts boxes. I kept the remote and ultrasonic receiver intact to learn how the circuits worked. It was all tubes in that generation of equipment. In 2nd grade, I was amusing myself reading electronics books and learning how tube circuits work. In 1981, I was teaching an electronics class at Southwestern College and drawing schematics on the whiteboard for my students. One of the other instructors entered the classroom and declared that "we haven't used schematic notation like that since the 60s". I said, "yes, that's when I learned to read schematics". I was 24 at the time.
227 posted on 03/15/2025 6:21:50 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: MayflowerMadam

Yes! We bought our first microwave in 1982ish and it seemed like it weighed 1/2 ton. It was a monster! It was around $300 then which was a bargain but a LOT of money at that time.


228 posted on 03/15/2025 6:24:28 PM PDT by Reddy (BO stinks)
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To: Cold_Red_Steel

Abandoned buildings are fantastic, especially back then.


229 posted on 03/15/2025 6:24:53 PM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: Big Red Badger
My cancer festivities last year have made my "Best By" date a little more clear. I spent some time feeding data to grok3 a couple weeks ago to assess my prognosis given as much data as I could cobble together vs the best academic papers on the topic. Nominally, I'm good for 32 months after my June 2024 Whipple procedure. I'm still working full time at age 68, but that "slot" will open up soon.
230 posted on 03/15/2025 6:30:50 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: Whatever Works

Sounds a bit like my growing up. It was a lot like Norman Rockwell’s America. My Boy Scout years were like a chapter out of a Disney movie back when they were good; Fred McMurray, Vera Miles and Kirk Russell in Follow Me Boys!

My best birthday ever was when I was five and got my very own Ithica .22 rifle. Hunting Quail with Dad and his war buddy started at daybreak in the frost or snow or rain. The route was along the river, across a cold marsh, up a mountain and another three miles back to the truck packing a Stevens .410 shotgun. About an 8 mile hike every Saturday morning all hunting season. I was a tired little fellow but cherish it. Sure didn’t hurt me!

We drove as soon as we could push the clutch and see over the wheel. My brother had two tickets before he had a license.

So many memories that would be thought unreal today. My Dad went out on his own at 13 hitchhiking from Kansas City to Portland to see an Aunt hoping for better than KC in the Depression. He made it back home to join the Navy and go to flight school at 17 trying to get in the war.

We seldom came home to fend for ourselves until we were over about 13 and had our first jobs and started paying taxes. We were mobile then with a motorcycle. Girls began work at 16 with a car.

I thought everyone grew up like I did and had great parents like mine. When I grew up and went to college and work I found very few did.


231 posted on 03/15/2025 6:31:06 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Donald John Trump. First man to be Elected to the Presidency THREE times since FDR.)
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To: Myrddin

Whipple procedure
I’ll look that up.
Last year I overdosed on Calcium and 2 weeks in ICU almost punched my 70 yr old Ticket.
Your 32 months should be a Blessing .
My Doc has told me the same.
God Bless you FRiend!


232 posted on 03/15/2025 6:45:27 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (ALL Things Will be Revealed !)
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To: ansel12

Christmas was always interesting...
Till the Old Man got drunk !
Ha!


233 posted on 03/15/2025 6:59:34 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (ALL Things Will be Revealed !)
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To: Sequoyah101

Yup. Sounds great. I wished still had those days. I wish more people WANTED those days.

I think the main difference is the most telling.

We used to LIVE life and look for the positive. Today we park in front of technology and seek the negative.


234 posted on 03/15/2025 7:01:56 PM PDT by Whatever Works (The real power lies in who counts the votes and controls the teleprompter.)
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To: SamAdams76
I think the article is describing a later generation than the Boomers.

I posted earlier that I think the headline was awkward. They meant the children of Boomers (the latchkey kids) who learned Boomer traits from their parents.

The Boomers were the original two-working-parents generation, making their kids first latchkey children. That's why the references to technology (like microwave ovens) are one generation off. It wasn't the Boomers themselves who were latchkeys because their mothers stayed home when their fathers went back to work after the war.

Fortunately for the kids, they had their Boomer parents and their WWII grandparents as role models of individual independence.

It's too bad that the latchkeys didn't pass those traits onto their own children.

-PJ

235 posted on 03/15/2025 7:08:12 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too ( * LAAP = Left-wing Activist Agitprop Press (formerly known as the MSM))
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To: gnarledmaw

Yep. We got a microwave in the 70s (we were early adopters) and there were no microwave TV dinners. I remember THE first thing was a reasonably decent mac and cheese somebody made for them. It took food companies at least until the 80s to start developing microwavable meals.

Also, we didn’t have TV remotes in the 70s....maybe the very late 70s. I distinctly remember arguing over whose turn it was to get up and change the channel...of the 4 channels we had in the 70s.

The writer has clearly mistaken Gen X for Boomers. We were the latch key kids. Gen X are not Boomers.


236 posted on 03/15/2025 7:10:21 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: madison10
I agree. The moms of Boomers were usually homemakers.

Don't be so certain of that, I'm a Boomer, born in 1950 and my parents both worked. My Mom worked as a secretary so my brother and I were latchkey kids and many of my friends were too.

237 posted on 03/15/2025 7:12:45 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono
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To: nopardons

I - as a Gen Xer - used to have a lot of fun telling my leftist Boomer College Profs that I “didn’t trust anyone over 30” (always said with a big shit eating grin).

They didn’t like that taste of their own medicine very much. LOL!


238 posted on 03/15/2025 7:27:36 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: Big Red Badger
Sorry about the calcium OD. I was 67 last year for my Whipple, so we're pretty close age wise. I spent too much time in ICU after my renal artery was nicked while doing the Whipple. My surgical pathology came back for adenocarcinoma of the Ampulla of Vater. PT3a, PN0, R0 margins. Translated, the tumor invaded the muscle on the intestinal side of the Ampulla and 0.5 cm into the head of the pancreas. Histology showed MUC1 positive as well as two DX series (intestinal). Overall favoring a pancreatobiliary origin. No invasion of lymph nodes and clear margins between the tumor location and the healthy tissue. That and other factors places my 5 year prognosis at 32%. The good news is I have 32 months on the green side. Had I not detected the problem, I would be in serious trouble right now.
239 posted on 03/15/2025 7:34:42 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: Inyo-Mono

I said “usually.” Where I lived I knew of no latch key kids in the 1960s.


240 posted on 03/15/2025 7:57:05 PM PDT by madison10
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