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 ...
We didn’t have remotes either.
You are right, it is a huge generation spread over a country with very different subcultures. My brother was one of the last boomers born and he is a despicable Marxist.
Right. This author is confused. Boomers had stay at home moms.
Most Boomers weren’t latchkey kids, but they were raised to develop these traits. (And then they raised their own kids to be whiny blobs.)
I had a friend that was a single parent latchkey kid. One day he was making some food and had a fire. Took the pan outside and got a good grease burn. He was always way behind me in school despite being a year older.
Once we discovered topographic maps and compass, we ranged pretty far.
Nope. We only had a few TV channels as it was.
I am a Joneser. When I was a six or seven year old kid, the older Boomers were going to Vietnam or rioting on college campuses.
It depends on when you are talking about, the phrase “latch key kids” had died out during the 50s and 60s and now is usually used to describe the 70s and 80s, microwave ovens were fairly common in the 70s.
Not the boomers born in the 60s.
My mom was a real estate agent. Started working when I was in 2nd grade around 1969.
Even the microwaving thing was only available to maybe the youngest of the boomer unless their family was relatively well off.
The earliest microwaves were rather expensive, it wasnt like a toaster or crockpot. The first little cheap ones didnt do anything except heat a coffee cup. There were no products made for them until the 80s, tv dinners were still aluminum and Stouffers was still still doing the “boil in bag” offerings.
Functionality, price, and product offerings came together in the 80s to make it available to everyone that wanted one.
IMO that “Jonesers” distinction is a bunch of hooey. They came of age in the 80s, which was a prosperous time full of opportunity. And they were nothing like the conformist generation that raised them.
My grandad was a latchkey kid before it was popular to be called a latchkey kid. Nine years old in Queens, New York, on his own, no TV either just a radio.
I was born in 1947. My mother was a housewife, who did laundry for the old German couple next door, and helped clean house once a week for another neighbor down the street, so she was never far from home. My Dad was the old-fashioned type, and wouldn’t let her get a regular job. My father worked for the NY Central his whole life. My oldest sister was 7 years older than me. My second-oldest sister was 5 years older than me. My only brother was three years older than me. I was the baby of the family, so had to learn to get along on my own because my siblings were all in school. My last sibling died in 2014. We grew up in Rochester, NY, and never locked our doors at night. Fat chance of doing that now.
I’m a boomer. We got our first microwave when I was about 8, so around 1970.
We were the first family that I remember having one.
My dad liked trying new gadgets.
That was unusual. My mother in law had to go to work for a short period of time because my father in law was laid off, but someone was always home for the kids
...and the “hellicopter”-ing thing didnt really become an issue until M came along.
“… some kids microwaved some junk food and then sat on the couch with a TV remote”
I’m at the tail end of boomer grew up in NY suburbs
I didn’t even know anyone who went home to an empty house. Not only was mom there but everyone had siblings. A lot of them
I didn’t see my first microwave until 1982. And my father had everything new. He was big up in the Motorola exec world
So I call BS
Or color TV's until much later. I grew up in the 50's and 60's. Graduated from high school in 1965. We never had a car growing up. We were about the only family on the street that didn't have one.
“Didn’t you guys play with each other outside and ride bikes, hunt for snapping turtles and shoot BB guns and throw rocks and play baseball and football with each other and have rock fights, play marbles and trade baseball cards and coins out of your coin collections and climb trees and swim wherever there was water, play army?”
Yup! No helmets, either. Broke some bones; so what? Fixed our own cars. Rode minibikes like we were crazy. Lit bonfires. Slept in the woods. Etc.
Yes, it is your opinion. I was very much like the generation that raised me, except my skirts were much shorter. The prosperous time is why they are called jonesers.
It might depend on location: city or country
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